First-person Story Research Articles

Success Story or Traumatic Experience? An Attempt to Integrate Trauma Theory with Oral History Research for the Interpretation of First-Person Stories

This article focuses on the following issues: (1) how a narrator describes life under political repression in a retrospective first-person story; (2) the extent to which such a story can be analysed from the perspective of trauma theory; (3) what the use of trauma theory in combination with the methods of folk narrative and oral history research can offer for a more diverse interpretation of such a story. The story selected for observation was written in 2001, focusing on events in Soviet Estonia (1940–1941, 1944–1991). At the time of telling this story, the Soviet era was publicly interpreted as a period of interruption of Estonian cultural and political continuity. Social scientists observed the Soviet period from the perspective of cultural trauma. In this way, the narrator presented complex past events in a framework that points to the restoration of historical justice. Although this story represents a positive attitude towards historical and cultural developments in Estonia, the analysis of this story indicates that traces of trauma can be found at the levels of the story that reflect the formation of the narrator’s identity.

"I'd Go from a Mountain Top and Tell My Story": Perspectives of Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence on Storytelling for Social Change.

Storytelling has well-documented therapeutic benefits for survivors of trauma. However, little is known about intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors' perspectives on sharing their stories. This article presents findings based on the analysis of 26 qualitative interviews with individuals who had experienced IPV regarding first-person story sharing. Participants described telling their stories as an act of healing and empowerment. They also named ways that storytelling can challenge societal views and structures that perpetuate IPV. Based on our findings, we offer suggestions for supporting survivor expertise and storytelling as part of a survivor-centered approach to IPV advocacy and social change.

Xyrs, 6034: sexing and masturbating in/of the future

ABSTRACT The USA has fallen, its borders have dissipated, and Black and Brown peoples have risen to power. In this setting, this essay is a fictional, first-person story from the perspective of a cyborg humyn in/of the future. The story depicts future mundane activities, including futuristic club going, love-making, family parties, masturbation, and the process of conceiving offspring.

Предательство человечности. Красный террор большевиков в Крыму во время гражданской войны 1918–1920 гг. в повести Ивана Шмелева „Солнце мертвых”

[Betrayal of humanity. The red terror of the Bolsheviks in Crimea during the civil war in 1918–1920 in the light of Ivan Szmielev’s novel “The Sun of the Dead”] The article analyzes the novel by the Russian writer Ivan Szmielev “The Sun of the Dead” (1923). It was written on the basis of historical events. I analyze the composition of the work, which is based on two symbols – the sun and death. The sun symbolizes the rich and beautiful Crimea, and deathis a symbol of the new power – the power of the Bolsheviks who destroyed this wonderful land of Crimea. The author of the article emphasizes the autobiographical nature of the story “The Sun of the Dead”. Its narration is based on a firstperson story by Ivan Szmielev. This is a feature of lyrical prose. Describing the tragic events of total red terror, hunger and the struggle for survival, Ivan Szmielevs howsthat death affects everyone – people, animals, birds, trees, plants. The author of the article also emphasizes the philosophical and humanistic aspect of the work, which shows the history of humanity and human survival in an extreme situation, when very few are lucky enough to resist and not become victims of brutal murders of the Bolsheviks or starvation. In the process of the story, the image of the desert appears – a metaphor with which the writer emphasizes the scale of the destructive activity of the Bolsheviks.

Deeper inside the Experience of Pediatric Headache: A Narrative Study

Objective: To explore meanings, perspectives and points of view of the subjective experience of paediatric patients with headache (PPwH) and create a first-person narrative for clinical practice. Methods: We conducted a qualitative, narrative research study with PPwH, 11 - 17 years old. Data were collected through narratives interviews and a twofold narrative analysis was performed: a narrative and a thematic analysis. Results: Twenty-three patients (14 girls; mean age 14.5; median duration of illness of 5.8 years) were recruited. Through narrative analysis and close reading, narratives revealed different ways to organize illness experience: PPwH can use 1) narrative sequences of recurrent events in order a) to describe the continuing living-through of the experience of headache, b) to define operative script or c) to characterize the illness experience generally as a “controlled” routine; or 2) a storied account of events, with well-defined characters, plot and evaluation of contingency and correlation between events to express a personal point of view and a moral standpoint about the illness experience. Through thematic analysis 5 main themes and 22 subthemes about the significance of being a PPwH emerged: a) disease dimension (description of pain), b) illness dimension, c) sickness, d) causality, e) coping and f) future perception. Then, a first-person narrative story was created as a tool enabling reflection and conversation during clinical consultation. Conclusions: Results suggest that promoting narrative dialogue can be an opportunity for the neurologist: the prototypical narrative developed from story analysis might be a tool to apply for the narrative-based medicine in the clinical setting.

