Adrienne Riche Notes Toward a Politics of Location Response Paper
January 12, 2009
ENGL-250-02
American Women Writers
Due Thursday, January 15, 2009
Response Paper I
What does Rich mean by a “politics of location” – and why this concept is important?”
During the beginning of the paper she has mentally placed herself as the centre of an expanding set of landscapes: Adrianne Rich, Western Hemisphere, Earth, Solar System, Universe
Politics of location is not an affirmation of ones own experience as a basis for knowledge. She states that she x’d out a sentence about “Women have always…” This is a really awful thing to say. It makes us as women feel awful if we have not “always”.
On page 215 she writes about the body and I must agree with how it is looked at. People tend to look at scars, damages, fat etc as the body and not really looking beyond the outside layer. When looking at the body many times we do not see past the gender or color of the outer layer. When inside we are all filled with the same things, veins, blood and organs. Men and women of course have their differences, but when it comes to the color of our skin, we are mostly the same. Different treatment towards people does happen due to skin color and gender. When Rich talks about locating in my body “meanings more than understanding what it has meant to me to have ……” I believe she is trying to force us to look at the places we have gone due to our gender and skin color or race and the places that gender, skin color and race do not permit us to be because of these items. Her description of a journey to Nicaragua is both intellectually challenging and beautiful. (Quote – in a tiny…. South, page
ENGL-250-02
American Women Writers
Due Thursday, January 15, 2009
Response Paper I
What does Rich mean by a “politics of location” – and why this concept is important?”
During the beginning of the paper she has mentally placed herself as the centre of an expanding set of landscapes: Adrianne Rich, Western Hemisphere, Earth, Solar System, Universe
Politics of location is not an affirmation of ones own experience as a basis for knowledge. She states that she x’d out a sentence about “Women have always…” This is a really awful thing to say. It makes us as women feel awful if we have not “always”.
On page 215 she writes about the body and I must agree with how it is looked at. People tend to look at scars, damages, fat etc as the body and not really looking beyond the outside layer. When looking at the body many times we do not see past the gender or color of the outer layer. When inside we are all filled with the same things, veins, blood and organs. Men and women of course have their differences, but when it comes to the color of our skin, we are mostly the same. Different treatment towards people does happen due to skin color and gender. When Rich talks about locating in my body “meanings more than understanding what it has meant to me to have ……” I believe she is trying to force us to look at the places we have gone due to our gender and skin color or race and the places that gender, skin color and race do not permit us to be because of these items. Her description of a journey to Nicaragua is both intellectually challenging and beautiful. (Quote – in a tiny…. South, page