ENCW 306: Fall 2018
Posted in Uncategorized on Sep 28th, 2018
They served themselves, stirring the rice with their forks, squinting as they extracted bay leaves and cloves from the stew. Every few minutes Shukumar lit a few more birthday candles and drove them into the soil of the pot. (Lahiri 621) When we think of candlelit dinners, we normally think of romance, of the beginnings of a relationship. […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Sep 27th, 2018
Freedom in “A Temporary Marriage” & “Woman At Point Zero” These two stories were very interesting, because of the large parallel drawn in regards to what I feel is the main theme of both, which is the women’s freedom. Although both women crave freedom from the traumatic events they were forced to endure, Firdaus […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Sep 27th, 2018
When she came downstairs, Mr. Rhee was preparing snail soybean fermented stew and mung-bean pancakes. Mortified to see a man in a kitchen, she tried to wrench the spatula away, when she remembered where she was. This was America, she reasoned, as Mr. Rhee hugged the spatula. Hadn’t she come to live differently? ( Krys […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Sep 27th, 2018
Tessa Fontaine, who’ll be reading at SBC next week, published this essay in The Believer Magazine. Here’s how the essay begins: The phone is an old rotary with small holes for your fingers. To make a call, guide your number past zero and once you release, it will carry itself back to where it began. […]
Posted in Poetry on Sep 27th, 2018
Apology from a Muslim Orphan by Tarfia Faizullah I know you know how to shame into obedience the long chain tethering lawnmower to fence. And in your garden are no chrysanthemums, no hem of lace from the headscarf I loose for him at my choosing. Around my throat still twines a thin line from when, in […]
Posted in Nawal El Saadawi, Woman at Point Zero on Sep 27th, 2018
There are several prominent differences between Mrs. Shin’s character from “A Temporary Marriage” and Firdaus in A Woman At Point Zero, though these differences seem to come together in the two women to make up a common goal of their own sense of freedom. Mrs. Shin claims that she prefers “a world without men,” a […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Sep 26th, 2018
“You were so angry.” She stood. “I only asked for what I deserved.” – Krys Lee, “A Temporary Marriage” I chose this quote because it shows exactly what abuse does to a person, even after they are free from their abuser. Our main character, Mrs. Shin, has just […]
Posted in Nawal El Saadawi, Woman at Point Zero on Sep 26th, 2018
Nothing is what it seems in “A Temporary Marriage.” Mrs. Shin is searching for her “kidnapped” daughter in America. She involves herself in a fake marriage and claims she is not interested in any type of relationship. Except Mrs. Shin is not a reliable narrator. Her actions are quite different than her words. Mrs. Shin’s attraction to […]
Posted in Nawal El Saadawi, Woman at Point Zero on Sep 26th, 2018
The characters Mrs. Shin in “A Temporary Marriage” and Firdaus in Woman at Point Zero have many similarities. A primary example is that both women live their lives in the remembrance of former sexual pleasures that, for various reasons, cannot be attained again. Mrs. Shin, in particular, is obsessed with her memories of physical abuse during sex and […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Sep 26th, 2018
While reading Krys Lee’s “A Temporary Marriage,” I found myself interested in the patriarchal society of Korea and how that affects families in Korea as well as those who have immigrated to the United States. I decided to look through some of Lee’s interviews on her website, and I found some interesting parallels between Lee’s […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Sep 26th, 2018
I found Krys Lee’s “A Temporary Marriage” more than a little unsettling. On the surface, it is a story about a mother trying to find her daughter and rebuild her life after her divorce. As the story progresses, however, the underlying theme becomes apparent. Mrs. Shin feels intense guilt and responsibility for everything that has […]
Posted in Poetry on Sep 25th, 2018
WWE by Fatimah Asghar Here’s your auntie, in her best gold-threaded shalwaar kameez, made small by this land of american men. Everyday she prays. Rolls attah & pounds the keema at night watches the bodies of these glistening men. Big and muscular, neck full of veins, bulging in the pen. Her eyes kajaled & wide, […]
Posted in Poetry on Sep 25th, 2018
