Coming into ENG 378, I did not expect to be reading only testimonial literature. Because of the subject matter, this class felt more to me like a Spanish class taught in English than an English class. Since I'm both a Spanish major and an English major, I was okay with that.
I think this class is good for people because we don't learn enough about Latin America in general. True, we only learned about depressing things, but that's a start. Although I think it's important, I don't know how many English students would sign up for the course if it were advertised as testimonial literature, especially since it's not required. Although it wasn't the type of literature I had hoped to read, it didn't grow old, as did the texts I had to read in an English class I took last year that turn out to focus only on Holocaust literature.
Overall, I had a positive experience with this class. I liked it because it combined my interests -- English and Spanish. I don't know if it is a class for everyone, but people who are interested in both sides of the subject, as I am, should definitely try it.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Reaction to Death and the Maiden
Dorfman's play Death and the Maiden takes place in a South American country after the end of the dictatorship. Paulina is a survivor of torture, and she is clearly not over her turmoil, as can be seen in the way she reacts a a car coming to her house late at night. Because of this, it is hard to tell whether Paulina is correct in thinking that Roberto is guilty or if she is simply crazy and accusing an innocent man. In the film, however, Roberto definitely seems to act guilty. Even though he stays mostly the same lines as are in the play, the actor says them in a way that makes him seem guilty. The endings of the two versions are different as well -- in the play, the reader does not know if Roberto is alive or dead, but in the film he is definitely alive and gives a true confession of his guilt.
I liked the play better than the film version. I liked the ambiguity in the play about Roberto's guilt because that showed how difficult it would be to convict the people who performed the tortures because it would be so hard to prove their guilt. I also thought the film dragged the play out too much. While I thought the play could have been shortened, it did not bother me because I was able to read through it quickly. With the film, however, I was a captive audience, unable to speed up the proceedings.
I liked the play better than the film version. I liked the ambiguity in the play about Roberto's guilt because that showed how difficult it would be to convict the people who performed the tortures because it would be so hard to prove their guilt. I also thought the film dragged the play out too much. While I thought the play could have been shortened, it did not bother me because I was able to read through it quickly. With the film, however, I was a captive audience, unable to speed up the proceedings.
Monday, April 19, 2010
An Absence of Shadows
My group looked at the word usage in An Absence of Shadows and compared it to the usage in A Single, Numberless Death.
The first thing I did was looked for words that are used frequently throughout each text. The most common words I found had to do with violence and torture: wires, explode, shock, electric, burning, death. I also found that body parts were frequently mentioned: teeth, fingertips, nipples, mouth, hair, bones, nails. This makes sense considering the subject matter of the texts.
In An Absence of Shadows, I noticed a recurring theme of the idea of having ownership over the dead. On page 107, it states, "A woman waits for her dead" and the idea shows up again on page 157: "Maria del Carmen asks me if I know all my dead." I am not sure if this refers to the dead people that they actually knew, or if there is another, poetic meaning, but I thought the terminology was interesting either way. I don't usually think of people as having dead.
Another similarity between the two texts is the idea of a loss of individuality. On page 151, the narrator says, "my name is Carmen, or Maria". To me, this implies that the narrator is one woman out of many nameless women, and that she could be any of them because each of them has the same story, and can easily testify for one another. It reminded me of the way that Nora in A Single, Numberless Death ceased to be an individual and became only a number. The experience was so horrific that all of their stories became one large story in which they ceased to be people and became only numbers.
Another similarity I noticed was the mention of colors. I am not sure what sort of deeper meaning the colors hold, if any, but I thought it was interesting that both authors had colors on their minds when writing about this topic.
I also compared the English translations of the poems to the original Spanish versions. Overall, I thought the translations were pretty well done. In the times where the translation differed, the English version tended to have more words, attempting to capture the same sense that the Spanish version gave with less words. One example that stood out to me is on page 145. The Spanish version says simply, "al dentista/a las escuelitas privadas", which has been translated to, "made regular trips to the dentist/attended very nice private schools". I found it somewhat amusing that English needed so many more words in order to explain and evoke the same type of emotion that is accomplished by the shorter Spanish phrases.
