{"id":410,"date":"2020-04-03T16:45:37","date_gmt":"2020-04-03T20:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/?p=410"},"modified":"2020-04-03T16:45:37","modified_gmt":"2020-04-03T20:45:37","slug":"punishment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/2020\/04\/03\/punishment\/","title":{"rendered":"Punishment"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are currently reading Toni Morrison\u2019s Beloved<\/em> in one of my classes and an image we discussed relates to this class so well. Super general plot \u2013 The story follows Sethe who escapes with her children from a plantation in Kentucky. In our class discussion we talked about how Sethe\u2019s womb can be compared to the Atlantic Ocean. When Sethe\u2019s water breaks in the story, the pool of water is compared directly to the ocean. We discussed how like the Atlantic, the womb delivers babies to a life in slavery. The novel likens the ocean \u2013 the womb \u2013 to a grave. I thought this was really interesting to think about in our discussions about the Atlantic world. Beloved<\/em> considers that the Atlantic Ocean and its history is so deeply rooted in Sethe that she carries it when she is carrying her baby.<\/p>\n

Seamus Heaney\u2019s Punishment<\/em> was a difficult read for me this week for multiple reasons. One is the question also addressed by Julian in his blog post about whether Heaney\u2019s perspective about the continuity of suffering gives reason for the one inflicting suffering. Another reason was Heaney\u2019s description of the female bog bodies – this was really difficult to read. He sexualized these tortured bodies, describing their nipples and naked front. He calls the bodies \u201cMy<\/em> poor scapegoat\u201d and say that he \u201calmost love[d]\u201d the woman. Heaney also shows understanding with the exact<\/em> revenge wanted by the perpetrator of the act, showing his want for power and ownership over the bog body.<\/p>\n

Heaney wrote poetry at a critical time in Ireland\u2019s history. It is important to study and remember The Troubles and specifically the bog bodies. But in my opinion, Heaney\u2019s narration and the way he wrote history in this poem is disgusting. Writing about the women who were tarred in feathered in a sexualizing way is problematic and abhorrent. What are other\u2019s thoughts? Do you see value to Heaney\u2019s poems in remembering and capturing the history of The Troubles<\/em> and the bog bodies taking into account the way they are described? Did you find a similar difficulty in reading?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are currently reading Toni Morrison\u2019s Beloved in one of my classes and an image we discussed relates to this class so well. Super general plot \u2013 The story follows Sethe who escapes with her children from a plantation in Kentucky. In our class discussion we talked about how Sethe\u2019s womb can be compared to … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Punishment”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3675,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433532],"tags":[436238,436530,433640,436082],"class_list":["post-410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-troubles","tag-atlantic","tag-bog-bodies","tag-heaney","tag-punishment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3675"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":412,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410\/revisions\/412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}