Discussion #2: Shockley

Please read the following 3 texts and write a ~300 word response.
You’re welcome to respond using any of the guiding questions below. You can also bring up your own thoughts and questions.
You do not need to answer all of the questions.
Your response should demonstrate a thoughtful engagement with the texts.

Then, respond to TWO other student posts. Your responses should be at least ~75 words and engage with their ideas–perhaps they brought up a new perspective or understanding of the text that you’d like to say more about, or perhaps they posed a question about something they were curious or confused about that you’d like to respond to. You’re welcome to disagree or contradict, but do so respectfully and carefully.
From M. Nourbese Philip’s She Tries Her Tongue, Her Silence Softly Breaks:
Evie Shockley, “Forward”
Nourbese Philip, “Discourse on the Logic of Language”
Nourbese Philip, “She Tries Her Tongue, Her Silence Softly Breaks”
What do you notice about how Philip’s poems look on the page? What is your experience of reading them?
What do you think Philip is saying about the English language in her poems?How does she show the struggle of learning to speak and shift a colonizer’s language?
What are some of the different ways she plays with language as she interrogates it?

How do Shockley and Philip connect the English language with its violent history of colonization and enslavement? Give an example.
What is a discourse?How does Philip show the discourse that is occurring in “Discourse on the Logic of Language”? Pay attention to how the text is arranged on the page.
Whose voices seem to be present, and what techniques does she use to make them distinct from each other?

In the poem “She Tries Her Tongue Her Silence Softly Breaks,” Philip includes excerpts from other text sources. What kinds of sources are these?Choose one or two—how does the added text relate to what Philip is writing? Why do you think she included it?
How does its meaning seem to change when placed alongside her writing?

What else did you notice about the reading? What questions do you have?