Title:Now We Are Six

Author: A.A. Milne

Illustrator: Ernest H. Shepard

Publisher and Date: London: Methuen 1927 (Norwich: Jarrold and Sons, Ltd.)

Edition: First

Physical Description:

Now We Are Six has a dark maroon cloth binding with gilt spine lettering and top edges. The front cover has a gilt stamped design, which depicts Christopher Robin at play.

The back cover is bare except for a small gilt stamped drawing in the bottom right hand corner, which shows Winnie the Pooh and Piglet purchasing “tikits” at a counter.

The book is composed of eight distinct bundles of pages which are noted within the text by a small number on the left hand side of the page. The first page in Now We Are Six (front inside cover) contains a set of ten drawings which are identical to those printed on the end pages.

The drawings appear to have been stamped in dark blue ink and depict the various playtime activities of Christopher Robin.

The pages in Now We Are Six are thick and yellowing from age. The advertisement is the first text to appear in the book (the title is only listed on the spine not the cover) and includes a list of books by the same author and illustrator. Across from the advertisement, the title page includes the title, author, and illustrator all listed in capitalized block letters. In the center of the title page is a black ink stamping of Christopher Robin and below this sketch the page contains the publishing information.

On the back (recto) of the title page, the publication date (1927) and location (Great Britain) are included. The next page contains the dedication, which reads:

The dedication further highlights the childhood whimsy with which this book was constructed.

The dedication is followed by the introduction in which A. A. Milne explains to the reader that he has been writing this book for three years and that now, at the time of its publication, he is six. Obviously this is not factually accurate because Milne was a grown man when he wrote Now We Are Six, but it does perpetuates the whimsy of the story. The introduction also contains a P.S. to tell the reader that the beloved Pooh has become confused and has wandered his way into this book by accident. This fanciful idea of incorporating Pooh was wise because not only does it give the audience a familiar character to latch onto but as the most beloved bear in England (sorry Paddington), Pooh serves as a form of advertising for Milne and Shepard. The table of contents is arranged by poem title and corresponding page.

The body of Now We Are Six is composed of playful children’s poems by Milne intertwined with sketches stamped in black ink by Shepard. The last page of the book contains an image of Christopher Robin, Winnie the Pooh, and Piglet dancing in a circle.

The book contains no colophon but does have a note on the last page indicating who the book was printed by and where. The end pages contain the same blue ink drawings as described above. On the back cover, the reader has one final glace of Pooh and Piglet as they buy “tikits” for their next great adventure.

Author Biography: Alan Alexander (A. A.) Milne was born in London during the winter of 1882. After graduating from Cambridge with a degree in mathematics and serving in the army during World War I, Milne began writing plays and poems. In 1924 he published a book of children’s poems with illustrations by Shepard, which included the mention of a pesky bear with a rather tubby tummy. Winnie the Pooh subsequently appeared in many of Milne’s works including Now We Are Six. In 1928 Milne retired Pooh, although he did continue writing other stories. After a long period of sickness, Milne died in the winter of 1956.

Illustrator Biography: Ernest Shepard was born in 1876 into an artistically inclined family. Shepard’s mother was an accomplished watercolor painter and she encouraged his artistic abilities. As a young adult he contributed to the same literary journal Punch as Milne and the pair were later introduced through mutual friends. Although at first Milne wasn’t impressed with Shepard’s artwork, he eventually changed his mind and the two formed a strong literary partnership. At the age of ninety Shepard donated 300 of his Pooh sketches to the Victoria & Albert Museum; he died shortly after in 1976.

History of the Book: Now We Are Six was the third book A. A. Milne and Ernest Shepard published. The book was an immediate success and due to public demand the publishers produced a limited number (300) of signed editions of Now We Are Six. One of these now resides in the Davison Rare Books Room after being donated by Wilbur L. Fugate.

Other Tidbits of Interest: The lasting literary collaboration between Milne and Shepard is a wonderful testament to the power of a concept. The loveable stuffed bear Winnie the Pooh, a character brought to life by the pens of both men, has endured. Although Pooh actually appeared in very few of Milne’s books, the bear lived on in spinoff stories, Disney movies, and the imaginations of children. I scrolled through the collection of sketches of Winnie the Pooh that Shepard donated to the Victoria & Albert, including some of the preliminary drawings from Now We Are Six .

