Since we reshuffled the schedule, we'll be splitting Thursday's class time somewhat strangely between a discussion of Yuli Daniel's "Man from MINAP," intended to be paired with Dr. Strangelove; and Toni Cade Bambara's "Witchbird," intended to be read alongside Ruth Zernova's "Mute Phone Calls." Please read the first two pages of Zernova's piece for something of a comparative context, and do consider checking it out in its entirety. You'll find many interesting similarities between the way women-narrators--in this case both artists by profession--narrate their felt or phenomenological experiences of the everyday. Post your comments on any of these works below--all the better if they contain some connections to the texts by other woman authors or writing about women we've encountered on our syllabus so far.
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Strange Collocations: Daniel and Bambara
Since we reshuffled the schedule, we'll be splitting Thursday's class time somewhat strangely between a discussion of Yuli Daniel's "Man from MINAP," intended to be paired with Dr. Strangelove; and Toni Cade Bambara's "Witchbird," intended to be read alongside Ruth Zernova's "Mute Phone Calls." Please read the first two pages of Zernova's piece for something of a comparative context, and do consider checking it out in its entirety. You'll find many interesting similarities between the way women-narrators--in this case both artists by profession--narrate their felt or phenomenological experiences of the everyday. Post your comments on any of these works below--all the better if they contain some connections to the texts by other woman authors or writing about women we've encountered on our syllabus so far.
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I would like to comment on the sense of entrapment that is touched upon in Toni Cade Bambara's "Witchbird". For example, the main character talks about feeling like a prisoner in her own house (166). Can we read this short story in conversation with the Bell Jar? How might acting and writing be related?
ReplyDeleteWE POSTED THE SAME QUESTION WITHIN TWO MINUTES.
Deletedaaang.
I saw that as well. It may be worth mentioning the way the narrator talks about her desire to free the women in her songs/parts and transform their sorrows (I think she uses the word "absorb" – like she absorbs their experiences and can either "crystallize" them or turn to mush) as well as her own confinement. How do these two ideas – freeing the women in her imagination vs. her own confinement – bounce off each other? How do they resolve?
DeleteOne thing I found as a recurring theme in Nightbird was the theme of being trapped or confined. She talks about this in many different places, including when she talks about birds simply being singers who are trapped as well as when she talks about being a prisoner in her own home on account of the constant stream of visitors. Additionally, this comes up in the beginning when she talks about how scary it is to sleep. What do you think the theme of being trapped in non-physically threatening scenarios have to do with the anxieties of the time? Do you think this could relate to the theme of being "outed" for your beliefs like we discussed on Tuesday? Furthermore, what can we do to think about this in terms of the gender dynamic it proposes?
ReplyDeleteWhen reading “The Man from MINAP,” one of the first things that caught my eye was when Vera asks Anna, “Have you decided to become a barren fig tree?” We’ve seen imagery of fig trees before in The Bell Jar, where the fig tree appears both with ripe fruit and with dead fruit. Thoughts?
ReplyDeleteIf my memory serves me correctly, the fig tree also appears in the Bible. In the new testament, Jesus and his disciples come across a fig tree on their way to Jerusalem. Jesus reaches for a fig, only to find that the fig tree is barren. In anger, he curses the tree so that it will bear fruit no more. Later (according to the Gospel of Luke, in Matthew it's immediate) the disciples notice that the same fig tree is dead, withered to it's roots. In one of the Gospels, it is also noted that the owner of the fig tree desperately wants the fig tree to be fruitful again. Generally, I think, the fig tree is seen as a metaphor for Israel, but personally, this particular parable has struck me as odd. Why would Jesus, who is most famous for his miracles of healing, even bringing a man back from the dead, be so quick to destroy a tree, simply because it has not produced any figs recently?
DeleteAnyway, at least in "The Man from MINAP" I read Vera's comment as an allusion to this scene in the bible, and maybe, in the Bell Jar--in Esther's metaphor and in the actual short story she reads--this allusion is also present. After all, the fig tree is killed because it will not reproduce, thus the idea of procreation is deeply bound up in the story.
In "The Man from MINAP" the Communist party eventually decides to keep Volodya around because he has the power to chose a specific gender and could potentially teach others this skill, thus giving the party a way to control population growth and disparity. Throughout the story, there is an obsession with reproducing the correct and best citizen. For example, Anna only wants a boy because she is nervous about what her husband will do to her if she doesn't. There are consequences for bearing the wrong fruit or for not bearing any fruit at all both in the home and in society.
So going off of the Isabela's original question, how could the fig tree in the Bible, help us understand fig trees everywhere? How does the idea of reproduction manifest in "Man from MINAP" and how does this relate back to Vera's fig tree comment and back to Esther's fig tree dilemma?
I'm interested in how Honey is perceived as a desexualized mother figure, even though she is sexual and rejects the idea the idea that she is a mother. I'm curious as to how much the connection between being nonsexual and being a mother (which is ironic, seeing as how sex is typically required for becoming a mother) reflects the stereotype of all women vs black women in particular. How is the mammy stereotype perpetuated by white feminists, black men, and even black women? By associating sexual liberation with the rejection of the household/domesticity, did second-wave feminism reinforce the association of motherhood with desexualizaiton?
ReplyDeleteHow might we analyze the positioning of Honey as a singer/musician/actress in Bambara's text? More specifically, how do the performative roles in the text (and the characters' relationships to these roles) speak to the ways in which Black female subjectivity is presented (or denied) throughout the story. How does capitalism impart upon ideas that you might have related to identity and performance?
ReplyDeleteI am presenting today I was also interested in the similar entrapment between Esther and Honey, as well as the similar inability to act on their respective art. I also noted the maternal/female role that was prescribed to each.
ReplyDeleteIn The Man from MINAP Volodya Zalessky claims to have the special gift of being able to determine the sex of a baby. Vera takes to this and even says "It's my civic duty" (pg 143). Vera talks Volodya into carrying out their "social obligations." However, because Vera sees the act as an obligation, she compares it to a broken fridge (you would call an expert as opposed to asking a non expert), saying Volodya is the "expert." Does anyone see this as a form of exploitation? How does it compare to other ways of exploitation we've seen in literature?
ReplyDeleteHeywood is the primary male character of "Witchbird" and we see him negatively affect all of the women he surrounds himself with, whether by loving then dumping them or, in the main character's case, using them by shoving off his unwanted lovers for them to deal with. What does this say about the gendered attitudes of the characters? Why do the women put up with Heywood's carelessness and continue to try to please him? Why is Laney the only one who speaks up, and why can't our protagonist realize or admit that she's been used just as Heywood's lovers have?
ReplyDelete