Room Number: TRS 2-164
Join the Meeting: https://ryerson.zoom.us/j/98651640981?pwd=RWs5SjhnbjJLLy9xZU9tdG40N1Q3dz09
Chair: Sarah Olutola (Lakehead U)
Speakers:
Maab Alkurdi (U Waterloo), “Lucy’s Oppression Conveyed”
Onaopemipo Fayose (North-west U), “Apartheid and the Politics of Identity in selected South African Narratives”
Tehmina Pirzada (Texas A & M Qatar), “Girlhood and Narrative Ethics in Home Fire and Girl”
Paper Summaries:
Maab Alkurdi (U Waterloo), “Lucy’s Oppression Conveyed”
With attention to a close reading of the text, I show how Bettina Judd’s “The Inauguration of Experiments: December 1845” (Judd 19) reveals a horrifying practice during the slavery era in America, namely, medical experiments conducted on enslaved female bodies without anesthesia. The poem describes Lucy’s encounter of such violence.
Onaopemipo Fayose (North-west U), “Apartheid and the Politics of Identity in selected South African Narratives”
In South Africa, identity is still a contentious topic, and the spectre of rape looms large, especially from women’s precarity. Rape and racism are common occurrences and societal ills that require a more nuanced examination to find the rainbow nation’s identity difficulties.
Tehmina Pirzada (Texas A & M Qatar), “Girlhood and Narrative Ethics in Home Fire and Girl”
This paper examines the novels Home Fire and Girl through a focus on narrative ethics and girlhood, explicating how the girl protagonists reimagine coming-of-age in a world ruptured by horrific acts of violence committed in the name of state and religion, forcing the girls to use their language as a tactic for survival.