What struck me was the imaginative depth conveyed via the sketches about Christopher Robin, Winnie the Pooh, and their other stuffed friends.

The misadventures of Winnie the Pooh characterized my childhood and drew me to this specific book in the rare book room. The whimsy of childhood is central to the format, text, and images in Now We Are Six. Milne was once quoted saying that he did not create books for children but rather for the child within all of us and I would argue that he indeed achieved this goal.

 

Word Count: 997

Works Cited

“A.A. Milne.” Just Pooh News. Web. 06 Feb. 2016. <http://www.just-pooh.com/milne.html>.

“Ernest H. Shepard, Illustrator.” Pooh Corner. Web. 04 Feb. 2016. <http://www.poohcorner.com/Ernest-H.-Shepard-Illustrator.html>.

Jenkyns, Richard. “True Pooh.” The New Republic 203.16 (15 Oct. 1990): 50-53. Rpt. in Children’s Literature Review. Ed. Gerard J. Senick. Vol. 26. Detroit: Gale, 1992.             Literature Resource Center. Web. 8 Feb. 2016.

“Now We Are Six; Sketches.” Now We Are Six; The Morning Walk. Victoria & Albert Museum. Web. 04 Feb. 2016. <http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O561175/now-we-are-six-the-drawing-shepard-e-h/>.

“Now We Are Six, A.A Milne. First Edition,1927. Peter Harrington Rare Books.” Peter             Harrington. Peter Harrington, London. Web. 07 Feb. 2016.             <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ_FuS4_XXw>.

“Overview: Now We Are Six.” Gale Online Encyclopedia. Detroit: Gale, 2016. Literature Resource Center. Web. 8 Feb. 2016.

Drawing Parallels through Close Reading

Picasso’s 1907 masterpiece, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon features five prostitutes from the red light district of Barcelona contorting their bodies: two of the women raise their arms to expose their breasts while another one of the prostitutes spreads her legs apart wide. The women are eroticised and exoticised. The women’s faces, especially the ones on the right side of the painting, were modeled after African and Oceanic masks, which aligns with the growing interest in the time period of exploring “the primitive strata” (DuPlessis 669). The women communicate through vulgar body language and, unlike Cummings or Picasso, are unable to master higher forms of expression.The original sketches of Demoiselles depicted male clients observing the women. Picasso later removed them and symbolically replaced the male figures with a still life of fruit on a table (Golding 156). This change allows the viewer to stand in for the role of the male customer who surveys the prostitutes. This further emphasizes the power of the male gaze: a man does not even need to present for is stare to be felt. Picasso’s work has been received as one of the most important paintings of the 20th century, placing Picasso as a central figure in the canon of modern art (Museum of Modern Art 1999).

EE Cummings’s poem XXIII is a response to Picasso’s painting. In his poem, Cummings further accentuates the painting’s sexual overtones by shedding light on the apparently invisible: the dominating physical presence of the male body and the overpowering sounds of female pleasure. The “john,” not physically present in Picasso’s painting, appears in Cummings’ poem in the phallic “bulge” and “grunting lungs” (Cummings 4). The prostitutes, central to the painting, only appear in the poem through the sounds of female hysteria: “shrill” (5) and pleasure “shrieking” (14). Cummings poem is an apostrophe to Picasso which puts him in direct dialogue with the male creator of a scene centered around female sexuality and male desire. Cummings praises Picasso for being an axe which creates “from/whose living and biggest/bodies lopped/of every/prettiness” (19-23). Cummings also references Picasso and his artistic greatness in the line “Lumberman of the Distinct” (16). Picasso and Cummings are both eminent 20th century creatives, Picasso being the supreme artist and Cummings the defining poet. Their discussion furthers the male driven dialogue about the female body.

Removing and/or Appropriating the Male Gaze

Picasso set his painting in a brothel, a scene which is aggressive and privileges the male gaze (Chave 598). Although the women may not represent the typical fetishized female nude, the female body is clearly on display for the eyes of the customer. Neither Picasso nor Cummings voice the female experience. For our recreation of their art, we decided to remove and/or appropriate the male gaze. The goal of this move was to empower and humanize the female experience through the women in the brothel.

