On page 149 of Kaplan’s paper, she says:
“Susan Lanser identifies what she
calls ‘self-silencing’ as a ‘willful [albeit often staged] refusal to narrate’
that refuses the compromises embedded in narrative conventions, protects
narrators or characters from ‘direct contact with an unfruiendly or
uncomprehending readership,’ and indicts the audience to which the narrator
will not speak as unreliable, unworthy, or otherwise inadequate. Building on
Lanser’s description of the subversive imperatives of ‘self-silencing,’ I want
to argue that Janie’s various refusals of public voice, self revelation, and
fighting back do constitute an important form of political protest.”
This argument is supported by another quote further down on
the page:
“…the trial scene serves as a
microcosm for the novel as a whole, an allegory of the dilemma Janie faces in
seeking the audience with whom she might satisfy her longing for
self-revelation.”
Kaplan’s argument that Janie’s choice not to speak is an act
of agency reminds me very much of Foreman’s essay about Harriet Jacobs and the
literary tool of the under-tell. As Janie chooses when to speak and to whom as a ‘form of political protest,’ Jacobs uses the act of undertell to protect her own voice and that of her grandmother. As Janie is placed in front a harsh,
unforgiving audience while she is on trial, when she returns to Eatonville, and
during her marriages, so Harriet Jacobs is presenting her novel to a group of
white women who are unlikely to understand or believe her story without the advocacy by Lidia Child on her behalf.
Jacobs uses the act of the undertell in order
to create a dynamic landscape in her work between not only silences, but also a personal claim
to her story. Examples of the discursive claiming of her story include
choosing to confess to her sins rather than describe herself as the victim in
order to claim agency, and naming the father of her child. This parallels
Janie’s choice to share her story with Pheoby, something Kaplan calls her
“self-revelation” through the sharing of her story.
I would also like to add that Hurston’s words as quoted by
Kaplan on page 148 seem to underscore Foreman’s argument about the subversive
strength of the undertell:
“The white man is always trying to
know into somebody else’s business. All right, I’ll set something outside the
door of my mind for him to play with and handle. He can read my writing but he
sho’ can’t read my mind. I’ll put this play toy in his hand, and he will seize
it and go away. Then I’ll say my say and sing my song.”
I’m interested to know if (maybe in Hurston’s
opinion? Maybe yours?) if this ‘saying my say and singing my song’ is personal
or social? Is Janie saying her say when she’s sharing with Pheoby or is she
singing her song in a highly personal way, when she returns to her room? Does the fact that this telling of her story may be very
internal and personal for Janie make it in any way apolitical?
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ReplyDeleteThe questions you pose at the end of your discussion are making me re-think the purpose behind performance. Do writers, singers, and other artists do their art for themselves or others? Perhaps it is for their own emancipation. Perhaps it is for the emancipation of others. I'm sure you would agree that personal and social are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Yet how does the power of silence play a role in both purposes?
ReplyDeleteI think it is possible that silence is used for both the personal and social in Jacobs' slave narrative. Jacobs uses undertell because the whole truth cannot be published. It is her way of speaking the unspoken, Additionally, one could hypothesize that these undertellings were being seen clearly by other literate, enslaved Black women. It would be interesting to glean the perspectives of other enslaved women during Jacobs writing, were they able to piece together aspects of trauma like other writers were able to almost over a century later? If so, one could argue that these hidden messages were clearly transmitted. Therefore, although the undertell was used as a way to defy the strict requirements of the times, Jacobs also uses it as an opportunity to communicate certain experiences of enslaved Black women to other women who resonate with her experiences.
The argument concerning silence in Hurtson's novel being a method of agency is sound. And I think that even if the telling of the story has an exclusively personal motive it can still be transformed into a political voice as Kaplan (and other feminist writers) has done here. I would further argue that articulating her silence as a political device does this already.