Waiawa Station (1934)

Waiawa Station (1934) Nakashima Naoto Translated with an introduction by Ken K. Ito In a key moment in Nakashima Naoto's "Waiawa Station" (Waiawa eki, 1934), an elegiac first-person story about a Hawaii boyhood in the early twentieth century, the narrator strains to talk with his Japan-born brother. After casting about for shared topics of interest, he hits upon the idea of asking about his brother's reading: "Shigeru, what sorts of books are you reading now?" "What?" he said, turning his side to me as though he were thinking of something else. But he knew I was studying him. With a thin smile, he said, "A born-in-Hawaii (Hawaii umare) like you wouldn't know." At that moment, I was somehow afraid of my brother. I regretted getting into this troubling conversation. A gulf opens between the brothers, a gulf of knowledge and understanding that terrifies the narrator. The term translated here with deliberate awkwardness, Hawaii umare, requires some explanation. Although it is used as a nominative in the grammar of the original Japanese, it cannot but raise a question: A Hawaii-born what? This is because Hawaii umare is frequently used in adjectival form, as in Hawaii umare no […]. Considering the narrator's discomfort, as well as the topic of the conversation which turns on cultural literacy, the implied subject is likely "Japanese," as in Hawaii umare no Nihonjin. But this raises further questions: If the narrator is Japanese like his brother, why is one brother incomprehensible to the other? What are the cultural and linguistic competencies, the experiences, and sentiments that distinguish Hawaii-born Japanese? These are the questions that run through "Waiawa Station," whose most prominent plot line involves the narrator's relationship with Shigeru, the older brother who had been left behind in Japan when his parents emigrated and is unable to adjust to the culture of Hawaii and work on the plantation when he arrives later in Hawaii at the age of 18. [End Page 229] Shigeru's own sense of dislocation underpins his condescension and contempt for the narrator. His hopelessness will eventually lead to suicide. Although the other sections of the story can seem episodic—a collection of childhood moments set in Waiawa—they are best read as a counterweight to Shigeru's sense of loss: the narrator recounts with warmth and longing the human connections of a village located ten miles outside of Honolulu on the shores of Pearl Harbor. "Waiawa Station" is an expression of a deeply felt sense of place. These themes draw upon the writer's own life. "Waiawa Station" is autobiographical fiction that invites the reader to equate the protagonist/narrator with the writer—beginning with the protagonist's name, which is the writer's own. The life of the character overlaps with that of the writer. The biographical Nakashima Naoto was born in Waipahu in 1904. His family moved to Waiawa during his childhood. He attended elementary school and Japanese language school in Pearl City and went on to Kaiulani School, a public grammar school in Honolulu. Contemporary newspaper accounts show that he had a brother named Shigeru who committed suicide in 1917 by throwing himself in front of a train. Shigeru's death caused all the members of Naoto's family, except for his father, to travel to Japan shortly afterwards to repatriate his remains. The Nakashimas settled in Kumamoto, the parents' home prefecture. Naoto attended school there until he left to go to Waseda University in Tokyo, where he studied English literature but did not graduate. In the late 1920s, he began to publish fiction in coterie magazines in Japan and in Japanese language newspapers in Hawaii; his stories invariably centered on two subjects: a Hawaii childhood and the lives of returning immigrant families. "Waiawa Station," published in Bungakkai (Literary World) in 1934, was one of the few Nakashima stories carried in a major literary magazine. Nakashima moved in literary circles in Tokyo, and "Waiawa Station" shows the marks of Japanese literary discourses: the deliberate autobiography of the story exploits conventions of writing and reading associated with the shishōsetsu, or "I-novel"; and the group portrait of adolescents growing into...

«Взрывная сила писем старых». История от первого лица по письмам бывшей курмышской дворянки

«Взрывная сила писем старых». История от первого лица по письмам бывшей курмышской дворянки

Inclusive adapted sport and adventure training programme in the PTSD recovery of military personnel: A creative non-fiction

ObjectivesThe purpose of this paper was to use a storytelling approach to explore the role of a 5-day inclusive residential adapted sport and adventurous training (AS & AAT) programme in the recovery of military personnel diagnosed with PTSD. Design: Narrative storytelling approach. MethodA first-person story was developed from the participant's own words taken verbatim from an in-depth semi-structured interview. A series of focus groups were conducted with members of the general public (n = 20) to reflect upon the story. ResultsThe story provides a rich and holistic account of the participant's experiences and unique insight to the complex interaction between the social and psychological factors associated with illness and recovery. The story also highlights the value attributed to the AS & AAT in an individual's recovery journey. ConclusionsThis paper offers important insights into the personal meaning and value of participation in a bespoke 5-day AS & AAT programme. Feedback from the participant and focus groups with members of the general public who engaged with the story suggest judgement criteria appropriate for a creative non-fiction representation were achieved.