The  artwork that we created intentionally features three different mediums of art: photography, graphic design, and drawing. The three mediums mirror the individuality of the renderings. The graphic design places one of the women in a museum next to  her own portrait as well as a portrait of Cummings. This position allows the women to view herself from outside of the constraints that Picasso placed her in and emphasizes the triangular relationship between poet, women, and painter. The drawing removes the cubist/avant garde elements of the artwork which forced the women to be vehicles to push artistic limits. Instead, the women are sketched in a manner that gives them the liberty to come or go as they please.

The photograph shows a women inserting a tampon. This photo gives insight into the day to day lives of all women. It also strives to reclaim the posture of the prostitute with her legs spread wide, because they are not spread for male pleasure. Menstruation inherently allows the female to embrace her sexuality and  body without the  shadow of the male gaze. All three images allow the women to reclaim with body and their voice.

Each image has an accompanying poem, of which our goal was to further empower the female as a subject in poetry and art. The poem appears in three distinct sections which mirror the three distinct women intentionally created to not blur into the singular category of “prostitute” or “women.” The poem progresses from “you” and “I” to “she,” which allows for individuality but also invites the reader into the universal female experience.

Word Count: 746

I.

You hew form truly

My angular robust thighs

My impervious lascivious stare

The promise of copulation looming
over the indifferent plate of fruit

You hew desire truly
You hew sound truly

My shrieking cries of pleasure

My primitive jerks

The perpetual threat that you might hear words buried in my screams

You hew silence truly

II.

He says you are an attack

a surge of aggression

you force your flesh on him

yet you are employed by his desire

Still fearsome and awesome
liberated from the male appetite now

The john is gone, the fruit is gone

leave the chartered streets of Avignon (if you wish)

III.

She sits bearing

her weight on her strong right thigh

and leans over clutching her stomach

as long blonde hair falls

into her eyes.

She holds the tiny blue cotton torpedo

at just the right pelvic angle

waiting for it to enter her body and stop

the blood which runs down her leg in the shower

every month and reminds her what it means

to be woman, to bleed and bleed—

like a snake shedding herself

from within.

 

Works Cited

Chave, Anna C. “New Encounters with Les Demoiselles D’Avignon: Gender, Race, and the Origins of Cubism.” The Art Bulletin (1994): n. pag. 09 May 2014. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.

Cummings, E.E. Picasso (XXIII). 1923.

Duplessis, Rachel Blau. “”HOO, HOO, HOO”: Some Episodes in the Construction of Modern Whiteness.” American Literature 67.4 (1995): 667-700. JSTOR. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.

Golding, John. “The ‘Demoiselles D’Avignon’” The Burlington Magazine 100.662 (1958): 154-63. Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd. Web. 24 Feb. 2016.

 

Project Reflection

We worked very well together as a group. We all contributed to the close reading of the E.E. Cummings poem and a close analysis of the Picasso painting. Sam had notes on the painting from her art history class, which was very helpful. Vita talked with Dr. Churchill to make sure that we were moving in the right direction with our analysis and project. For the creative part of the project, we each took one figure from the painting and re-imagined that woman either without the influence of the male gaze or in a manner which appropriated the male gaze. We intentionally worked individually on this so that our distinct voices and perspectives could mirror the purpose of the assignment. Katie worked to edit and mesh the analysis for each of the new pieces of art.

If we faced any challenges, then it would just have been the stress of midterms week. However, we worked well together by utilizing googledoc to share ideas and working strategically during meetings to complete our objectives. We all really enjoyed working together on this process especially watching the cohesion of our individual ideas. We are proud of incorporating a creative aspect in addition to our analysis and are pleased with the final product. Overall, we were stronger as a group because of our ability of build on each other’s ideas to create an interesting and nuanced project.

The Act of Erasure

“Does not everything depend on our interpretation of the silence around us?”

Lawrence Durrell

Erasure Poetry

“Every something is an echo of nothing.” John Cage 

 The meaning of a poem flows from the author’s choice of form, words, and imagery. The poetry traditionally read and studied in the Western World has been written by straight, white, male European poets, which reflects a rather narrow scope of meaning and experience. The rise of modern and postmodern poetry with new forms, words, imagery and meaning has made the genre of poetry more inclusive and given the marginalized powerful literary vehicles to express themselves.

