Thursday, March 24, 2011

The Month of March.. Would I Rather Have Essays or Snow? I don't Know Which Is Worse!

I've been absolutely swamped with papers since st. patty's day - as you can tell from my lack of posting.. but I only have one more to write before the term ends and then it's on to exams!

I wrote an essay for Native American lit which I handed in today and I hope to do well on.. Fingers Crossed..

Yesterday we had this freak snow fall.. yeah.. nearing the end of March.. supposed to be spring and flowers and birds chirping and nice weather all up in here, but no! We got more snow! because that is what Canada is all about!

Seriously though.. I was just about to put my boots away and prep myself for flats and sneakers again when BAm! SnowFall Warning 15-20 cm of snow for my area! Grrr! And then guess what? Today the sun was shining and everything started melting but ofcourse its still -11 with the windchill so everything thats melting is flash freezing!! Great! So not only did the university campus get covered in a nice white blanket again but then it turned into a puddle which then turned into a frozen lake...

I took some pics of my house being attacked by snow.. I thought it might interest any of you who have it better or worse.. Enjoy :)












XOXO
C

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Hello all!  Just a quick message for today.. I'm currently sitting in one of the university libraries attempting to write a rather large paper over the next 2 and a half hours, quite a task by all means..  I thought I'd let you know about the St. Patty's day festivities that are going on around campus.  The campus pubs are full-up as it were, with the graduates club having admitted over 200 people from 11am-2pm and hoping to exceed that amount three-fold from 2pm onward when it becomes a 19+ only venue.  I have been sitting in the library since 3:30 trying to write and being completely envious all those select few that are enjoying a fun, stress free afternoon in the pub..   The undergrads pub I have not been around to check out but im certain it must be busy as they will admit almost anyone- exactly why upper year undergrads visit the grads pub instead of that one hehe.. 

If my paper turns out any good, I might consider posting it but here are the basics of it... Im discussing women in colonial and post-colonial societies focusing on domesticity, gender inequalities of labour, women powerless and silenced, women who come to represent the nation and the mother=hood symbol under dominant make colonisation circumstances... if any of this makes sense to you then e-mail me and i might send you my paper or post it if there is a popular demand (which i doubt highly :( oh well cant always hope for the stars)...

so pretty much ive got to finish this paper, and then over the weekend begin another one which is due on Monday which i am waiting to start because i am a terrible  procrastinator...

Thanks for reading... as always.. This would be soo easier if I had a magical homework fairy to help me.. again wishful thinking.. *sigh*

XOXO
C

Monday, March 14, 2011

Some Thing Random..

I was shown a website through a classmate in the Modern British Literature class I am taking this semester and I thought it was absolutely wonderful! The  website is called Hark, a vagrant and on it you will find all types of comics about history.  I was drawn to it because the classmate poasted the link for us called 1980's Business Woman which fit perfectly with the play we were reading by Caryl Churchill called "Top Girls" -
So check out here:    


 As I sit waiting for the bus to come at 1:30 so I can go onto campus I came across this great comic about characters from Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice - among other Jane Austen related comics, which are great for the Austen lover or those currently caught up in Austen Mania these days- though my mania is absolutely course related ( the Jane Austen Lit class im taking is soo great!) Anyway, please check out this link as well!    

I think these comics by Kate Beaton are absolutely fantastic and it is no wonder that she is Canadian!! Please check out the About section of her website and I hope you will all enjoy reading through the comics as much as I have!  As always, feel free to drop me a comment on here and/or e-mail me at bilichc@hotmail.com. Thanks A Bunch and Have A Great Monday!!

XOXO
Cristina

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Poetry... What Does It Make You Think?

In my modern British Literature class we have been studying various authors, many novels and countless pieces of poetry.  As such I have had to analyze many a stanza this year.  I am submitting an assignment that is worth very little, just for bonus marks really, which has to do with a poem entitled "Anorexic" written by Eavan Boland.

I'd like to share this 300 word essay type paragraph with you along with the poem itself so that if you chose to do so you may analyze it yourself and let me know what you think of my critique.  Please don't be too harsh on me though :D  Remember to comment on here or e-mail me whatever responses to have to this piece of poetry and/or to my simple analysis. 

The question that was asked of me in this assignment was:  
Focusing on  Eavan Boland’s “Anorexic,” discuss how the speaker makes use of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. How and/or why does the poem rewrite Genesis? (Keep it in mind as you read the poem..)

Anorexic by  Eavan Boland
Flesh is heretic.
My body is a witch.
I am burning it.
 
Yes I am torching
her curves and paps and wiles.
They scorch in my self denials.
 
ow she meshed my head
in the half-truths
of her fevers
 
till I renounced
milk and honey
and the taste of lunch.
 
I vomited
her hungers.
Now the bitch is burning.
 
I am starved and curveless.
I am skin and bone.
She has learned her lesson.
 
Thin as a rib
I turn in sleep.
My dreams probe
 
a claustrophobia
a sensuous enclosure.
How warm it was and wide
 
once by a warm drum,
once by the song of his breath
                                   and in his sleeping side.                                   
Only a little more, 
only a few more days
sinless, foodless,
 
I will slip
back into him again
as if I had never been away.
 
Caged so
I will grow
angular and holy
 
past pain,
keeping his heart
such company
 
as will make me forget
in a small space
the fall
 
into forked dark,
into python needs
heaving to hips and breasts
and lips and heat
and sweat and fat and greed. 
 
 
My Assignment was to answer the above posted question about how the speaker uses Genesis and
 how and or why the author the author has re-written the story of Genesis. It is as follows:
 
Eavan Boland’s “Anorexic” and the Myth of Genesis
       In Eavan Boland’s “Anorexic,” the speaker makes use of Genesis, the first book of the Bible to equate this myth with the ever present history of female repression in society.  The use of language in the poem strongly alludes to the story of the fall and the original sin committed by Eve in the Garden of Eden.  In the lines “thin as a rib” and “in his sleeping side” it is shown that the speaker is envisioning their self as the rib out of which God created Eve, going back into Adams side.  The woman/rib wants to go back to the man, to have the thin bone renter the body as a way of changing the past and allowing women to become sinless again.  The author uses the lines “sinless, foodless” to describe the thoughts which accompany anorexia and as juxtaposition for the rest of the poem pushing forth the myth of women being held responsible for the “fall of man” due to eating forbidden fruit.  The author uses specific language to present the speakers wishes to forget “the fall/ into forked dark, into python needs” and to renounce the “hips and breasts and lips” that make her the embodiment of temptation and sin.  Boland in a way rewrites Genesis using the eating disorder Anorexia as a means to cast off the female body therefore ridding the female self of Eve’s original sin.  If she can become non-gendered then there is no temptation and man will not fall from grace.  This rewriting also demonstrates the universal and ever present self loathing that females are taught feel by religious dominator's as well as the struggle women have always faced to re-attain their equality with men that could only happen through the erasing of Original Sin and the replacement of the rib into the body.      

Works Cited: Boland, Eavan.  "Anorexic" Selected Poems.  Dublin: Carcanet, 1989. Print. 


So Please let me know what you all think of both the poem and my small analysis.. I know it isn't perfect or much of a piece to read but it will do for my TA and I hope it will do for you.  Feel free to comment on here and/or leave me an e-mail if you'd like to discuss it in further detail or you have something negative to say  
( because I would appreciate it if you did criticize me in private.. thanks :D). My e-mail address as always is   bilichc@hotmail.com

XOXO
C