feminine gospels section 1

section 1 of triptych

• dissatisfaction of system

• silencing of women’s voices / contributions

• anger, protest, cynicism

• public statements with bold claims

• distortion of scale

the long queen critic

MCRAE - not about Elizabeth I but any powerful mythical female entity

list of derogatory terms in Long Queen critic

MCRAE - Duffy “ventriloquises” male voices

long queen debate

• complicit in patriarchy? - enforcing and internalising

  • limit expectations of women to “blood”, “tears”, “childbirth”

  • enforces rules of female bondage are internalised by subjects and passed from generations - “the Long Queen couldn’t die”

  • personifies customary construction of femininity which outlives any individual women, gathering every “girl born” into itself 

• matriarchal ruler bearing witness to silenced experiences

long queen message

• shared female suffering connecting women

• queen = symbol of female unification in society

map woman message

• tries fleeing hometown, sheds old skin, but new skin is illusion

  • town = predetermined life

  • past buried in her bones

• struggle to establish autonomous identity separate from origis

• inescapable past

map woman motifs

anatomical references

cartographic imagery

• “Nelson and Churchill and Kipling…”

• male figures = her having to fit into male way of ordering the world

map woman structure

• no regular rhyme / meter

• internal rhyme

  • typical of modern poetry

  • restriction, constraint

form of ‘beautiful’

mock epic

• satirical parody of classical poems recounting heroic exploits

Duffy’s intent - critical of society / history’s treatment of women / narrative given to them

4 beauties used in ‘beautiful’

Plutarch’s ‘Parallel Lines’

• 2 classical beauties

• 2 modern beauties

• by pairing them, show similarities

why are the women unnamed in ‘Beautiful’?

• universal experience

• history only concerned with their appearance, not real identity

how is Antony emasculated in ‘Beautiful’?

• ignores duty as soldier, abandons army, leaves with Cleopatra

  • Cleopatra = seductress

  • fear of women seducing men

• warships ordered to follow Cleopatra

scholar quote on Diana in ‘Beautiful’

PROF JOHN MCRAE - Diana “sacrificed to insatiable public appetite”

scholar quote on shopping emporium in ‘the woman who shopped’ (conceit)

JOHN MCRAE - shopping emporium represents corruption of the first apple woman desired

scholar quote on the transmogrification of the woman who shopped

COULTHARD

• body = “commodification of the feminine”

• “capitalist edifice”

  • women exploited by advertising and targeted by advertising

  • bodies no longer used intimately

work message

society relentlessly exploits women's labor / earth’s natural resources to point of exhaustion

work structure

• 9 stanzas = 9 months of pregnancy

• asyndeton = endless cycle, increasing speed

• progression of human history as role becomes broader

  • agricultural / pastoral → industrial rev → technological era

tall message

• challenges of women achieving greatness

• leads to isolation

tall structure

• conceit of growing taller

• allegory = fairytale to reveal truth

message of loud

power of female voice against horrors of modern society

context for ‘loud’

US / Allied invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11

irony in ‘Loud’

the news = gospels are ‘good news’, but this is anything but good

context for “boos for the bent MP”

political scandal

• 2001 Officegate

• Henry McLeish

Renaissance ideas in ‘Loud’

terrible deeds of mankind (microcosm) → chaos in natural world (macrocosm)

meter of “that scream was a huge bird….” in ‘Loud’

dactyllic hexameter = Homeric

history message

• critiques male-dominated historical narratives

• personifies history as a forgotten elderly woman

  • while women have always been present, experiences consistently erased by traditional, male-authored history

“murderers hung bt their neck” context in history

ruth ellis

• hanged for murdering her lover who physically abused her

sub message

• critiques historical / cultural exclusion of women

• systematic male dominance

• women need to surpass men to be accepted

• female excellence

  • even her pregnancy doesn’t stop her (though she acknowledges it holds her back)

man flu in sub

• dismissive

• if women had it they would suck it up

moon in sub

reclaming the moon as female symbol when it has been visited by men

“houston we dont have a problem” = subversion, no disasters because woman is there

interpretations of truncated cliffhanger (gramatically, metrically incomplete) in ‘Sub’

• lets reader contemplate

• women’s voices ignored / kept out of history

• society uninterested in women’s feelings

  • hear about her experiences, but don’t hear true feelings

structure points in virgin’s memo

• alphabetical

  • deeply considered

  • speaking to Jesus as child?

• “text illegible”

  • how easily female voices have been erased

• repetition

  • tentative tone

  • woman made to question valye of opinion

form of the virgin’s memo

pastiche of Apocrypha

• comic, mocking copy

what is the virgin’s memo a pastiche of?

Apocrypha

• texts not regarded as part of Biblical canon

what is virgin’s memo an example of?

ecriture feminine - HELEN CIXOUS

• experimental

• writing that deviates from masculine styles

Jesus treating Virgin Mary poorly

Wedding at Cana

anon title

• anonymous

  • women being overlooked

  • represent anonymous woman writers

    • writing under male pseudonyms