‘Grandmas’ in debate: A first-person story told in Taiwan’s presidential debate as a rhetorical device and public reactions to its credibility

This study examines data from a 2016 presidential debate in Taiwan to explore the use of first-person narrative in political discourse as a rhetorical device, and how public reactions to its credibility are influenced by the narrative’s context. While previous studies of political debate discourse (e.g. Kuo 2001) investigate, for example, the use of “constructed dialogue” (Tannen 2007), there is a lack of studies focusing on first-person narrative in political debates. Using three-level positioning as outlined by Bamberg (1997), I analyze a narrative featuring a grandma character told by presidential candidate Eric Chu, also comparing it to another candidate James Soong’s “grandma narrative.” I argue that the context places constraints on the effects of their narratives. Whereas Chu’s narrative, a traditional Labovian first-person story, is widely ridiculed with memes for its lack of credibility, Soong’s narrative, a habitual narrative, receives little attention.The analysis shows how Chu’s narrative serves his rhetorical purposes and suggests why the public doubts its credibility. At level 1 (characters positioned vis-à-vis one another), Chu presents himself as non-agentive with constructed dialogue, thereby excusing an earlier decision he made -- failing to keep his promise to finish his term as a mayor. At level 2 (speaker positioned to audience), he switches from Mandarin to Taiwanese, a local dialect, which can be seen as an appeal to his current audience. At level 3 (identity claims locally instantiated), the grandma character draws on the archetype of elderly women in Taiwanese culture, fundamental to national economic growth, while his description of praying at a temple casts him against the local tradition of religious practices in Taiwan. The study helps fill the knowledge gap regarding first-person narrative in political discourse, while highlighting the context in which political narratives are embedded and contributing to understanding positioning in Taiwanese public discourse.

Muslim Cool: Race, Religion, and Hip Hop in the United States by Su'ad Abdul Khabeer: Affect as a Critical Optic

Reviewed by: Muslim Cool: Race, Religion, and Hip Hop in the United States by Su'ad Abdul Khabeer Alexander Cho (bio) Muslim Cool: Race, Religion, and Hip Hop in the United States by Su'ad Abdul Khabeer. New York University Press. 2016. $89.00 hardcover; $30.00 paperback; $20.39 e-book. 288 pages. Halfway through anthropologist Su'ad Abdul Khabeer's Muslim Cool, the author tells a first-person story of going to a "girl party" in a Chicago suburb. This is a house party exclusively for Muslim women and girls at which they can "let their hair out (or down), literally and figuratively, in an all-female environment," socialize, and dance.1 As she and her friend get into the groove and belly dance, she slowly realizes that their hostess, a Palestinian Muslim immigrant mother, and the other girls, all Palestinian American Muslims, have stopped dancing and are simply gazing at her and her friend, fascinated by "the 'spectacle' of the two dancing (Black) girls."2 Khabeer, troubled by this sudden atmospheric shift in what is supposed to be a space of equality, quickly exits the dance floor. This gaze of difference informs one of the core projects of Muslim Cool: to interrogate the alterity of Black Islam within the "ethnoreligious hegemony" of contemporary US Muslim identity.3 However, this is only one part of Khabeer's thesis on the exchange and interplay of race, religion, and culture. Her companion observations are, not coincidentally, as follows: Black hip-hop music and culture function as vehicles for young Muslims to realize and own their religious identity; hip-hop music and culture itself came of age vis-à-vis a relationship to Black Islam; and a current stylistic amalgamation of Blackness and Islam, which she calls "Muslim Cool," is the result of this loop, fed back upon itself, a living, breathing instance of agentic resistance to hegemonic pressures via a cultivated style.4 Her project is less to surgically isolate ownership of any particular cultural form and more to map a [End Page 182] complex cultural landscape of power and exchange, following paths and hints where they may lead in fine ethnographic detail. Khabeer's fieldwork is based on multiple years as an observer, organizer, advocate, and activist at Chicago's Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN). As a reflexive anthropologist, Khabeer radically locates herself—Black, Latina, and Muslim—in her observations. She's also a self-proclaimed "hip-hop head," and many of her sites of inquiry involve the Chicago hip-hop scene. Chapters are organized as follows: an introduction to the flows of the argument behind "Muslim Cool"; specific attention to raced and religious musical practices surrounding hip-hop; attention to the radical potential of personal dress for both Black Muslim women (the "'hoodjab") and men (the "Muslim dandy"); and a chapter on the United States' exporting of Muslim Cool as neoliberal state apparatus abroad. The book concludes with an appended discussion of the place of Muslim Cool in the context of #BlackLivesMatter, which she regards as a project cut from the selfsame cloth. She writes: "Muslim Cool is a way of being Muslim that draws on Blackness to contest two overlapping systems of racial norms: the hegemonic ethnoreligious norms of Arab and South Asian US American Muslim communities on the one hand, and White American normativity on the other."5 The work is sound and compelling. Media studies folks—or anyone else interested in the interplay of race, power, and popular culture—will especially find chapter 1, "The Loop of Muslim Cool: Black Islam, Hip Hop, and Knowledge of Self," to be a master class in ethnography, media consumption and production practices, and identity making, all the while hewing tightly to a situatedness in terms of structural oppression and historical context. To call this simply a hip-hop "audience" or "reception" study would be to diminish its heft and scope. It is, rather, a formidable rumination on the evolution and meaning of a cultural form in a specific ethnoreligious context. Thankfully, Khabeer explodes any simple critical application of "appropriation"—that increasingly useless blunt instrument—and instead elegantly charts what she calls the loop of cultural relationships from Islam...

