Writing
The Words I Couldn’t Say
There are many reasons why I have turned to female writers in the literature I choose to consume. From a young age, I always felt that these writers understood me, even in ways my family didn’t seem to understand me. I felt like these women understood the ways that I viewed the world and the things that I may not have understood. They explained it better than anyone else in my life. From learning to love my body for what it is, to the first time my heart was broken: these women were there for me. I felt validated in my thoughts; and, when I couldn’t find the words to express my feelings, their words spoke for me.
Recitatif and the Management of Jumping
The question of whether or not Charly Evon Simpson’s play Jump should be considered for the new edition of The Norman Anthology of Literature by Woman, The Tradition in English Volume 2 is one with a simple answer. Yes, Jump should be included because of the way that it shares many themes and ideas with works that are already included in the anthology. Its theme of grief, and how one manages that grief, unexpected friendship, and family are similar to themes that we see in Bharati Mukherjess’s The Management of Grief and in Toni Morrison’s Recitatif. This modern text shows that family, friendship and grief are not one sided but can connect women across generational and across ethnic boundaries. Jump is also a play that is still being put on by different theater companies and if students are able to have access to wittinessing a production provides a physical connection to these themes. I myself have seen a production of Jump, and it made me connect these themes to other works by women, like Mukherjee’s and Morrison’s.
A Spoken Room
Virginia Woolf tells us that women need a place of their own to be able to write and produce great work. Explaining that women have always had a voice, but not the opportunity to use it in the way they want she says, “All I could do was to offer you an opinion […] a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction; and that […] leaves the great problem of the true nature of woman […] unsolved” (Woolf). Having this room for women to go, and the financial freedom to write allows them to explore their own creativity. It gives women the chance to articulate their opinions and speak their individual truths. This room offers freedom and the chance to tell their side of the story.
Reading for Comedy and Tragedy
In Dr. Faustus the role of the fool is represented by the characters Clown, Robin and Rafe. These characters are all driven to learning how to conjure demons in order to gain some sort of power or desire. Clown has sexual desires that he wants to fulfill. While Robin and Rafe also have sexual desires, they want to rise above their status of stable boys to become masters as well. They also all make reference to horns on the head. Clown sees horns on the head of a male demon in Scene 4. Robin wants to put horns on the head of his master in Scene 6, because he wants to be with his wife. Faustus, however, also has desires he wants to fulfill by conjuring demons and actually does put horns on a man in Scene 9. This, and a few other reasons, are why Faustus should also be considered a fool in this play.