One new subgenre of poetry that has emerged is the erasure poem. An erasure poem uses a preexisting text as the word bank to form a poem by erasing or adding words from the original text. Although it could be argued that all poetry is a form of erasure, since the poet chooses which words to speak and which are silenced, erasure poetry brings this process emphatically to the surface (Macdonald).

Every poem “inevitably ends up as artifact” (Macdonald). Poems are shaped and interpreted based upon the conventions of a certain time period. For example, Rudyard Kipling wrote “White Man’s Burden” to honor Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee and to celebrate the strength and reach of the British Empire. Applying a modern analysis to this poem, however, reveals its harsh, imperialist sentiments and paternalistic vision of Western nations.

The poet and artist who pioneered the erasure subgenre of poetry is Tom Phillips in his book “A Humument.” Phillips’ inspiration for erasure began in 1966 when he purchased a novel, A Human Document by W.H. Mallock, for three pence. Using this novel as a starting point, Phillips created his first and most enduring erasure book, a project that spanned four decades (tomphillips.co.uk).

As a postmodernist form of poetry, erasure naturally challenges genre conventions. Since erasure poetry is by definition generated beginning with another text, some of the words remain “to some extent, beyond reproof, sacred and inviolable” (Macdonald). The generally accepted convention suggested by Robert Lee Brewer states that if less than fifty percent of the text is removed, then the poem veers more into the realm of plagiarism and does not represent a new literary work. An erasure poet retains enough of the original text to suggest an opaque meaning, but must then must redress or reform the text so that a new voice and an often contrary meaning emerges (Macdonald). Moreover, erasure poems emphasize the visual on the page not just the text’s original meaning. For example, the white space on the page represents that which remains unsaid or could not be voiced historically and can be as important as the words that remain (Muller-Zettelmann and Rubik).

Erasure symbolizes the historical silencing of some voices and the privileges granted to others. This reality and fear of being silenced has larger historical implications and taps into our fear of the “threatened erasure of us all” (Muller-Zettelmann and Rubik). Therefore, it is perhaps not surprising that erasure poems have emerged as a powerful form of activist poetry.

Since the emergence of erasure poetry, different poets have transformed the root text to create their poem using different approaches. Phillips wrote his early erasure by “focus[ing]…on the covering up or masking of Mallock’s original work, a process which, by its very nature, allows for a considerable range of creative variation” (Macdonald). For example, on this page  from the book, Phillips covers the original text with a deep blue color and leaves only certain words to form an innovative poetic form and then outlines the remaining words to create a cascading effect of words across the page.                               

Unlike other erasure poets who actively engage with the text, Phillips approaches “the page as both palette and canvas, he draws from this verbose Victorian novel a sparse and intricate poem, seemingly carved from the very visions he himself has superimposed” (Macdonald). Thus, Phillips creates a unique new poetic form and poem from the words and even pages of a traditional novel, transforming its meaning for his purposes and finding his voice to give a contrary meaning to the original.

Another word artist, Mary Reufle, takes this approach even further by completely ignoring the text on the source page. (Reufle). Reufle believes that erasure poetry is a form of writing in which the author strings together words on a specific page by removing some words and linking the remaining together without reading the story on the page before beginning the erasure (Reufle).

Activist erasure poets often write poems that dialogue posthumously with writers to highlight inequities or inconsistencies of the past or dialogue about current social issues. These erasure poets typically take the opposite approach of poets such as Phillips and Reufle who generally ignored the actual meaning of the original text. Kabe Wilson, for example, rearranged Virginia Woolf’s famous novel “A Room of One’s Own” into a new work of literature entitled “Of One Woman or So.” In this rearranged and re-imagined novel, Wilson draws attention to “ historical changes between 1929 and the present day” (Flood).

 

Wilson reveals the tensions of the past and “cultural changes in race, sex, class, and the role and power of literature” (Flood) that has taken place since Woolf wrote.  At the time it was written, “A Room of One’s Own” was cutting edge as a novel written by a woman; however, Wilson pushes this message further with discussions of privilege, class, and race. Wilson takes the opportunity to dialogue with Woolf about the power of literature and the importance of the voice of the author. This approach to erasure poetry empowers voices of those who have been silenced throughout the broad history of literature and the medium of poetry.

