>>
>Geraldine: What do you mean about 'the gap has been filled, the case has
>been made?
>In this country we are only just starting to hear the voices of the female
>Aboriginal poets. They all know about a 200 year gap.
>A bigger gap yet to be filled - the voices of women jailed for adultery
>under Islamic fundamentalism and what about the black voices of African
>women who are still today being circumcised?
>
>the case has been made - not likely!
>
>HH
>>
Helen, I appreciate what you're saying, perhaps I should have been a bit
more precise in my post because I think there is a misunderstanding. When I
spoke about a case having been made, I was thinking in terms of the Western
poet (I know this is a problematic term too), responding to your quotation
and a sense of myself, and you, and probably most of the women on this list
(and the men too) being aware of the general nature of so=called female
experience in Western society. You mention Aboriginal women poets, that
seems to me a separate issue and again I'd refer you to historical necessity
- as you pointed out, we are only just starting to hear those voices whereas
Anglo/European/American/ Australian etc. women poets have been exploring
women's issues for over half a century (and that's a pretty conservative
estimate and I'm sure someone will take me to task about it, I hope they
do). However, what might be appropriate for Aboriginal writers is not
necessarily so for someone like you or me. I'm sure, like me, you're aware
of the terrible injustices and traumas suffered by Aboriginals in this
country and there is certainly an impulse to somehow express this - the
thing that holds me back is a sense of the sanctity (is that the right
word?) of their experience, I feel it's theirs to write about, not mine to
use, however good my intentions. Maybe this is wrong. I've no qualms about
adopting the voice of a Bulgarian king, a Luftwaffe officer, just to mention
a few but this is too close to home, must we take everything!
Again, Islamic women, African women - I'd say much the same thing - I
support their right to express their experiences via poetry for the same
reasons. It's a matter of context surely, of history.
Having said all that, I would like to add that there are many poetries
available to us as readers, offering a range of experiences and it's
probably unfair to compare work coming out of vastly different historical
conditions, but, at the risk of being controversial, might it not be true
that poetry which simply conveys a prior experience, however moving that
experience might be, is not really adding much to poetry? It may well
contribute to our knowledge of the world, I'd be the first to argue there
are many stories still to be told, and even stories which have been told but
need to be re-told, but I don't see poetry's first role as telling stories
or expressing emotion. And now I'm speaking as what I am. White middle
class. No point in apologising for that. I have a different agenda to that
of a Third World citizen (male or female) and vice versa.
Geraldine
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