Home-spun songs of the subaltern: Writing race in fiction

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Author(s)
Stringer, Mary-Ellen
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2011
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Reams of words have already been written on (the bodies of) the marginalised. I argue that the language we use to tell stories of difference has become so saturated with overdetermined and proscriptive meaning that its efficacy in articulating the complexity of life at the margins has been compromised. Language, both academic and creative, has absorbed a sophisticated, quasi-religious trope that is shot through with images and references to 'the sacred', and while purporting to 'help' serves to further silence the lived experience of whole sections of the community already struggling to be heard. My aim is to mine a seam of ...
View more >Reams of words have already been written on (the bodies of) the marginalised. I argue that the language we use to tell stories of difference has become so saturated with overdetermined and proscriptive meaning that its efficacy in articulating the complexity of life at the margins has been compromised. Language, both academic and creative, has absorbed a sophisticated, quasi-religious trope that is shot through with images and references to 'the sacred', and while purporting to 'help' serves to further silence the lived experience of whole sections of the community already struggling to be heard. My aim is to mine a seam of language from the collective imagination that will depict aspects of the real and the now that remain for the most part unspoken, if not unspeakable.
View less >
View more >Reams of words have already been written on (the bodies of) the marginalised. I argue that the language we use to tell stories of difference has become so saturated with overdetermined and proscriptive meaning that its efficacy in articulating the complexity of life at the margins has been compromised. Language, both academic and creative, has absorbed a sophisticated, quasi-religious trope that is shot through with images and references to 'the sacred', and while purporting to 'help' serves to further silence the lived experience of whole sections of the community already struggling to be heard. My aim is to mine a seam of language from the collective imagination that will depict aspects of the real and the now that remain for the most part unspoken, if not unspeakable.
View less >
Journal Title
TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing Courses
Volume
15
Issue
2
Publisher URI
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2011. The attached file is reproduced here in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. For information about this journal please refer to the journal’s website or contact the author.
Subject
Studies in Creative Arts and Writing not elsewhere classified
Performing Arts and Creative Writing