The Other Side of the Sea by Louis-Philippe Dalembert, and: Memory at Bay by Évelyne Trouillot

Other Side of Sea. By Louis-Philippe Dalembert. Translated by Robert H. McCormick Jr., with foreword by Edwidge Danticat. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2014. ISBN-10: 0813936470. 121 pp. $22.50 paperback.Memory at Bay. By Evelyne Trouillot. Translated by Paul Curtis Daw, with afterword by Jason Herbeck. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015. ISBN-10: 0813938090. 152 pp. $24.50 paperback.Review by Toni Pressley-SanonThe Other Side of Sea, by Louis-Philippe Dalembert (2014), and Memory at Bay, by Evelyne Trouillot (2015), are two of latest additions to growing list of translations of Caribbean and African literature from French into English through University of Virginia Press's C ARAF Books series. I echo writer Edwidge Danticat who, in her foreword to Other Side of Sea, remarks that she is very grateful for this development (vii). Indeed, it is quite a gift to have these two stellar examples of Haiti's rich and powerful literary tradition now available to English-speaking readers.The novels are haunted by specters of three critical moments in Haitian history: nineteen-year occupation by US marines, Parsley Massacre in Dominican Republic in 1937, and, most strongly, reign of terror orchestrated first by Francois Papa Doc Duvalier and then by his son, Jean-Claude Baby Doc Duvalier. two narratives are equally poignant, penned as they were by masters of literary form.Louis-Philippe Dalembert, author of a number of literary works of diverse genres, was born in Haiti in 1962 in midst of Duvalier regime, and spent his childhood and early adulthood under its shadow. Other Side of Sea is his third novel. First published as LAutre face de la mer in 1998, it is related by three primary voices: Grannie, her grandson Jonas, and an omniscient narrator. narrative is an extended meditation on multiple meanings of Haitian expression Idtbodlo-the other side of water-which refers not only to lands or countries on other side of Atlantic Ocean but also to divide between and death. novel reaches back in Haiti's distant history and memory to a time when Africans were imported to land as enslaved workers and connects this period to theme of twentieth-century exodus that drives narrative. As such, while ostensibly focused on story of Grannie and Jonas, text takes a long-view approach to political, economic, and environmental reasons for and repercussions of migrations/exiles and deaths that haunt it.The first narrative voice is from Grannie, nicknamed Noubot (new boat) because of her childhood love of watching boats arrive and depart from docks near her home and imagining their stories. Although she never travels abroad, name stays with her as a reminder of her youthful innocence: time before the tragedy (19), as she later names massacre in Dominican Republic that she and her family fled. Recalling her time in DR and trauma associated with it, she remarks: The trouble with this story was not so much bitter experience nor other language over there that made us feel more like foreigners. It was rather staying on same land. In short, to not really have left (32).Jonas, other narrative voice, also relates his and, by extension, Grannie's story in first-person. Whereas Grannie's narrative is dominated by her childhood experience of living in and fleeing DR, Jonas's story is preoccupied with migrations of friends and neighbors under Duvaliers. Couched within his narration of both forced and voluntary migrations is story ofjonas's parents, who dared to speak out against regime. In fact, at certain points in novel it is not clear which state of traveling Idtbddlo is being referenced-emigration or death. For example, while dropping off his girlfriend, Maite, at airport, Jonas comments that he wore the mask of a man used to seeing people around him leave, pass from one side to other of sea, of life (105). …

Factional stories: Creating a methodological space for collaborative reflection and inquiry in music education research

Stories have been one means by which qualitative researchers have attempted to engage participants and construct, analyze and present data or findings in a meaningful way. In this article, I look at the impetus for, and potentials of crafting and sharing researcher-written factional stories with research participants as a means to generate rich, meaningful data, and facilitate collaborative inquiry. Factional stories may be understood as a bricolage of previously collected data, analyses and fictive elements, combining research participants’ and researcher voices and presented as a short, first-person story. Through the use of factional stories in my own research study as illustration, I examine how factional stories may create a methodological space, within which participants and researcher may collaboratively construct meaning and engage in reflection, negotiation and inquiry. This article suggests that as a heuristic methodological tool, factional stories may be a particularly appropriate methodological means to attend to the complexity so often characteristic of teaching and learning music.

