Category Archives: Narrative

The Blazing World

I am intrigued by Hustvedt’s tome. At first I thought it was fiction, and then when I read the Editor’s Note I thought, No, this is reality, and then the note was signed by IV Hess, and I went back … Continue reading

Posted in Hearing voices, Multiplicity, Narrative, Siri Hustvedt | 1 Comment

Siri Hudsvedt Brickman/Burden, Maskings & Sincerity

Harriet as Hustvedt’s Alter Ego  I agree with Berni that “I hear in each of the character’s writings, Hustvedt’s voice talking to me.” While reading The Blazing World, it also occurred to me that Harriet might be Hustvedt’s mask or alter … Continue reading

Posted in Multiplicity, Narrative, Siri Hustvedt, Uncategorized | 5 Comments

“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” –Wilde

Hustvedt’s novel centers on the theme of masks, self-awareness, and self-deception, among others. Overall, Harry is offered as an ever-changing multiple, but she is also still somehow singular and knowable. In her diaries, she always wonders about and re-presents her young … Continue reading

Posted in Art & Literature, Multiplicity, Narrative, Siri Hustvedt | 2 Comments

Healing for Hudsvedt, May, Longden

I went to a conference recently and asked Hudsvedt whether she felt that the act of self-representation through writing The Shaking Woman was therapeutic. She said that writing the book was a process of “integrating the unintegratable” and that the … Continue reading

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There Was This Goat.

A disturbing period of racism in our times, coterminous to slavery, Apartheid in South Africa was another way to reject and humiliate part of the human race because of colour. Apartheid has been dissolved for a few decades still it … Continue reading

Posted in Assignments, Mind and Brain, Narrative, Social Relations | 4 Comments

There was this Goat: to Understand and Live with Mrs. Konile

1. When I read Mrs. Konile’s testimony before TRC, it reminded me of Cassandra in Aeschylus’s Agamemnon, who prophesies her and Agamemnon’s death in a language full of broken flashes and metaphors to an extent that the chorus she is … Continue reading

Posted in Krog, Narrative | 5 Comments

Paradox in There was this Goat

After reading a few pages of this text, I thought the authors must have titled the book “There Was This Goat” because of the phrase’s randomness. I thought it indicated the unknowability of Mrs. Konile’s story. On page 47, however, … Continue reading

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Discussion Questions: There was this Goat

First of all, I could not help but compare the book with my own experience as a former journalist and how the mundane job of transcribing and translating could, in this book, become the central task out of which an … Continue reading

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P2) Premature ponderings

p2) Describe how your research topic builds on or contributes to some conversation about the origins, meanings, or functions of selfhood. What other thinkers, scholars, or writers are part of this conversation? My research topic is about looking at how … Continue reading

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random 25

Looking at the water travel down the street makes me wonder where it goes.   I suppose I’m not that curious because I could probably look it up or explore it further by foot but I don’t.   The golden … Continue reading

Posted in Assignments, Narrative, Uncategorized | 3 Comments