ipl-logo

Karen Finley Analysis

824 Words4 Pages

Karen Finley, in the European Premiere of her piece, Written in Sand relives pieces of art created out of pain and anguish during the AIDs epidemic. Finley performs this piece as a part of the SPILL Festival 2015. The theme of this year’s festival is ‘On Spirit’ and Written in Sand personifies the spirit of those who lost their lives or their loved ones to AIDs. Finley’s own spirit, as a ground breaking feminist performance artist, is front and center as she bares her soul while mourning the friends she lost to AIDs.
The start of Karen Finley’s life began in the year of 1956 in Evanston, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. She grew up in an eccentric household where the “people in my family all married different people with different nationalities.” She began performing while in high school and even at a young age challenged those around her with provocative art. Finley describes her young self as someone …show more content…

Instead, it exposes her soul and spirit. Alternatively, this performance allows her to mourn and bare the pain of loss. This performance marks a new era in Finley’s career. She is exploring femininity through her emotions as a woman. Finley finds it in herself to challenge another social constraint: the grieving over taboo members of society. Hence, she offers finally offers tributes to those who deserve them. Finley describes the AIDs epidemic effects on grieving, as “they wouldn’t announce the life, so why announce the death?” Finley rattles the shackles placed on her by social constraints. However, this time, in honor of her fallen friends, advocates for their lives and the art that was created as result of the anguish felt during the epidemic. Finley, currently a professor at New York University, as graduated to being a proponent of the disenfranchised and continues to advocate for feminism by acknowledging that exhibiting hysterical emotion does not make a woman weak. Welcome to the new

Show More
Related
883 Words | 4 Pages

Petitions are, in many cases, controversial. They are often signed in protest of things such as unfair pay, civil rights, or unsafe working conditions. Oftentimes the signers of these petitions risk their jobs and their reputations. “Lyddie” by Katherine Paterson is the story of a young girl coming of age in mid nineteenth century New England. Her family is indebted, and eventually Lyddie makes her way to Lowell to start life as a factory girl, leaving behind her younger brother, sisters, and ailing mother, in pursuit of her new job.

Read More
434 Words | 2 Pages

Imagery of the bass, the river, and Sheila Mant One of the main themes of this story is that sacrifice. The narrator of this story is not given a name but he is fourteen year old. The narrator has a major crush on a women- seventeen year old, Sheila Mant. The narrator finally, and I say finally, asks Sheila on a date via the narrator’s boat.

Read More
682 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout the seventeenth century, conflict between Europeans and Native Americans was rampant and constant. As more and more Europeans migrated to America, violence became increasingly consistent. This seemingly institutionalized pattern of conflict begs a question: Was conflict between Europeans and Native Americans inevitable? Kevin Kenny and Cynthia J. Van Zandt take opposing sides on the issue. Kevin Kenny asserts that William Penn’s vision for cordial relations with local Native Americans was destined for failure due to European colonists’ demands for privately owned land.

Read More
335 Words | 2 Pages

Summary In the analysis, “Write For Your Life,” Anna Quindlen’s thesis is that in the movie “Freedom Writers,” and in our everyday life, physical writing is a necessary form of therapy and release. Quindlen describes the movie and then points out specific lines that express the situation of the children. She continues by explaining how physical writing is important to our wellbeing but how it has disappeared from our lives.

Read More
1177 Words | 5 Pages

The contrast between these two sub-sets of fiction is controversial among critics and scholars. Neal Stephenson has suggested that while any definition will be simplistic, there is a general cultural difference between literary and genre fiction today. On the one hand literary authors are nowadays are frequently supported by patronage, with employment at a university or similar institutions, and with the continuation of such positions determined not by book sales but, by critical acclaim by other established literary authors and critics. On the other hand, he suggests, genre fiction writers tend to support themselves by book sales. However, in an interview John Updike lamented that "the category of 'literary fiction ' has

Read More
194 Words | 1 Pages

The essay Be Specific by Natalie Goldberg was an essay thats main point to me was respect. Respect is something that every individual deserves. A synopsis of what respect means to me all leads back to the golden rule, treat others as you want to be treated. The example that Natalie used that was the most realistic to me was when she said "Hey, girl, get in line.". Many people in today 's world do not take the time to use names it is always hey you, dude, bro, girl, and so the list goes on; as a result our generation is known for being disrespectful in regards to previous years.