Although erasure poetry represents a relatively recent subgenre of poetry, it operates and engages within the historical tradition of poetry with its ever-changing forms to express new meanings. In particular, erasure poetry uses the power of erasure to reorient the context of a poem. The power of the poet is the power of erasure—that power to choose what voices are heard and what voices are silenced within each poem.

 

Erasure of Women 

“A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.” Gloria Steinem 

Although the genre of erasure poetry is a relatively new form of expression, the discussion of erasure, and in particular the silencing of women in literature and society, is not new. The feminist movement emerged out of this discussion and created a space for public dialogue and a forum for women to be heard. Being a woman is to “understand what it means to feel erased…paid attention to in extreme…” (Murphy).

The Bechdel Test is one measure that has been created to highlight the erasure of women in one particular art form–movies. It provides an analytic framework to determine if women have been equitably represented in the genre, specifically popular culture movies produced in Hollywood. For a movie to pass the Bechdel Test it must adhere to “three rules: (1) it has to have at least two (named) women in it, (2) who talk to each other, (3) about something other than a man” (bechdeltest.com). Perhaps not surprisingly, the number of movies that pass the Bechdel Test is remarkably small considering how many are produced. This demonstrates that the silencing of woman from substantive matters continues in popular culture.Looking to literature, similar bleak results emerge for the representation of women. Written language like film has the “power to subordinate and exclude women” (Butler 36). For example, much of the traditional analysis surrounding Robert Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess” focuses on the compelling and eloquent character of the Duke yet disregards his control over, abuse of, and then murder of his wife. The arrogant Duke believes that “the world revolves around him simply because he has ‘a nine-hundred-years-old name’” (bbc.co.uk). Although the reader recognizes the Duke’s arrogance, he is still the only one who speaks. The Duchess, sadly and surprisingly, has no voice at all. Erasure poetry ensures that women like the Duchess can and do speak.

Speaking the words and hearing the voice of such silenced women in literature is critical for if we do not hear these women, then we “postpone the concrete and contemporary task of rethinking subversive possibilities for gender and identity within the terms of power itself” (Butler 42). Thus, erasure literature and poetry, in particular, move us forward in this revelation. A particularly problematic genre of literature which silences women and requires an examination so we can rethink gender and identity is: the etiquette guide.

 

Etiquette Guides for Women

“For a lady to run across the street…is inelegant and dangerous.” Walter R. Houghton

 The etiquette guide is a particularly problematic literature genre which erases women by prescribing an “acceptable” way to act and be.   Etiquette guides assume that women “are effortlessly thin, beautiful, silent, fuckable, baby-making wives” (Murphy). One guide offers the following advice: “a lady ought to adopt a modest and measured gait; to… hurry injures the grace which ought to characterize her” (Thornwell). Although it is easy to dismiss these guides as antiquated, many versions still persist today. Ironically, women often write these guides, calling them a “women” or “feminist” guide which, ironically, perpetuates the erasure of women by women. Unfortunately this new form of etiquette guide does not lead to female empowerment but continues to perpetuate the erasure of women through their stringent conduct rules.

It is important to remember that “[Feminism] is not about framing misogyny as empowerment because it makes us feel better. It is a movement” (Murphy). Unfortunately, there persists an “unspoken rule all young female journalists and writers [are] to follow: keep it light, keep it sexy, don’t dare to move beyond the Twitter mantras that passed for “feminism” these days” (Murphy).

These guides continue to focus on the socially acceptable rules that young women must follow. Often these suggestions for conduct are overtly sexist and usually heteronormative in the advice. As one feminist explains, “little girls should be seen and not heard applies no less frequently to grown women today, despite our claims that we’ve come such a long way” (Murphy). Ironically, these women giving advice to women continue to perpetuate feminine stereotypes in society. For example, a Google search pulled up covers of most of these guides with stereotypically pink coversand overtly feminine fonts.

 These guides silence many, especially marginalized women, defining what it means to be female, to act appropriately and to live productively in society. These guides thus limit women by imposing stringent rules such as: “in order to have its full effect, beauty must be natural, and connected with perfect health” (Thornwell). These women’s guides, despite their claims, provide no progress towards women’s rights and liberty.