The first thing I did was looked for words that are used frequently throughout each text. The most common words I found had to do with violence and torture: wires, explode, shock, electric, burning, death. I also found that body parts were frequently mentioned: teeth, fingertips, nipples, mouth, hair, bones, nails. This makes sense considering the subject matter of the texts.
In An Absence of Shadows, I noticed a recurring theme of the idea of having ownership over the dead. On page 107, it states, "A woman waits for her dead" and the idea shows up again on page 157: "Maria del Carmen asks me if I know all my dead." I am not sure if this refers to the dead people that they actually knew, or if there is another, poetic meaning, but I thought the terminology was interesting either way. I don't usually think of people as having dead.
Another similarity between the two texts is the idea of a loss of individuality. On page 151, the narrator says, "my name is Carmen, or Maria". To me, this implies that the narrator is one woman out of many nameless women, and that she could be any of them because each of them has the same story, and can easily testify for one another. It reminded me of the way that Nora in A Single, Numberless Death ceased to be an individual and became only a number. The experience was so horrific that all of their stories became one large story in which they ceased to be people and became only numbers.
Another similarity I noticed was the mention of colors. I am not sure what sort of deeper meaning the colors hold, if any, but I thought it was interesting that both authors had colors on their minds when writing about this topic.
I also compared the English translations of the poems to the original Spanish versions. Overall, I thought the translations were pretty well done. In the times where the translation differed, the English version tended to have more words, attempting to capture the same sense that the Spanish version gave with less words. One example that stood out to me is on page 145. The Spanish version says simply, "al dentista/a las escuelitas privadas", which has been translated to, "made regular trips to the dentist/attended very nice private schools". I found it somewhat amusing that English needed so many more words in order to explain and evoke the same type of emotion that is accomplished by the shorter Spanish phrases.
Assignment 2 -- Testimonial Lit and Strevilevich
Testimonial work is, obviously, work that provides a testimony. The testimony can be the firsthand account of a witness, or it can be a more fictionalized story that nonetheless testifies to the history of an actual event. The form of a testimonial work is unlimited – it can be prose, poetry, or any sort of compilation that the author sees fit to use. In this it is easy to classify Nora Strejilevich’s A Single, Numberless Death as an example of testimonial literature.
Strejilevich uses multiple literary forms in her text. Perhaps the most obvious reason her book is an example of testimonial literature is because she was one of those who were kidnapped and tortured during Argentina’s Dirty War, which is the subject of her text. However, Strejilevich’s work is not about only her own experience – it encompasses the experiences of others and so can be thought of to stand for all of those who were victimized by the Dirty War. Strejilevich includes others’ stories in a manner that makes it clear that they are not all her own, unlike the manner in which Rigoberta Menchú, in her story, I, Rigoberta Menchú, tells the story of all victimized Guatemalans as though it were her own personal history. Menchú’s story stirred controversy because the book is written as though she personally experienced all of the events it describes, but Strejilevich’s text is not all written in the same, seemingly autobiographical, way. While there are portions that are clearly autobiographical and so lend the author an authoritative tone on the matter, there are also parts that are obviously about someone else. Because of this, A Single, Numberless Death is an example of testimonial literature in that it provides a witness account of the event and also because it contains other people’s viewpoints, which may or may not be actual accounts but nonetheless all contribute to a testimony of the Dirty War.
Nora Strejilevich uses various forms of writing in her text, as is permitted with testimonial literature. With prose being the primary component of the text, Strejilevich also incorporates poetry, letters, and excerpts from articles and books. These contribute both to the sense of authority – the author clearly knew her material – and to the sense of surrealness that covers anything as horrible and widespread as the Dirty War. The various materials, along with the switches between stories and time, keep the reader suspended in a sort of horrified trance, unable to stop reading for curiosity of what might come next. Strejilevich uses the different materials much like the way Elena Poniatowska uses various mediums in her book, Massacre in Mexico. Poniatowska, like Strejilevich, uses multiple story lines, articles, and other forms of testimony in order to create a sense of the chaos that was a part of the massacre. Both authors combine various forms of testimony in order to create one larger testimony that stands for everything included within the text.
