MARGINALISED LITERATURE

During our previous class with Dr Edwin last Monday, we discussed about some of the marginalized writing. The first section is one feminist writing, among those written by Erica Jong, Hilary Tham, and Shirley Geok-Lin Lim. Dr Edwin explained that feminist writing is considered as marginalized writing as women’s problem are presented in this kind of writing. Furthermore, women writers were not taken seriously during that time causing them to use male pen name, such as George Eliot who wrote The Mill on the Floss. It is interesting to learn that these female writers wrote poems concerning issues that are related to women’s life such as menstruation (Becoming a Woman), marriage (For My Husband) and also love (The Rose).

Secondly, we learned about Ethnic Minority Groups: Native American Story. We learned something new outside the scope of literature that people who are natives are now called “The First People” as they were the first to open up a settlement in a certain place. We studied the poem Harlem, about “a dream deferred”, where the poet compares “dream” to “a raisin in the sun”, “a sore”, “rotten meat”, “syrupy sweet” and "a heavy load”. The poet uses the literary device of simile to provide a description to the readers about the “dream”.

Both of the writings are interesting to discuss as it opens up a new horizon for me, learning something outside the typical literary texts that I have been studying.