“The way the Irish asylum system turns people into un-human is my problem”: An Interview with Ifedinma Dimbo

“The way the Irish asylum system turns people into un-human is my problem”: An Interview with Ifedinma Dimbo

Feminist Narratology Revisited

In 1986, in pages of Style, a debate was launched between Susan Lanser and Nelli Diengott on feasibility of a new theory, which Lanser named narratology. Lanser argued that as a textual and structuralist methodology could be very useful to feminist critical inquiry, but only if its principles were fundamentally changed to accommodate materialist issues vital to most feminist critics, including gender of author, psychology of character narrating, and time and place of fiction. In a subsequent issue, Diengott countered that such synthesis, by its own terms, would not be possible because materialist feminism is completely antithetical to as theory; combining two into a single methodology called narratology would cross impenetrable line between narrative poetics and interpretive criticism that in practice strictly observes. The debate was revived by Kathy Mezei a decade later in her Introduction to Ambiguous Discourse: Feminist Narratology and British Women Writers. There she explicitly argues for legitimacy of Lanser's definition over Diengott's opposition, defining narratology as a method of analysis that includes the sexuality and gender of author, narrator, character, and reader (2), elements that transcend narratology's normal structural and textual bounds. In 2002, in Feminist Metafiction and Evolution of British Novel, I argued, in contrast, for a theory of narratology that does not depend on gender of author or qualities of female narrating character as person. My thesis instead focused on structure and discourse of woman's narrating activity on level of text, demonstrating that narratology is feasible as a strict narratological theory and can also be used as critical methodology in that way. Since that time, perhaps because of oxymoronic difficulties inherent in term, narratology has mostly been dropped from critical lexicon and its use in feminist criticism has become almost extinct. The kinds of analyses produced in response to Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace, however, suggest relevance of reexamining narratology as a methodological approach and validity of renegotiating its possibilities to include both sides of theoretical debate. Alias Grace is a novel based on real murder of Thomas Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery in 1843. Each chapter opens with excerpts from actual historical documents relevant to murder case and published around same time as crime. Alongside these excerpts are pieces of canonical English and American poetry, all also written during nineteenth century and all by or on subject of women. The primary narrative, however, is delivered by a fictionalized version of real convicted female killer, Grace Marks, imprisoned for crime and trying to reconstruct, in a mostly linear fashion, events leading up to murder she claims she cannot recall. Also included in narrative text are fictional sections of free indirect discourse attributed to Simon Jordan, male psychiatrist who elicits Grace's first-person story, as well as occasional fictional letter from other official and unofficial sources in connection with his enterprise. Precisely because of this unique structural polyphony of different generic narratives, focus on narration in critical response to this text is almost inevitable; and because primary narrative, one that shapes plot and structurally coordinates all other discourses, is delivered in voice of a woman, complexities of woman's narrating act become central to a number of critical essays on a variety of hermeneutic subjects written in response to book. (1) To date, all critical attention paid directly to complexities of female narration in Alias Grace has concerned itself with credibility of its main narrating character as a person and, consequently, as a story teller. …

For Today I Am a Trans Writer

For Today I Am a Trans Writer

Cooking in the Books: Cookbooks and Cookery in Popular Fiction

Cooking in the Books: Cookbooks and Cookery in Popular Fiction

Freakery and the Discursive Limits of Be-ing in Julia Ward Howe's <em>The Hermaphrodite</em>

In 1841 Julia Ward visited Perkins Institution for Blind and was swept away by noble rider on a noble steed whose arrival claimed her attention (Howe, Reminiscences 82). Ward had not journeyed to Perkins to see that man, Samuel Gridley Howe, whom she would go on to marry in 1843. Instead, she was there to see Bridgman, his protegee. Under Howe's tutelage, had become first blind and deaf person to be able to communicate. She was a miracle, a beacon of hope, and a symbol of potential of science to heal humanity's ills and unlock sours greatest potential. (1) But she was also, various observers described her, an almost peculiar case a most remarkable being, a wonderful child (Stevens 273; Laura Bridgman Feb. 1841, 33; Laura Bridgman 15 May 1843, 145). She was not a thing, perhaps, but not a whole person--a subject or an agent--either. Ironically, Bridgman's objectification resulted from Howe's attempts to counter public understandings of disabled individuals less than human (Klages 118, 144-45). To that end, he publicized her achievements in public exhibitions and through his published records. Bridgman's status as a major tourist attraction in Boston's guidebooks attests to popularity of her public appearances (Gitter 5). Nearly popular herself were Howe's widely circulated annual reports of her physical, intellectual and moral progress, which contained information on everything from her head measurements to her growing vocabulary to her manipulative relationships (Laura Bridgman 1 Feb. 1841, 41). (2) Rather than fully humanizing Bridgman, Howe's narrative control rendered her symbol to be described and interpreted by others, an image to be manipulated, much like, Elisabeth Gitter observes, freaks in P. T. Barnum's freak shows (Klages 144; Gitter 106). And if was freak, Howe was her manager, who, [no less than Barnum ... mastered art of manipulating public's interest in her story, capitalizing on their concern in order to advance both his career and his institution (Freeberg 3). (3) As Samuel Gridley Howe's wife, Julia Ward Howe also benefited from an anomalous body, albeit in more personal and psychological ways. In approximately 1846 she began crafting what was in 2004 published The Hermaphrodite but what she called the history of a strange being (Scrap-book 30). (4) It is worth remarking that her protagonist, Laurence, intersexual extraordinary case of anomalous humanity, has much in common with Laura, blind and deaf anomalously conditioned human spirit who made Samuel Gridley Howe famous (Howe, Hermaphrodite 194; Stevens 273). Both and Laurence are individuals ensnared in a web of popular and scientific discourses that converged in concurrent production of normal and so-called deviant bodies; both of their stories are infused with language of otherness; and both are objectified and spoken of but rarely spoken to. However, at least one key difference separates and Laurence, and it is this: Laurence has a voice. Samuel Gridley Howe's control of Bridgman's story follows a long tradition of denying disabled people's ability to speak for themselves. (5) By contrast, Julia Ward Howe's Laurence self-narrates, telling his story in first person. In giving Laurence a voice, Howe offers a kind of counternarrative to those stories that had muted, or entirely silenced, disabled. Her use of first person provides an intimate glimpse into emotional and relational consequences of othering process deployed in categorization of bodies. Scholars from a number of theoretical backgrounds have unpacked ways that popular entertainments such freak shows and elite professions such medicine and comparative anatomy converged in their attempts to determine and stabilize physical and behavioral norms for body. (6) These and other discourses focused both on interior biological differences that render [ed] invisible and on exterior ambiguities that freak shows--with their displays of hermaphrodites, dwarves, giants, and others--made patently visible (Wiegman 31). …

