Linzey's First Blog!

ENGL771871-SU2015

Questions for Citizen

July23

Here are some questions/thoughts that I had while reading Rankine.

1. Rankine uses repetition throughout her work, both within individual sections and throughout the entirety of the text. She repeats phrases such as, “What did you say?” or “why…”, “Did you see their faces?” and “blue” imagery, to name a few. What effect does this repetition have on you as a reader? What emotions might the author be trying to evoke from the reader? How might readers with different backgrounds respond differently to these repeated themes?

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2. Rankine says in the interview in Bomb Magazine that “[the images] were placed in the text where I thought silence was needed, but I wasn’t interested in making the silence feel empty or effortless the way a blank page would.” Before this statement she says that the interviewers book, which Rankine borrows the idea from, “offer[s] pathways to consider, sidestep, and groove into disruption.” How did this work for you when you were reading? I found some of the images very relatable to the text read before it, and some not so much. What was your experience with the images? How did they speak to or direct your reading of the text?

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3. Another device used throughout the entire text is the use of the pronoun “you.” This word is used to force the reader to take part in the text. You can no longer just look at the scene being presented, you are center stage. What does this do for or to the reader? Or what does this do for the author?

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4. Another thing that I grappled with while reading was attempting to figure out when one “story” or “poem” ended and the next began. At the end of each page? (not always) at the end of each chapter (they seem to overlap too)? I did not find stories confusing when reading them, I just couldn’t always tell when a new experience was being presented. Is that the point?

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5. One final question that I would love for you all to answer is: Did you find one section or type of writing more moving or powerful than another? For me, the “personal” anecdotes were the most hard hitting, the stories of everyday experiences that were both personal but generic in their repetition within society. What did you think?

by posted under Uncategorized | 1 Comment »    
One Comment to

“Questions for Citizen”

  1. July 26th, 2015 at 10:58 pm      Reply Ms. Amanda Jean Winar Says:

    Hi Lindzey- These are great questions and I’m really interested in #2. I hope we discuss on Monday! -Amanda.


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