As Judith Butler said: “if there is no recourse of a ‘person,’ a ‘sex,’ or a ‘sexuality’ that escapes the matrix of power and discursive relations that effectively produce and regulate the intelligibility of those concepts for us, what constitutes the possibility of effective inversion, subversion, or displacement within the terms of a constructed identity?” (44). These books elevate the perspective of straight, white women with little regard for those who fall outside of this narrow category. This at its root is erasure and “new erasure is the same as the old, but this time they’re calling it ‘feminism,’ a kind of ‘feminism’ that is not only detached from the global feminist movement, but that actively works against it” (Murphy).

 

Erasure Poetry in “The Her Campus Guide to College Life”

“Collegiette is a term we like to use for a college woman who is on top of her game—strategically career minded, distinctly fashionable, socially connected, academically driven, and smartly health-conscious.” Stephanie Lewis

 In addition to identifying and analyzing the problem of erasure of women in literature of the past and the current women’s guides, my project uses to the genre of erasure poetry to insert a feminist perspective into a text that acts silences women even while trying to provide a voice to women. Since erasure poetry allows the author to engage in a dialogue with the words on the page, I choose the pages of “The Her Campus Guide to College Life,” one of the modern women’s contemporary etiquette guides. Although the guide has some positive attributes–mentioning contemporary problems such as campus safety, the rise of eating disorders in college, and the importance of healthy relationships—it has some major faults.

For example, the visual appearance of the book suggests erasure from the cover alone. The words “Her Campus” are topped with a pink crown on one end and a pink graduation cap on the other. In fact, the entire cover is pink, black, and white. The back cover begins “from dating to internships—everything you need to know about college” as if getting a man and a job are the only important parts of becoming a woman. The important subjects mentioned above are clumped together on the back cover as “the unfortunate scary parts that sometimes come with it” which arguably minimizes the experience of many women in college which is not positive or safe.

The collegiate guide focuses on maintaining a bubbly optimism about college but fails to engage with many serious and important issues for women entering college. In the section on sexual assault for example, the book suggests a variety of tips and states “by exercising responsible behaviors, you should be able to go out and drink with your friend or go on a date without living in fear of sexual assault” (40).

First, no woman should live in fear of sexual assault. Second, the reality is that one in four college women will be assaulted during their time on campus. Third, it is never their fault even if they have exercised irresponsible behaviors. This advice firmly places the onus for preventing sexual assault on the shoulders of a woman who is not culpable for an assault. Thus, the guide fails to remind women that sexual assault is never their fault and the suggestions perpetuate victim blaming. This erases and invalidates the feelings and experiences of women in college who are survivors of sexual assault.

In the chapter on dining, exercising, and eating disorders in college, the sections provide advice on “how to eat healthy in the dining hall,” “healthy foods to keep in your dorm room,” “eating healthy on the go.” While being healthy is good, the chapter avoids discussing body type and/or the pressure to stay thin in college. Issues surrounding disordered eating habits are made extreme through the discussion of severe eating disorders with no nuance. The back cover entices the reader to open the book by saying, “beat the freshman fifteen without having to give up dessert.” The lack of an honest discussion surrounding eating disorders and body image in college erases the perspectives of many women who struggle deeply with these issues.

Erasure poetry in its activist form can provide, in this instance, women with a voice to rise above the prescribed behaviors and imposed identity of literature of the past and present. Erasure poetry provides a literature form to provide anew voice so that women might speak and be heard, especially the marginalized. This book contains erasure poetry scattered throughout it, helping me find my voice and hopefully speaking for those who have been silenced.

This book has been a private form of erasure exploration between a single reader and this specific text. The poems written are not like those of Reufle and Phillips, which work with traditional poems and literature and create new meaning without reference to the original, but more like the work of Abe who directly dialogues with the text. I have intentionally used a variety of symbolic colors to enhance the message of the poem. At times I let the remaining text on the page peek out and at other times I completely blocked it out.

From the part of the book describing tips for women in college about sexual assault, I have chosen to highlight the problematic use of diction in the section. I titled the poem “Victim Blame” and have used a form of erasure that looks like redacted text from confidential documents (41).

This style represents the harsh comments that can be made to survivors of sexual assault. In a light yellow I have written a partner poem to the erasure, which states, “it is not your fault ever.” The yellow represents hope and comfort in the midst of the harsh black lines.

I have another short erasure poem entitled “Consent” in the section of the book on sex, which simply reads “no no no sex” (183). 