SISTER OF THE TYPE: THE FEMINIST COLLECTIVE IN GRANT ALLEN'STHE TYPE-WRITER GIRL

Grant Allen's short novelThe Type-Writer Girl(1897) opens with a problem. In the first lines we are introduced to our narrator who, we are promptly told, is unemployed: “I was twenty-two and without employment. I would not say by this that I was without occupation. In the world in which we live, set with daisies and kingfishers and undeciphered faces of men and women, I doubt I could be at a loss for something to occupy me” (23; ch. 1). As the second half of this quotation suggests, our narrator is confident that this problem of employment is quite easy to solve, for all around is a world teeming with life, and as we learn by the start of the next paragraph, our narrator does indeed have an occupation, something to fill his/her time. Our narrator is a storyteller: “I cannot choose but wonder who each is, and why he is here. For one after another I invent a story. It may not be the true story, but at least it amuses me” (23; ch. 1). So the real problem, beyond the question of employment, emerges as a question of narrative subject. Who is this narrator, the subject of this first-person story? We do not even know if our narrator is male or female. It is as if he/she is lost amidst that sea of “undeciphered faces of men and women.” Connected to this problem of subject is also the question of form. The first-person point of view would suggest an autobiographical narrative. Yet any expectations of an autobiographical account are immediately undermined in chapter two when we learn that our narrator is named “Juliet Appleton.” This narrative subject does not match the novel's signed author, “Olive Pratt Rayner.” So we are again left with questions: what kind of narrative is this, who is the real subject of this story, what is the form of this narrative, and does our narrator find employment?

The Zoo in Winter by Polina Barskova , Boris Dralyuk , David Stromberg (review)