There is no doubt that Nora Strejilevich’s A Single, Numberless Death is an example of testimonial literature, as it provides a testimony of the events of the Dirty War, both from her own experience and those of others’. In order to shape the text, Strejilevich made use of various forms of literature, including prose, poetry, and excerpts from other texts. Altogether, they combine to create an exemplary example of testimonial literature.
1. If what happened to Nora happened to me, I don’t think I would be able to feel secure in the U.S. ever again. I am a person who holds grudges for a very long time, and I think that experiencing the things that Nora went through would cause most people to hold a grudge of epic proportions. I would miss my family and friends very much, but I would have to go live in Canada or somewhere else I felt was far enough from the U.S. to be disconnected from the government and far enough so that they could not keep up with what I was doing. I think that I would be too bitter and angry to lead a normal life in the U.S., and that I would be incredibly cynical about everything to do with the government or the military. I think I would still be bitter and angry living in exile, but that I would be able contain that angry enough to be able to go about with my daily life.
2. I think that we as college students are able to relate more closely with this story than other people might be able to because the people who were targeted in the Dirty War were mostly people around our age. It is similar to the way in which we are able to relate to the victims in Massacre in Mexico. The people who were attacked were mainly college students, and this adds a level of reality to the story for me because it is easy to imagine myself or the people I know as the victims. The disappeared were people who thought and acted similarly to us, and if we had lived in Argentina at that time, it could have very easily been us who were kidnapped, tortured, and killed. Because of the similarities between the victims and the college students of our generation, this story really hits hard and is extremely relatable.
Strejilevich uses multiple literary forms in her text. Perhaps the most obvious reason her book is an example of testimonial literature is because she was one of those who were kidnapped and tortured during Argentina’s Dirty War, which is the subject of her text. However, Strejilevich’s work is not about only her own experience – it encompasses the experiences of others and so can be thought of to stand for all of those who were victimized by the Dirty War. Strejilevich includes others’ stories in a manner that makes it clear that they are not all her own, unlike the manner in which Rigoberta Menchú, in her story, I, Rigoberta Menchú, tells the story of all victimized Guatemalans as though it were her own personal history. Menchú’s story stirred controversy because the book is written as though she personally experienced all of the events it describes, but Strejilevich’s text is not all written in the same, seemingly autobiographical, way. While there are portions that are clearly autobiographical and so lend the author an authoritative tone on the matter, there are also parts that are obviously about someone else. Because of this, A Single, Numberless Death is an example of testimonial literature in that it provides a witness account of the event and also because it contains other people’s viewpoints, which may or may not be actual accounts but nonetheless all contribute to a testimony of the Dirty War.
Nora Strejilevich uses various forms of writing in her text, as is permitted with testimonial literature. With prose being the primary component of the text, Strejilevich also incorporates poetry, letters, and excerpts from articles and books. These contribute both to the sense of authority – the author clearly knew her material – and to the sense of surrealness that covers anything as horrible and widespread as the Dirty War. The various materials, along with the switches between stories and time, keep the reader suspended in a sort of horrified trance, unable to stop reading for curiosity of what might come next. Strejilevich uses the different materials much like the way Elena Poniatowska uses various mediums in her book, Massacre in Mexico. Poniatowska, like Strejilevich, uses multiple story lines, articles, and other forms of testimony in order to create a sense of the chaos that was a part of the massacre. Both authors combine various forms of testimony in order to create one larger testimony that stands for everything included within the text.
There is no doubt that Nora Strejilevich’s A Single, Numberless Death is an example of testimonial literature, as it provides a testimony of the events of the Dirty War, both from her own experience and those of others’. In order to shape the text, Strejilevich made use of various forms of literature, including prose, poetry, and excerpts from other texts. Altogether, they combine to create an exemplary example of testimonial literature.
1. If what happened to Nora happened to me, I don’t think I would be able to feel secure in the U.S. ever again. I am a person who holds grudges for a very long time, and I think that experiencing the things that Nora went through would cause most people to hold a grudge of epic proportions. I would miss my family and friends very much, but I would have to go live in Canada or somewhere else I felt was far enough from the U.S. to be disconnected from the government and far enough so that they could not keep up with what I was doing. I think that I would be too bitter and angry to lead a normal life in the U.S., and that I would be incredibly cynical about everything to do with the government or the military. I think I would still be bitter and angry living in exile, but that I would be able contain that angry enough to be able to go about with my daily life.
