Sunday, December 6, 2015
The power of Citizen
While reading Citizen, I realized that this was no ordinary poetry book about race. In the past I have read a lot of literature about race in America, and it has always been either in traditional nonfiction books or obscured in poetry. Citizen makes no attempt to obscure its meanings and stories about race, it is right out in the open which is very refreshing and rather nice. I like how Claudia Rankine tells stories that are from her own personal experiences or experiences that she has lived through that offer a more contemporary take on race and racism in the U.S. It becomes much easier to understand the discrimination. I also appreciate the pictures she puts throughout the book which add a nice touch of color and meaning. I like how Rankine draws you into the experience and then leaves you hanging to make your own decision or conclusion.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree. I really love Rankine's writing and how she writes in a way that is both prose and poetry. I also really like the pictures--they really add another level to the book, and as the saying goes: a picture is worth a thousand words. I still do not really understand the first picture that was in the book. It was a deer with a human face (very unsettling). Was that showing how African Americans are treated as animals?
ReplyDeleteI agree with all of your thoughts. I like how open she is about race, but she doesn't simplify ideas. Quite the opposite actually. I mean, race is not simple at all. The pictures can be intense but they compliment the text well.
ReplyDeleteI think it easier to understand Rankine's writing too. She does leave things out in the open, but similar to you, I think it allows the reader to really ponder on what she is saying and make their own meaning of it. I really appreciate you noticing that the pictures are more than just pictures. They have meaning too!
ReplyDeleteI think it easier to understand Rankine's writing too. She does leave things out in the open, but similar to you, I think it allows the reader to really ponder on what she is saying and make their own meaning of it. I really appreciate you noticing that the pictures are more than just pictures. They have meaning too!
ReplyDeleteI enjoy how Claudia Rankine leaves a lot of her experiences out there and allows the reader to hang their own up with hers too. I really enjoy the images. I don't quite get all of them so I do go back and read again and stare at the image to make sense of it.
ReplyDelete