Local Reader Response

Here's what Amanda G, who missed last week's class, had to say about her experience of reading Alamanac of the Dead. It seemed like a good springboard for tomorrow's class discussion (today's, actually):

Having missed the first class, I feel as if some of my observations might be a bit passé, but this book really struck a chord with me--I absolutely loved it. One thing that the book challenged for me, was the way in which we often allow ourselves to imagine the space of the story, or the setting, and how in thisbook, the setting was far from imaginary. How do we feel differently about stories if they are set in our own hometown? Do they seem more real? How does fiction become metafictional, even, when one aspect is no longer fictitious toyou as a reader? Clearly many stories are set in real places, despite the fact that they do not seem real to us. They might be far away, foreign lands which seem as mystical and unreal as a fairy tale land. In previous weeks, I have wondered quite extensively about our investment in stories we perceive to be "true," rather than those we think are purely fictional--I wonder, then, how a setting we perceive to be more "real" for fictional characters might change the stakes in a story like this one.

For us, when Seese comes to Tucson, it feels very different to us than it might to other readers for whom the alien desert landscape might seem an incomprehensible exile. For us it might be more soothing. What effect does personal investment have upon our interpretation of narrative? Often times, people of color work on race studies and women work on gender studies and homosexuals work on queer theory--what is it that is so comforting about dissecting and analyzing our own lifestyles? So I wonder if we are somewhat more invested in a book like this one because it connects us to things we know, like the land, Hotel Congress, Miracle Mile, Professor X's house, whatever...or if there's something else.

Part of the reason why I see our discussion of Silko's novel as the "center" of the course is that it has precisely this power of proximity. How would we feel about 100 Years of Solitude if our ancestors were from Colombia or about Artificial Respiration if we had lived through the darkness of the mid-1970s in Argentina?

Comments

[Wendy]

Since I don't know how to start a new thread: Just wanted to pass on a good article I found that helps put Autobiography of My Mother in the context of Kincaid's other works - specifically, the claim is that her writing is intertextual with her own works, as well as some other good stuff...Through Project Muse in Modern Fiction Studies 48.4 (2002) "Countermemory and Return: Reclamation of the (Postmodern) Self in Jamaica Kincaid's The Autobiography of My Mother and My Brother"

[Wendy]

Since I don't know how to start a new thread: Just wanted to pass on a good article I found that helps put Autobiography of My Mother in the context of Kincaid's other works - specifically, the claim is that her writing is intertextual with her own works, as well as some other good stuff...Through Project Muse in Modern Fiction Studies 48.4 (2002) "Countermemory and Return: Reclamation of the (Postmodern) Self in Jamaica Kincaid's The Autobiography of My Mother and My Brother"

[Wendy]

Since I don't know how to start a new thread: Just wanted to pass on a good article I found that helps put Autobiography of My Mother in the context of Kincaid's other works - specifically, the claim is that her writing is intertextual with her own works, as well as some other good stuff...Through Project Muse in Modern Fiction Studies 48.4 (2002) "Countermemory and Return: Reclamation of the (Postmodern) Self in Jamaica Kincaid's The Autobiography of My Mother and My Brother"

[wow gold]

article I found that helps put Autobiography of My Mother in the context of Kincaid's other works - specifically, the claim is that her writing is intertextual with her own works, as well as some other good stuff...Through Project Muse in Modern Fiction Studies 48.4 (2002) "Countermemory and Return: Reclamation of the (Postmodern) Self in Jamaica Kincaid's The Autobiography of My Mother and My Brother"