Read More
455 Words | 2 Pages

The pathos Winfrey expresses creates a courageous and grateful emotion in the reader that convinces them to be just as fearless as

Read More
675 Words | 3 Pages

Whitney Chadwick writes about the history behind what artists do and why along with the influences on society. She looked at the art pieces that she chose and gave a well listed history on the subjects she chose. She tells the fact, not giving her emotions, but the truths of what it was that happened very plain. It is as if it just is what is and there is not joy or sorrow that it happened. She translates the meanings and has assumptions to why something was inspired and she gives them.

Read More
1906 Words | 8 Pages

Well-known writer and essayist Joan Didion, in her essay, The White Album, shatters every preconceived notion of the late nineteen sixties. Set primarily in Los Angeles, California Didion blends reportage and personal essay to recount cultural tensions that arose during the period- protests, murder, apathy-with her own psychosis. Incorporating fragmented narrative and film technique Didion offers snapshots of the events with language that is curt yet symbolic of her unique style. “The White Album,” demonstrates that everything in life is meant to teach us something. Through Didion’s experiences behind the pen, as a news reporter, her narration attempts to understand the lesson and discovers "We Tell OURSELVES STORIES in order to live" (Didion

Read More
1645 Words | 7 Pages

“The moon rose over the bay. I had a lot of feelings.” - A poem by Donika Kelly With a purpose and message being the goal for their work, poets are often found using many specific qualities in their writing. By making use of these devices the poem is a piece of composition that connects with its writer. Strategies like the ones used in this poem have been utilized since the beginning of writing.

Read More
695 Words | 3 Pages

“What is going on in these pictures in my mind?” (Didion 2). Joan Didion’s “Why I Write” provides an explanation to her perspective om writing and why she writes. Later on, she states that she writes as a way to discover the meaning behind what she is seeing. During this past semester as we wrote about dance, a heavy focus was on description and interpretation rather than contextualization and evaluation.

Read More
1026 Words | 5 Pages

She then explains her and the nation’s situation: how she is HIV positive even though she’s a “healthy” human being, how there are millions of people infected with AIDS virus, and how the epidemic is still a serious problem despite everything done to prevent it. Fisher affirms that AIDS can happen to anyone, regardless the political and environmental factors, race, religion, age, or sex. She insists that this disease is a threat that should not be ignored. Even when it seems safe, it is still dangerous. It is important to act and speak eloquently about this

Read More
807 Words | 4 Pages

This quote shows that even though Mairs sometimes has difficulty accepting her illness, she knows that there is a growing acceptance of people who must deal with the difficulties that she faces. This ultimately lends a hopeful and positive tone to an otherwise serious and depressing section of her essay. This contrast in tone, but general feeling of hope is key to the type of emotions that Nancy Mairs is trying to educate her readers about. Mair is successful in using multiple rhetorical strategies to connect with the reader.

Read More
725 Words | 3 Pages

In doing so, she elicits a feeling of sympathy in her audience. She talks about her daughter’s death and how she “did not survive the Reagan Administration” and that “this is a crisis of caring”. She goes on to say, “While they play games with numbers, people are dying”. Glaser uses the urgent tone of her personal experiences in order to get the crowd to see and acknowledge the danger of AIDS. This speech utilizes tone in a highly effective way because it invokes a feeling of sympathy in the audience.

Read More
1360 Words | 6 Pages

When she had to return to chemotherapy, she was almost happy to go because it was familiar and she was accepted. She always had a companion there whether it was a doctor, nurse, or another patient. She was no longer the outcast. A lot of her time was spent criticizing “normal” people for wanting to be somebody else when all she wanted to be was like everyone else. She defined herself as an individual base on how other people saw her.

Read More

More about Karen Finley Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document