The text below is taken from poets.org: The ghazal is composed of a minimum of five couplets—and typically no more than fifteen—that are structurally, thematically, and emotionally autonomous. Each line of the poem must be of the same length, though meter is not imposed in English. The first couplet introduces a scheme, made up of […]
Posted in Woman at Point Zero on Sep 25th, 2018
In the first half of Woman at Point Zero, readers are met with multiple instances of Firdaus running into the street to escape unfair treatment she was experiencing at the time. This theme is also echoed in the second half of the book after Firdaus escaped into the streets once more: “Nothing in the streets was […]
Posted in Nawal El Saadawi, Woman at Point Zero on Sep 25th, 2018
“And truth is like death in that it kills. When I killed I did it with truth not with a knife. That is why they are afraid and in a hurry to execute me. They do not fear my knife. It is my truth which frightens them. This fearful truth gives me great strength. It […]
Posted in Nawal El Saadawi, Woman at Point Zero on Sep 24th, 2018
Let me cry, I said. But I’ve never seen you cry before. What’s happened? Nothing … Nothing at all. There are two specific moments in Woman at Point Zero that are very similar: one in the first half of the book, with Miss Iqbal, and one in the second half of the book, with Ibrahim. […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Sep 24th, 2018
The most compelling aspect of “A Temporary Marriage” for me is Mrs. Shin’s constant desire to be physically punished for any sort of wrongdoing on her part. In my mind, there are a couple of possible reasons for this. One is Mrs. Shin’s personality; throughout the story, she is demonstrated to be very independent and […]
Posted in Nawal El Saadawi, Uncategorized, Woman at Point Zero on Sep 23rd, 2018
Have you ever fallen in love, Firdaus? No, Wafeya. I have never been in love. Then you are either living a lie or not living at all. –Nawal El Saadawi, Woman at Point Zero Woman at Point Zero is a narrative about a girl who has experienced awful abuse with the ending (I hope) being […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Sep 20th, 2018
Compose a poem, scene, or story in an imaginary museum, one unlike any you’ve ever been in. Your aim is to say something — that is, to have something to say. What is it that you have to say? Why does it matter? Why should we care? Other questions you might ask yourself: What is […]
Posted in Nawal El Saadawi, Woman at Point Zero on Sep 20th, 2018
Do you prefer oranges or tangerines? I really like this question because it marks a turning point in Firdaus’s life. Up until now, her actions have been more reactionary than anything else. If her father wanted dinner, then her whole family had dinner. If her mother wanted her to undergo female circumcision, then she did. If her […]
Posted in Nawal El Saadawi, Woman at Point Zero on Sep 20th, 2018
One of the main themes of Nawal El Saadawi’s Woman at Point Zero is power. Throughout the book, Firdaus fights first to gain, then maintain her autonomy. Her father is the first character that has power over her. Firdaus recalls being forced to wash his legs at the end of each day, and how he […]
Posted in Nawal El Saadawi, Woman at Point Zero on Sep 20th, 2018
I sometimes wonder whether a person can be born twice. (p25) This sentence deserves to be underlined because it is a symbol of what Nawal El Saadawi is doing with this book. The narrator visits a woman named Firdaus who is in prison for a murder and who is going to die for her crime. She […]
Posted in Nawal El Saadawi, Woman at Point Zero on Sep 20th, 2018
How many were the years of my life that went before my body and my self became really mine, to do with them as I wished? How many were the years of my life that were lost before I took my body and my self away from the people who held me in their grasp […]
Posted in Nawal El Saadawi, Woman at Point Zero on Sep 20th, 2018
Woman At Point Zero is a haunting account of the life of Firdaus, a woman imprisoned for murder. The author, Nawal El Saadawi, serves almost as Firdaus’ translator. Although Firdaus is perfectly capable of communicating, she is an incarcerated woman with a tale of woe that men do not want to hear and in some ways […]
Posted in Nawal El Saadawi, Woman at Point Zero on Sep 20th, 2018
I discovered that all these rulers were men. What they had in common was an avaricious and distorted personality, a never-ending appetite for money, sex, and unlimited power. –Firdaus, Woman at Point Zero This novel is about a woman who is sentenced to be hanged after she is […]