Final Paper Topic

March 31, 2015 | 2 Comments

So far this is what I am aiming to present as my final paper…

A girl does not transition into womenhood solely after she attends school then obtains a ‘grown up’ job, love plays a major role. In my paper, I want to write about how a girl transitions into womenhood through her love and sexual experiences which includes many high’s and low’s. The high’s are obviously the undeniable ‘love’ shared by 2 individuals. The low’s consist of the abuse, whether physical or verbal and betrayal. I have a few books in mind thus far…

– ‘Letters to the Men I have Loved’ – book consists of short stories and poems about a woman’s growth through life experiences which includes love, betrayal, sex, children, etc.

– ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ – book centers around two particular women, Mariam and Laila, living in an Afghan society. Mariam is married, however is unable to conceive so she is subject to abuse from her husband who then marries Laila (2nd wife). Laila is in love with another man which comes with juicy drama for later.

– ‘Dictee’ – primarily the ‘love story’ portion of the book that discusses the mother’s relationship with her husband.

– ‘Cleaving’ – Julia’s obsession with her lover and the part of the book where he physically hits her.

In an effort to associate this to the concept of oversharing, I also want to include how some of the events chronicled in the books do not necessarily need to be so vividly described by the author since we can obviously do without.

I am still trying to piece it all together so all suggestions are welcome. Thanks.

-Lisa


Comments

2 Comments so far

  1. Mattheus Oliveira on March 31, 2015 2:20 pm

    Firstly, I think questioning the transitional moment(s) towards womanhood is wonderful topic for discussion. Do you intend to address the biological answer to this question? Periods have long been understood as the moment of entering adulthood for women and I am curious as to how you might read this thinking.

    Secondly, when you suggest:

    “In an effort to associate this to the concept of oversharing, I also want to include how some of the events chronicled in the books do not necessarily need to be so vividly described by the author since we can obviously do without.”

    I am curious about which details you may be referring to. Clearly, you have decided already what details are inappropriate to share. Perhaps an analysis of this judgement would be more appropriate to the course. An observation of im/permissible topics regarding the transition to womanhood would be more relevant.

  2. John Paul Varacalli on April 9, 2015 10:37 pm

    “In an effort to associate this to the concept of oversharing, I also want to include how some of the events chronicled in the books do not necessarily need to be so vividly described by the author since we can obviously do without.”

    Here are just a few of my thoughts. I do agree with the idea that you do not need to be graphic, but you may, in order to connect your paper to oversharing, have to include incidents in your paper which can interpreted by any theoretical reader as an ‘overshare.’ E.g. A man may beat a woman, as in one of your stories, but the incident of the beating does not have to be graphically described. The event of a man beating a woman is probably already an overshare when the incident, formerly a secret, is divulged to others.

    Another opinion I have generated by reading your feedback is that it may be a bad idea to confuse the reader by including ‘transition periods’ in the women’s lives. The women mentioned in Dictee, Cleaving and A Thousand Splendid Sons are grown women, so you may have to focus only on what the stories you mentioned have in common – i.e. that the sex of the characters in the stories are women.

    I am also trying to figure out what thesis you can argue from what you wrote down. It seems that the all the women mentioned in your story are taken advantage of by men. Perhaps you can argue something like: “In patriarchal societies, incidents in which women reveal secrets of their past to others are deemed to be especially potent overshares.”

    You also mentioned ‘highs’ and ‘lows’ at the beginning of your paper. It obviously seems that some of your ‘lows’ are overshares. Are any of the ‘highs’ mentioned in the story overshares? Perhaps you can relate both the ‘highs’ and the ‘lows’ of the women’s relationships to the theme of patriarchy.

Name

Email

Website

Speak your mind

Skip to toolbar