ELIT 48C Class 38

Discrete versus Discreet

Discrete/Discreet

"These two words, originally derived from the same Latin word, are pronounced identically and also share the idea of 'keeping apart.' But they have acquired quite different meanings:

A number of usage books define discreet as “prudent,” “judicious,” “tactful,” or “circumspect.”

Discrete is defined as “separate” or “distinct.”

Chair Poet?

“I've had it with these cheap sons of bitches who claim they love poetry but never buy a book.”

Kenneth Rexroth

AGENDA

Sandra Cisneros“Woman Hollering Creek”Historical Context Discussion

Historical Context:Changing Borders

When we consider the history of changing geographical borders between the United States and Mexico, it is clear why Cisneros, Anzaldua, and other Chicana writers find the metaphor of borders and borderlands such lush ground for both fiction and nonfiction writing. Borders are invented, invisible boundaries that can be changed quickly by treaty or war, and disputed areas can shift from one country to another in a moment.

People do not transform themselves so easily; their language, culture, and history cannot be changed by decree. Hence, victims of the border can find themselves strangers in their own land, disenfranchised, often powerless residents of a borderland country not their own. Mexicans who lived in Texas or Arizona before those regions were seized by the United States have no community to which they might return: other states in Mexico were never their homes; therefore, they belong to neither the nor the new country. Thus, they come to inhabit the edges of communities where the intersections of divergent cultures produces multiculturalism: hybrid races, languages, and cultures.

DiscussFive

minutes!

Discuss the text in terms of postmodernism or in articulation with a postmodern manifesto.

1. One postmodernist concern I noted in Sandra Cisneros’ “Woman Hollering Creek” was the narrator’s frequent mention of the telenovelas and how these shaped the perspectives of Cleofilas and many other women in the story. As we move out of modernism and into the 1940s, ‘50s, and beyond, television and the critique of mass media begins to make its presence felt in the literary world.

2. [A]ll of the signifiers lack a meaning until Cleofilas or Cisneros gives us one, which is a trait that postmodern authors have when writing their stories. The artist no longer has to follow rules when handing out meaning to objects, and they gain additional freedom in how they express themselves in their work. Lastly, there is the imprint of culture and impressionable traits, like the telenovelas and romance books, which influence the reader on who Cleofilas is without telling us who she really is.

Discuss a theme: love and passion

In her text Cisneros writes about wanting to have a life like the ones that are portrayed in “novelas,” does she in a sense write her own “novela” to demonstrate the reality of the life of woman in a men’s world?

A Theme in “Woman Hollering Creek” is definitely gender roles and the oppression of women. Having been around only male figures like her father and six brothers, Cleofilas Fernandez’s only “guide” of how to be a woman is through watching soap operas on television.

Voices and the Voiceless; Power and powerlessness; Spousal abuse

Q: What role does voice or articulation play in “Woman Hollering Creek”?

When Cleofilas explains that “she had been so stunned, it left her speechless, motionless, numb,” the first time her husband struck her, it was the complete antithesis to how she predicted she would react such a situation (1134).

Q: Does he beat her up in order to gain power as a man?

Q: Why does she not leave him sooner?

Feminist lens

Throughout “Woman Hollering Creek”, Cisneros comments on the deep-rooted female objectification in North American societies. Although the story centers on the thoughts and actions of Cleófilas, it opens with the names of the two men who influence her life the most. Her father is in the act of giving his permission to her soon-to-be husband to take her away, an age-old custom that highlights a woman’s lack of rights in patriarchal societies. The way it is phrased makes it appear that Cleófilas has no say in the matter, that she is just another possession to be given away when a man sees fit.

QHQs

Q: In Sandra Cisneros’ “Woman Hollering Creek”, how do the female characters reflect attributes of the modern day independent woman?

Q: What is the Significance of Cleofilas life, compared to soap operas (telenovelas?)

Q: How does the American Dream figure into Cleofilas’ life?

Does Felice yell when driving over the creek because she is angry, joyful, or both?

Author Introduction: Sherman Alexie (1966-

A Spokane/Coeur d’Alene tribal member, Alexie grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington. Alexie was born hydrocephalic and underwent an operation at six months of age; he was not expected to survive. Though he lived through the experience, he was plagued with seizures as a child and spent most of his childhood reading. In the eighth grade, he decided to attend Reardan High School, located twenty miles outside the reservation. His achievements in high school secured his admission to Spokane’s Jesuit Gonzaga University in 1985, where he had a successful academic career but began to abuse alcohol. Alexie transferred to Washington State University in 1987 and began writing poetry and short fiction. In 1990 Alexie’s work was published in Hanging Loose magazine, a success he has credited with giving him the incentive to quit drinking. He has remained sober ever since.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/sherman-alexie

HOMEWORK Read Sherman Alexie 1207

“This is What it Means to Say Phoenix Arizona” 1213

Post #37 What is Sherman Alexie saying in this story about the role

of storytelling? Discuss POV and how or why it is important to the plot. Discuss the relationship of Thomas and Victor. Discuss this story in terms of postmodernism, minority

theory, or multiculturalism.