A Message in Fragments?

Save for the occasional lengthy expository piece, the pieces of writing in Claudia Rankine's Citizen are short. The ´poems´ are very brief glimpses. Many take up less than half of a page even. They are passing slices-of-life, framed in a way that makes the reader ponder the glimpse/situation/circumstance as something more than a self-contained stanza of text. In this way, the short length plays into Rankine´s favor by ´showing but not telling´. The ´telling´ is so often left up to the reader to interpret. In this instance, the ´telling´ is unique because it seems invariably linked to the reader's situation. Might the African American reader look on to these glimpses and nod accordingly to the familiarity of such situations in their personal lives? Might the white reader look at this work and wince in shame at what Rankine is depicting of them, or alternatively, feeling the desire for affirmative action?

Its hard to do a literary analysis of her work because the brunt and heft of its meaning are highly subjected, I'll be, fragmented and in digestible chunks. The argument could be made that each piece is meant to be observed within its own context, but I would argue, while each story/poem is meant to be understood for their individual meanings, the magic of Rankine´s collection comes from the summation of the bag of evoked emotions therein. To piece them all together into one solidified theme, or one intended emotion then becomes challenging, but I´m sure to Rankine, that´s ok.

Regardless of whether you see yourself in Rankine´s depictions, or feel connected to her writing to any degree, the greatest impact you can experience from Citizen is reading it with the intention of deriving your own meaning.