I really enjoyed reading in between the lines of the text and trying to make sense, or rather bring to the forefront of our discussion, the subtext present in his writing. To me, the text read originally as something written by a man who had been made docile and “given up”, so to say (not…
Author: Avani Gupta
Representing The Other First Draft
Avani Gupta Professor Albert FYS 252 December 13, 2023 Is It Really That Hard To Not Be Racist? In 1921, Paramount Pictures released The Sheikh, a silent movie outlining the romance between a white woman and an Arab Sheikh who kidnaps her after falling in love with her at first sight. Throughout the film, we…
Writing Portfolio: Reading Our Colleagues
For this assignment, I looked at the portfolios of Emily Gonzalez, Pamela, and Maya who are all incredible writers in their own ways. Their websites were also aesthetically themed and organized, which admittedly left me a little jealous. I left comments on each of their portfolios, but am summarizing my observations below. Reading Emily’s writing…
Writing Portfolio: Reading Ourselves
Looking back on my writing portfolio was an experience more vulnerable than I was prepared for. I started from the beginning, Me As A Writer. Reading an older piece, albeit only by a few months, about my reasons for writing excited me to write more again. It was like a reminder of my love for…
Reflection: Spooky Literary Night
Halloween Open Mic & Literary Party was hosted by Professor Lonsinger at Hoffman House November 1st. The event was to celebrate writing by reading it out loud. The readings ranged from popular prose such as an excerpt of Frankenstein to original poetry such as my very own reading of my poem Self Portrait as Language….
1001 Nights
Heavy shoulders of heavier boulders carry all the blood loaded into wedding jewelry rubies and ichor dripping off their necks Death spun into embroidery adorns ithyabs hanging like shrouds countless corpse brides one rises from the mass grave The kingdom’s curse may be broken by fables lies spun by red tainted lips the woman a…
Should We Be Reading The Nights?
The Arabian Nights by Husain Haddawy begins with the mention of an adulterous woman, promptly followed by her murder. The set up provides us with context for an entire collection of parables, with the moral being that women are manipulative cheaters who use men for their own means and pleasure. The book has multiple explicit…
Longer Reflection
My assumption walking into this class was that I would be more knowledgeable on the topic than I found myself to be. As arrogant as it admittedly sounds, I believed that I couldn’t possibly learn all that much about a topic I had already done some of my own research on due to my interest…
Reflection: In Conversation with Dacia Maraini
I left the recital hall after the talk given by Dacia Maraini with a lot more knowledge and food for thought than I walked in with- the marker of a successful presentation. Although I admittedly only went for extra credit, I walked out surprised at how she piqued my interest and captured my attention with…
The Marketplace of Agrabah:
A Classist Mockery of the Middle East In the first scene where we see the main character Aladdin on the screen, he is presented as a “street rat” and a thief running away from the soldiers. It is an action-packed scene with Aladdin and his monkey, Abu, cleverly tricking the guards and avoiding them, all…
