This blog, My Two Lips, was created as a reservoir for all of the written pieces and ideas produced as a part of my Spring 2008 independent study within the women's studies department at the College of William & Mary under the supervision of Professor Christy Burns.
I have recently been watching a lot of films, including Yesterday and Venus Boyz, and reading some books and poetry that are directly or indirectly related to the things I'm seeking to explore in my independent study and I realized that a lot of my initial thoughts were becoming lost as I sought time to sit down and write a more formal analysis.
I have still been toying with my ideas about the final product I want to result from my work, and while I still think that a scrapbook that contains formal work, images, reflections, and a significantly annotated bibliography is going to be extremely important, I wanted to ensure that I had a space in which to think "out loud" about my ongoing readings and projects wherever I was and regardless of what I was doing. To this end, I decided to create this blog as both an extension of my independent study as well as a resource from which I may later be able to pull ideas, information and even entire bits of text for my scrapbook.
The Internet has become such an important way through which to collect, link, and disseminate information and web logs are one of the quickest and easiest ways to produce a website where information and personal thoughts can be shared that this seemed like the right solution. All of the original work presented here is the sole and individual work of myself, Ashley Slaff, and is protected by copyright laws as such.
Thank you, again, for reading, participating and thinking. Please feel free to comment at your leisure. I'll be sure to keep you updated.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Monday, January 14, 2008
My Two Lips: Introduction Part II
So, the formulation of my independent study has been a work in progress. All through my graduate school applications and the fall semester, I've been reworking my ideas and they've finally started to crystallize. Partially this clarity comes because it is the beginning of the semester now and I'm counting the things I've done, said and read over the past few weeks as part of my research.
I started out largely with a dream and a dream advisor. I knew I was interested in women's studies and women's expression and I knew that I wanted to try something on my own. I had been dwelling on the ideas from a couple of classes, namely Nancy Gray's Modern Women Writers and The Politics of Storytelling by Women and Christy Burns' Theories of Visual Culture which was later revised into Film, Feminism and the Body. The themes of these courses culminated in my mind and I was thinking seriously about women's bodies and sexualities and the way in which these topics are explored--remapped and redefined--through contemporary literary and artistic media.
I wanted to engage in a study that would let me explore these topics--sometimes vulgarly and unscientifically--and write about it. The title "My Two Lips" developed from my ideas about the intertwining relationship between women's literature and expression and female sexuality. To speak--to desire. These ideas wrap themselves tightly around each other in my mind. When I read about women writers--from Virginia Woolf to Ann Lamott-- the idea of a woman writer is inherently tied to her motherhood which is inherently tied to her expression or repression of of her sexuality and sexual desire.
So, I started thinking, applying and reading. I thought a lot about what I wanted to learn and targeted some specific materials, a list of which will soon be included, but in reading some other books that I picked up along the way, I've realized that the topic can be found everywhere. I want to mention these resources now so that you all can participate in the formative process of this project, not just the finished product.
I started out largely with a dream and a dream advisor. I knew I was interested in women's studies and women's expression and I knew that I wanted to try something on my own. I had been dwelling on the ideas from a couple of classes, namely Nancy Gray's Modern Women Writers and The Politics of Storytelling by Women and Christy Burns' Theories of Visual Culture which was later revised into Film, Feminism and the Body. The themes of these courses culminated in my mind and I was thinking seriously about women's bodies and sexualities and the way in which these topics are explored--remapped and redefined--through contemporary literary and artistic media.
I wanted to engage in a study that would let me explore these topics--sometimes vulgarly and unscientifically--and write about it. The title "My Two Lips" developed from my ideas about the intertwining relationship between women's literature and expression and female sexuality. To speak--to desire. These ideas wrap themselves tightly around each other in my mind. When I read about women writers--from Virginia Woolf to Ann Lamott-- the idea of a woman writer is inherently tied to her motherhood which is inherently tied to her expression or repression of of her sexuality and sexual desire.
So, I started thinking, applying and reading. I thought a lot about what I wanted to learn and targeted some specific materials, a list of which will soon be included, but in reading some other books that I picked up along the way, I've realized that the topic can be found everywhere. I want to mention these resources now so that you all can participate in the formative process of this project, not just the finished product.
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