and civicresponsibility. Thereare ghosts, psychics, a mysterious child, anda battle brewing overthefuture of theIRS: is it to be a forcefor "socialjustice andcivicvirtue" ora profit-driven entity? Mostremarkableperhaps isthelong, first-person story of"Irrelevant" ChrisFogle,a drug-taking "wastoid"who walks intothe wrongcollegeclassroom andfinds hislifechanged bya lecture ontheheroism ofaccountancy: "True heroismis minutes, hours, weeks, yearuponyearofthequiet, precise, judicious exercise ofprobity andcare - withno onethere tosee orcheer. Thisis theworld. Just you andthejob,atyour desk." ThatWallaceisnolonger athis deskisa grievous losstoliterature. Michael Leddy Eastern Illinois University VERSE PolinaBarskova. TheZoo inWinter. Boris Dralyuk & DavidStromberg, tr. Brooklyn. Melville House. 2011.x+ 165 pages. $15.isbn 978-1-935554-26-4 "I / Amtheresult ofmultiplying / Coleridgeby Leningrad"declares Russian poetPolinaBarskova inthe first poem of TheZoo in Winter. Barskova reaffirms thismultivalent heritage time andagainbyworking rigorously within hernativetraditionas wellas againsta panorama ofliterature ranging from classical Greekmythology to SusanSontag. Barskova employs a vastrepertoire oftechniques to createhighly allusiveyetrhetorically playful poems that achieve a delicate balance between severity andjocularity. WhatmakesBarskova 's poetry so intriguing is notitsintense allusiveness butitsattention toreflexive elements ofcraft. Forexample, Barskovawrites a sequence offarewells tomythological and Shakespearean characters usinga chorusto begin andframe eachpoem. In"Farewell to Ophelia,"thechorus, "Her garments , spreadabout,droveherlike a nymph. /Amidst allthisshesang snippets ofsongs, /Asifshehadn't feltdisaster," addressesOphelia's declineintoinsanity. This mental instability is latermimicked when thenarrator seemstotrailoff midthought : "Nor the hillock,which befits a cat / Much morethanit befits . . . norLethe." Therepetition andellipsis, here, represent a kindof lackadaisical meandering ofthought similarto Ophelia's "snippetsof songs."In thispiece,as withmany others, Barskova playfully turns her poems in on themselves, making themdense yet approachablefor thoseunfamiliar withher literary references (theendnotes arealsoan indispensable resource). Balancingself-reflection with allusive playfulness proves tobeone ofBarskova's major skills andisperhapsbestexemplified in thepoem "The New Iliad," which begins: "SusieSontag's writing aboutwar./ It'dbegoodfor meas well,I guess." Theopening rhetorical humor both underminesand magnifiesthe poem'sserious ruminations onwar, making herrefusal tobeanoutright war poet ("I cannot.I'd liketo - I cannot")much more devastating. In "Mimesis,"anotherpoem that juxtaposes whimsicality with austerity ,thenarrator musesaboutbird droppingsforeighteenlines and then halts: "(areyouserious? You're serious aboutallthis? /Zeroempathy ,a pinchof curiosity.)" While thisparenthetical remark collapses thepoem,theimplications broaden again two stanzaslater:"Thereis Nota Bene Ranko Marinkovic Gary Saul Morson The Words ofOthers Yale University Press TheWords ofOthers guides thereader through thedefinition, history, andcultural context ofquotation, asking not only why wequote certain things orpeople but how quotation functions inour society. The combination ofthis original subject matter and careful Investigation results inaliterary "tour deforce" according toFred Shapiro, editor ofThe Yale Book of Quotations. one's suffering at the inadequacy ofthemeansofdescription/' This linenotonly contrasts therest ofthe poemwithitssolemnity, but also with itslength, affecting a formal as wellas thematic balance. TheZooinWinter demonstrates Polina Barskova's intentionto engagetheworldofliterature while simultaneously invoking, creating, and sustaining a singular presence: 'Themain thing istomovelikecanal water - that is,notmove."Thisline from "Birkenau" echoesthepoet's desireto movefluidly acrossvariouscanons while holding firm toher own poeticconvictions. She writes witha tenderness forher mother country thatextends through every facet ofRussian artandculture; and shedemands a diligent reader who is willing todelveintoendnotes in order tounpack these densepoems. The realrewardis witnessing her purity ofbalance - theability tohold laughter and sadness,conversation and lyric, in thesame palm - and then totranscend that union entirely. Greg Emilio California Polytechnic State University Joey Brown. Oklahomaography. Norman, Oklahoma. Mongrel Empire. 2010.iv+ 66 pages.$14.isbn 978-09801684 -6-4 The Oklahoma thatJoeyBrown depictsin her collection of quiet, earthy, lyrical poemsis as mucha depiction ofcollective consciousness as a concrete place. Oklahomaographyconstructs a senseofearthand passagesthatinforms one's fundamental senseof"bodiness" abouta place and time.The poemsreveal thedesire tocreate andmaintain sets of connections - mainlyto friends, family,and community - and to possessa setofroots thatsuggest a certain groundedness thatperhaps never was,andnever canbe. The Oklahomaof the collectiveidentity isonethat deconstructs itselfthroughits peeling paint, Route66artifacts andmemorabilia, collapsing barns, rusting haybalers, creaking pumping units, and bulgingandrusted tanks nexttoold oil wells.The descriptions in Brown's poemsevokean ethosofa deeply fadedreality, ofearth-toned images, ofliving inwhatwas oncea boomtownbased on oil,wheat,orother earth-generated sourcesof wealth. Asa result, Brown's depiction ofthe ruralOklahoma oftodayis a ghost ofthepast;theoriginal pioneers, oil barons,farmers, and oil operators havean intense presence thatis,in somerespects, a ghostly echo. Section i, "I KeepSaying Oklahoma ,"is a paean to a disappearingculture . In reality, it'sa culture that dominated for onlyaround fifty or sixtyyears - fromthe...

The Pale King by David Foster Wallace (review)

