Disruption to the social order
- Created by: Honor Burke
- Created on: 20-11-19 23:13
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- Disruption to the social order- the 'rebels' of the winter palace and the 'girls on the moon'
- The Laughter of Stafford Girls' High
- Jouissance- the 'light breezes of laughter'
- Ecriture feminine
- Represents the 1960s upheaval of 2nd wave feminism
- An 'allegory of the rise of feminism, sweeping away dowdy post war austerity and buttoned up sterility'
- Mock epic so satirises the masculine, classical epic poem
- Generational freedom: the students are initially suppressed, representing the 'conservatising' effect of the world wars on women in Europe
- The teachers are overwhelmed with anarchy, laughter 'roar[ing] ... like a tropical wind'
- The 'silly joy' of the girls inspires Mrs Mackay's 'heart' 'in its dark cave' to detach, 'like a genie popped from a flask'. Becomes a noctambulist and reaches 'for the moon' (seeking feminine roots)
- Miss Batt abandons 'essays on Cardinal Wolsey' in 'bending down to Miss Fife'
- Nadimbaba and Dunn also have freedom under Simone de Beauvoir's revelation (2nd wave feminism)
- Doctor Bream fails to unlock opportunity, priding instead tradition, 'the finest of England's daughters and mothers and wives' and memerising 'Egbert, Ethelwulf'
- The Laughter of Stafford Girls' High
- Oranges
- White Writing
- Duffy voices the voiceless
- 'She writes in white ink'- Cixous
- Self produced (breast milk) rather than the stable, explicit black
- Impossible task: 'wad[ing]' in sea, writing 'words on the wind', rules 'traced with a stick'
- Anger: 'No vows...'
- The old order is white ink in the face of the blackening female voice
- Patriarchy is rejected: reference to 'maiden name'
- Determined: 'I write them white'. Reclamation of invisibility; quiet confidence
- Creates ceremony herself: 'My lips on yours'. This line is above the whole poem
- Implicit declaration of love under guise of frustration. Poem is actually written in black in a sudden surge of rebellion
- 4 line stanzas and serene copresence of 'palm against palm', 'lifeline', 'heartline'
- Manipulation of the literary form
- Meta narratives show an inclination towards the other
- Woman 'working to a deadline', 'stroked [the prince's] hair', 'pulled him inside her home': interception of modern femininity
- Meta narratives show an inclination towards the other
- Overwhelming patriarchy: 'enormous' 'pink' mac, 'hood over [her] eyes', makes her 'sick' and insecure- feels like 'The Man in The Iron Mask', an uncomfortable fraud
- The 'nasty': Melanie and Jeanette 'hugged and it felt like drowning', uncontrollable desire 'an octopus inside' her
- Disgust at men: 'pig', 'skin bright pink'; unappealing sexuality
- Crude awakening to hetero. marriage: 'A bit of love' confused with 'hurt', there is 'what we want' vs 'what we get'. Transformed princes were therefore a 'terrible conspiracy'
- Crunched the 'Maureen 4 Ken' 'sweet hearts', 'miss[ing] the couples' due to the 'painful' noises of girls 'smashed against the wall'
- The female future is bigots drowning in the 'blood' of courageous women
- White Writing
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