2. I think that we as college students are able to relate more closely with this story than other people might be able to because the people who were targeted in the Dirty War were mostly people around our age. It is similar to the way in which we are able to relate to the victims in Massacre in Mexico. The people who were attacked were mainly college students, and this adds a level of reality to the story for me because it is easy to imagine myself or the people I know as the victims. The disappeared were people who thought and acted similarly to us, and if we had lived in Argentina at that time, it could have very easily been us who were kidnapped, tortured, and killed. Because of the similarities between the victims and the college students of our generation, this story really hits hard and is extremely relatable.
The Dirty War
First of all, I find it interesting that I have only heard about the Dirty War in a Spanish class (very briefly though, the professor got off topic and told us a little about it) and an English class that is also cross-listed with Spanish. This annoys me because it was a huge deal that still affects people today, and we don't learn anything about it in school. It's not even a matter of people in our country not caring about other places, because we aren't even given the chance to care, because no one tells us anything. On a somewhat similar note, I find our media to be infuriating because they just repeat the same things at us all day, every day, while there are other important stories, both good and bad, that they totally neglect to share. It ticks me off.
But back on topic...the part of the Dirty War that is going on right now, families finding their missing children, is what sticks out to me. I can't imagine how I would feel if I found out that the people who raised me and who I had loved turned out to not be my parents, or even worse, to have been somehow involved in the deaths of my actual parents. That has to really mess with those people's minds, and I am sorry for them. In their place, I don't know what I would do. I don't know if I would be able to leave my parents and become part of a new family. It's sad that the war has been passed down to that generation of people, and that they are still being affected by what their parents had to go through.
But back on topic...the part of the Dirty War that is going on right now, families finding their missing children, is what sticks out to me. I can't imagine how I would feel if I found out that the people who raised me and who I had loved turned out to not be my parents, or even worse, to have been somehow involved in the deaths of my actual parents. That has to really mess with those people's minds, and I am sorry for them. In their place, I don't know what I would do. I don't know if I would be able to leave my parents and become part of a new family. It's sad that the war has been passed down to that generation of people, and that they are still being affected by what their parents had to go through.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
"Other"
When discussing literature that deals with people not from the United States, the word "other" frequently comes up. "Other" is the idea that someone is somehow different, or doesn't quite fit in the way society would like. In the U.S., "other" is often applied to immigrants, who might stand out for physical, cultural, or religious reasons. Something that we sometimes forget is that within these "other" groups are even smaller groups of "others" that are not even accepted by the group our society places them in. I was reminded of this during Larry LaFountain's presentation, Queer Ricans. He discussed his work in the field of studying the diaspora of LGBT Puerto Ricans, many of whom traveled to the mainland United States as a result of intolerance in Puerto Rico. I found this interesting because we tend to lump all immigrants under one category and do not look closely into why people choose to come here. I wish Mr. LaFountain would have spoken more directly about his work instead of just giving brief bios of other writers, but he did cause me to think about a subject that I had not previously thought about. Within every "other" there is another "other" that is just as discriminated against as the group they are in.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Reaction to A Single Numberless Death
The main thing that this book reminded me of was the various Holocaust literature I read for a class last year. Apart from similar subject matter -- torture, arrest scenes, memories of before the war -- the tone is the same. It's very straightforward and holds nothing back -- I get the feeling that the author kind of wanted to shock the reader with her complete openness and the way she intertwines the horrifying scenes from the dirty war with memories of the past.
Content-wise, there's not a ton in this book simply because it's a lot of the same sort of story being told over and over. That is not to say that it is an empty book, because it is quite interesting, just that I don't have a lot to say about it because there isn't a ton of information in the text. That being said, although the book is very depressing I do enjoy it.
Content-wise, there's not a ton in this book simply because it's a lot of the same sort of story being told over and over. That is not to say that it is an empty book, because it is quite interesting, just that I don't have a lot to say about it because there isn't a ton of information in the text. That being said, although the book is very depressing I do enjoy it.
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