yetcunning, shelistskeyfigures in order toinfluence political powerto herfavor. A young, biracial woman atthecenter of"Shaky attheKnees" wrestles tofind inner strength after growing up in an unstable householdwhereherwhitemother and blackfather constantly flung racial insultsat each other.In "Graduations ," animmigrant mother andher stern employer constantly fight with theimmigrant's adolescent son;but whenhe finally receives hisgraduationcertificate , botharesurprised tofindoutthetrueresults oftheir battle. Inoneofthestrongest stories of thecollection, "Percy'sIllness," a womanrecounts her friendship witha troubled youngimmigrant, beginning withtheir sharedsexual miscueandprogressing tohisseriousmental illness stemming from an identity crisis. Ifthere's one complaint about thecollection, it's thatthe stories tendtobe tooshort. Thisis meant to be a compliment: one wishes Thomaswould spend moretime exploring thefascinating liveshe's created. Yearsfilled withrichemotionsand eventsareoften abbreviatedintoshortparagraphs . Where writers such as Edward P. Jones and DeborahEisenberg willspend pages exploring pivotalmoments in a character's life, Thomastends tocompress. As a result, hisstories leaveemotional surface dents where theymighthave leftcraters. But theseare minorcomplaints. Lives: Whole andOtherwise does an admirable jobofinvestigating liveslived insecrets andhonesty, complication andsimplicity. Armando Celayo Norwich , United Kingdom DavidFoster Wallace. ThePale King. NewYork. Little, Brown. 2011.x+ 548 pages.$27.99. isbn 978-0-316-07423-0 LateinDavidFoster Wallace's Infinite Jest (1996),seventeen-year-old Hal Incandenza contemplates a Sisphyean future: walking downhisdormitory hallway againandagain, eating and excreting "dayafter dayafter day." Day-after-day-after-day becamethe stuff ofWallace's2005Kenyon Collegecommencement address, which spokeof making a meaningful life in thefaceof working-world routine . Thataddress, we cannowsee, has a strong relation to thisunfinishednovel :routine, itsdiscontents andrewards, defines thelivesofthe taxexaminers ofThePaleKing, who workinan Internal Revenue Service regional examination center inPeoria, Illinois, inthemid-1980s. "Thething here," explains oneexaminer, "isthat thereturns never stop." ThePale Kingpurports to be "basically a nonfiction memoir" by former REC employeeDavid FosterWallace ,"withadditionalelements ofreconstructive journalism, organizational psychology, elementary civicsandtaxtheory, etc."The "additional elements" also include "relevant backstories," often ofcharacters ' childhoods, which range from farcically sad tobrutally traumatic. Eachcharacter hasbeendrawn to(or hasfallen into)theworkoftheIRS, which,likeAlcoholics Anonymous inInfinite Jest, constitutes "a parallel world"withitsowntraditions, lore, and language.New employees are rebornintothe service,receiving new Social Security numbersand service monikers. Therearesuggestions ofmonastic life inthese details, as in a glimpseofan "Immersives Room,"with150menand women silently poring overreturns. ThePaleKingas we haveitis an assemblageby Little,Brown's MichaelPietsch from thousands of manuscript pages. The moresustained sections ofthework arestunning intheir variety andinvention: a Steinbeckian evocation oflandscape, a sagaofaninsufferable do-gooder, a happy-hour conversation about mentalillnessand love, a stuckelevator conversation aboutfreedom DAVIDFOSTER WALLACE THE PALE KING 70 1 World Literature Today and civicresponsibility. Thereare ghosts, psychics, a mysterious child, anda battle brewing overthefuture of theIRS: is it to be a forcefor "socialjustice andcivicvirtue" ora profit-driven entity? Mostremarkableperhaps isthelong, first-person story of"Irrelevant" ChrisFogle,a drug-taking "wastoid"who walks intothe wrongcollegeclassroom andfinds hislifechanged bya lecture ontheheroism ofaccountancy: "True heroismis minutes, hours, weeks, yearuponyearofthequiet, precise, judicious exercise ofprobity andcare - withno onethere tosee orcheer. Thisis theworld. Just you andthejob,atyour desk." ThatWallaceisnolonger athis deskisa grievous losstoliterature. Michael Leddy Eastern Illinois University VERSE PolinaBarskova. TheZoo inWinter. Boris Dralyuk & DavidStromberg, tr. Brooklyn. Melville House. 2011.x+ 165 pages. $15.isbn 978-1-935554-26-4 "I / Amtheresult ofmultiplying / Coleridgeby Leningrad"declares Russian poetPolinaBarskova inthe first poem of TheZoo in Winter. Barskova reaffirms thismultivalent heritage time andagainbyworking rigorously within hernativetraditionas wellas againsta panorama ofliterature ranging from classical Greekmythology to SusanSontag. Barskova employs a vastrepertoire oftechniques to createhighly allusiveyetrhetorically playful poems that achieve a delicate balance between severity andjocularity. WhatmakesBarskova 's poetry so intriguing is notitsintense allusiveness butitsattention toreflexive elements ofcraft. Forexample, Barskovawrites a sequence offarewells tomythological and Shakespearean characters usinga chorusto begin andframe eachpoem. In"Farewell to Ophelia,"thechorus, "Her garments , spreadabout,droveherlike a nymph. /Amidst allthisshesang snippets ofsongs, /Asifshehadn't feltdisaster," addressesOphelia's declineintoinsanity. This mental instability is latermimicked when thenarrator seemstotrailoff midthought : "Nor the hillock,which befits a cat / Much morethanit befits . . . norLethe." Therepetition andellipsis, here, represent a kindof lackadaisical meandering ofthought similarto Ophelia's "snippetsof songs."In thispiece,as withmany others, Barskova playfully turns her poems in on themselves, making themdense yet approachablefor thoseunfamiliar withher literary references (theendnotes arealsoan indispensable resource). Balancingself-reflection with allusive playfulness proves tobeone ofBarskova's major skills andisperhapsbestexemplified in thepoem "The New Iliad," which begins: "SusieSontag's writing aboutwar./ It'dbegoodfor meas well,I guess." Theopening rhetorical humor both underminesand magnifiesthe poem'sserious...