section 2 - laughter of stafford girls' high

positioning of LOSGH

• pivotal point of collection

• allegory for rise of feminism

structure of LOSGH

• analogy for feminism

  • seeking new ways of thinking / behaving

• mock epic

  • satirical adaptation of epic

  • satirical target = school system

Miss Nadimbaba

• passive transmitter of male voices → autonomous poet

• reflects feminist efforts to reclaim intellectual space / assert female authorship within a historically exclusionary tradition
  

note from King James Bible

• irreverent to authority

• challenging status quo

• sacrilegious = subverting norms

motifs

• water

• snowball

• silverfish

• physical confinement

teachers vs students

• teachers all have rebellious spirit / aspirations

  • e.g. in dreams - FREUDIAN idea

“watching the Head, the Queen Canute” context

King Canute thought he could command the sea (which he couldn’t)

• Bream tries holding back feminism (laughter, sea), but can’t

Mrs Mackay

night is the surrogate lover giving her the intimacy her husband doesn’t

Miss Dunn climbing

classical allusion to Icarus myth

• foreshadows end of poem

• 2 people in a state of bliss tragic result

do the teachers break free?

no

• Dr Bream in mental institution

• Mrs Mackay suicide

  • allusion of freedom?

yes

• school in ruins

• Miss Nadimbaba writing

poet laureates

• all male

• CAD = 1st female poet laureate