 

The discussion on the page is specifically about “friends with benefits” in which I believe the mention of consent in this context is especially important. The text is blotted out in purple and the words and outlined in red because these are the colors for sexual assault awareness.

The sections from the “Her Campus College Guide” on eating and exercise contain many problematic discussions about how to and how to not eat in college. I have subverted the negativity surrounding eating with an erasure poem about finding a balance in diet and food while in college (66). The poem titled, “How To Eat” intentionally removes all food and diet related words such as calories and fat under the light blue markers but does not fully erase them as a subtle reminder of the negativity often underlying discussions of food.This re-imagined etiquette guide does engage in short conversations related to mental health but lacks an amount of depth and honesty about what many of these conditions feel like. I chose to focus on the short section surrounding anxiety (113). The page is erased with a series of chaotic black squiggles, which represent a heightened state of mental chaos and panic. I blocked off the words in thick black ink and sometimes this bleeds into the word to emphasize the pervading effect of anxiety on the mind and body. The poem is a choppy set of words and emotions and culminates in the word “help” which I have colored in red.

The goal of this poem is to subvert the neat and tidy image of mental heath between the pink and white pages to reveal the internal state of being that accompanies anxiety.

These choices reflect the different forms of erasure that occur in college for women. The  poems in this post do not represent the entirety of my creative work on this project and I encourage you to look for the guide outside of Dr. Churchill’s office to peruse the embedded erasures at your own leisure. Hopefully, the poems that I added will work to subvert the antifeminist messages found between the pink and white pages. Furthermore, hopefully they will engage with the reader in a more honest dialogue about the real, gritty issues that effect many women in college today.

 

Works Cited

“Bechdel Test Movie List.” Bechdel Test. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2016. http://bechdeltest.com>.

Brewer, Robert Lee. “Erasure and Blackout Poems: Poetic Forms | What Are They?” WritersDigest.com. Writer’s Digest, 20 Nov. 2014. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. <http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/erasure-and-blackout-poems-poetic-forms>.

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, 1990. Print.

Cooney, Brian C. “Nothing Is Left Out.” Journal of Modern Literature 37.3 (2014): 16-33. Project MUSE. Web. 07 Apr. 2016. <http://muse.jhu.edu/article/556563/pdf>.

Flood, Alison. “Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own Remixed to Form New Story.” The Guardian. N.p., 26 Feb. 2014. Web. 11 Apr. 2016. <http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/26/virginia-woolf-a-room-of-ones-own-kabe-wilson-of-one-woman-or-so>.

“Good Manners for Young Ladies, 1859.” Good Manners for Young Ladies, 1859. Eyewitness to History, n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2016. <http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/ladiesetiquette1859.htm>.

Jennings, David. “Tom Phillips – Biography.” Tom Phillips – Biography. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2016. <http://www.tomphillips.co.uk/about>.

Kelner, Nicole. “A Young Woman’s Etiquette Guide to Coding.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 5 Oct. 2015. Web. 23 Apr. 2016. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nicole-kelner/a-young-womans-etiquette-guide-to-coding_b_8246626.html>.

Lewis, Stephanie Kaplan., Windsor Hanger. Western, and Annie Chandler. Wang. The Her Campus Guide to College Life: How to Manage Relationships, Stay Safe and Healthy, Handle Stress, and Have the Best Years of Your Life! N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

Macdonald, Travis. “A Brief History of Erasure Poetics.” Jacket 38. N.p., 2009. Web. 09 Apr. 2016. <http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/erasure-and-blackout-poems-poetic-forms>.

Müller-Zettelmann, Eva, and Margarete Rubik. Theory into Poetry: New Approaches to the Lyric. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2005. Print.

Murphy, Meghan. “Erasure.” Feministcurrent.com. N.p., 11 Dec. 2015. Web. 18 Apr. 2016. <http://www.feministcurrent.com/2015/12/11/erasure/>.

Reuefle, Mary, and Fernando Pessoa. “On Erasure.” ON ERASURE (n.d.): n. pag. Web.

“Robert Browning: My Last Duchess.” English Literature. BBC, 2014. Web. 23 Apr. 2016. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/poetrycharactervoice/mylastduchessrev4.shtml>.

Sasaki, Frederick. From Snow City. 2011. N.p.

 

Word Count: 3,158