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Transcript

Witches and Women

by Lauren Stephens

Self-Expression

Canonical Resistance

"the plain houses, light by light"

(line 4)

1: recital of poetry

2: desire for secrecy of action

(not confident in self)

John Holmes

"Her Kind" by Anne Sexton

Sexton tried to quench nerves

before poetry recitals with alcohol (Salvio)

timid in personal life

personal growth on stage &

in poem

  • "childish, selfish, incompetent" (Middlebrook)
  • writing meetings
  • took up too much time, became too drunk, too loud (Middlebrook)
  • unsightly witch of the poetry realm
  • canonical poetry: blatantly objective

Connecting Mental State

1: reason why she began writing

confessional poetry

2: Growth and development

"primarily theraputic in intent

and effect... autobiographical... truthful" (Gill)

"glamorous costumes" and

"manicured nails"

1: shows individuality

2: links speaker and Sexton's

personal lives

Subversive Housewives

Canonical Acceptance

"not a woman, quite" (line 6)

1: young teenager

2: move from solitary to domestic

Joan of Arc

"rearranging the disaligned"

(line 14)

1: ambiguous

herself? children? objects?

2: attempting to fill social role

I have gone out, a possessed witch,

haunting the black air, braver at night;

dreaming evil, I have done my hitch

over the plain houses, light by light:

lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind.

A woman like that is not a woman, quite.

I have been her kind.

I have found the warm caves in the woods,

filled them with skillets, carvings, shelves,

closets, silks, innumerable goods;

fixed the suppers for the worms and the elves:

whining, rearranging the disaligned.

A woman like that is misunderstood.

I have been her kind.

I have ridden in your cart, driver,

waved my nude arms at villages going by,

learning the last bright routes, survivor

where your flames still bite my thigh

and my ribs crack where your wheels wind.

A woman like that is not ashamed to die.

I have been her kind.

"innumerable goods"

(line 10)

1: attempt to fill social role

2: "consumes, cooks and

rearranges" the house (Pollard)

  • use of allusion to famous historical/literary figure
  • "bestows... a sainted identity even while it confirms a social definition of madness" (Alkalay-Gut)
  • canonically acceptable move

Taking it to a Spiritual Level?

"... a cure for their rationality

rather than their irrationality." (Elis)

1: participates through creation

and reading/interpretation

2: shamanistic practices banned

subversive of social norms

Charisma Bounds

Works Cited

"cultural expectations of her

time" (Pollard)

1: performance foreshadows transformation of witch/speaker

2: defies passivity of women

"not ashamed to die"

(line 20)

1: proud of accomplishments

2: comfortable in self; labelled

as mad by society.

Gill, Jo. “Anne Sexton and Confessional Poetics.” The Review of

English Studies Vol. 55 No. 220; 2004. Oxford University Press. 425-445. JSTOR. 25 Sept. 2015.

Middlebrook, Diane Wood. “Housewife into Poet: The

Apprenticeship of Anne Sexton.” The New England Quarterly Vol. 56 No. 4; 1983. 483-503. JSTOR. 26 Sept. 2015.

Pollard, Clare. “Her Kind: Anne Sexton, the Cold War and the idea

of the housewife.” Critical Quarterly Vol. 48 No. 3; 2006. 1-24. JSTOR. 25 Sept. 2015.

Sexton, Anne. “Her Kind.” The Complete Poems: Anne Sexton.

First Mariner Books, Boston. 1981. 15-16. Print.

Showalter, Elaine. “Comments on Jehlen’s ‘Archimedes and the

Paradox of Feminist Criticism.’” Signs Vol. 8 No. 1; 1982. University of Chicago. 160-176. JSTOR. 24 Sept. 2015.

"waved my nude arms at

villagers going by ... learning the bright routes, survivor"

(line 16-17)

1: Sexton became this woman

2: self-worth more important

than others' judgement

3: citizens physically injure her,

but still happier now

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