Multimodalities and Atwood's "Significant Moments in the Life of my Mother"
Where my post is repetitive, I apologise. It does not set out to be. As I read Atwood's text I found my annotations picking up on instances of revelation/censorship, particularly in relation to the expected role of a wife/mother, and the subversion of that role (e.g. "... that my mother behaved properly by being suitably shocked. But my other's eyes shine with delight when she tells this story. Secretly she thinks it funny that my father got caught out, even if only once." (10)). I also thought about the title, "Significant Moments", and about authorship -- who decides which are significant moments, who is narrating, whose narration is being presented to us as a narrative? Such a thought may be focalised by parts of the text like: "'But what could I do? All I could do was sit there. In those days things like that'--she means cat pee, or pee of any sort--'were not mentioned.' She means in mixed company" (9). Here we have speech supposedly quoted verbatim, with interruptions/glossing from the narrator; we have transcription and translation occurring in the same breath. It makes one wonder if transcription is not on some level also translation, since what is chosen, even if quoted verbatim, and how it is arranged, represents an interpretation on the part of the narrator, and therefore also a translation of the incident by the narrator, from its contextual details, to its connotative significance.
With these thoughts of covert/overt roles of the mother/wife and of narration and authorship, I suggest a multimodal activity involving vintage/retro pictures of women in the position of mothers/wives. I could show students some sample pictures, e.g.
(http://www.etsy.com/listing/80624741/vintage-postcard-thanksgiving-christmas?utm_source=toolsforetsybuyersse&utm_medium=api&utm_campaign=api)
http://southernsusiehomemaker.blogspot.sg/2011/07/are-you-retro-housewife.html
http://www.zazzle.ca/funny_poster_retro_housewife_sleepytime_cake-228606898716671746
A discussion could follow, inviting students to critically analyse the assumed traits of a wife/mother, based on these images, or those like them. What does the position of the woman in picture one suggest about her role in the family hierarchy; what does the joke in picture three suggest about motherly angst/stress; how does one read the caption in picture two -- with ironic overtones, literally, or in a sinister manner?
I would then ask students to search for an image that best represents as many of the roles of the narrator's mother in Atwood's text as possible, e.g. through strategic positioning of the characters in the picture, light/dark contrast, mise-en-scène. They will have to identify that she plays different roles in front of her husband, daughter, fellow wives/mothers, in private, etc. If they are enthusiastic and would like to, they could also form their own tableau and take a picture of it. I would not be fussy about the authenticity of the props, costumes, etc.
The point is twofold. Firstly to clarify the text by contrasting it with such images; secondly to alert students to the possibility of transferring textual analytical skills to pictorial analytical skills. I refer here to a reading that Dr. Loh sent out a few weeks ago -- http://www.
I have not written step by step clarifications on the lesson activity, but I hope that what I have produced so far gives a sense of it. With that, I am glad to have finally posted on multimodalities. An unfinished assignment nags in one's head more persistently than the narrator's mother's bunny-rabbit cookie story.
Where my post is repetitive, I apologise. It does not set out to be. As I read Atwood's text I found my annotations picking up on instances of revelation/censorship, particularly in relation to the expected role of a wife/mother, and the subversion of that role (e.g. "... that my mother behaved properly by being suitably shocked. But my other's eyes shine with delight when she tells this story. Secretly she thinks it funny that my father got caught out, even if only once." (10)). I also thought about the title, "Significant Moments", and about authorship -- who decides which are significant moments, who is narrating, whose narration is being presented to us as a narrative? Such a thought may be focalised by parts of the text like: "'But what could I do? All I could do was sit there. In those days things like that'--she means cat pee, or pee of any sort--'were not mentioned.' She means in mixed company" (9). Here we have speech supposedly quoted verbatim, with interruptions/glossing from the narrator; we have transcription and translation occurring in the same breath. It makes one wonder if transcription is not on some level also translation, since what is chosen, even if quoted verbatim, and how it is arranged, represents an interpretation on the part of the narrator, and therefore also a translation of the incident by the narrator, from its contextual details, to its connotative significance.
With these thoughts of covert/overt roles of the mother/wife and of narration and authorship, I suggest a multimodal activity involving vintage/retro pictures of women in the position of mothers/wives. I could show students some sample pictures, e.g.
(http://www.etsy.com/listing/80624741/vintage-postcard-thanksgiving-christmas?utm_source=toolsforetsybuyersse&utm_medium=api&utm_campaign=api)
http://southernsusiehomemaker.blogspot.sg/2011/07/are-you-retro-housewife.html
http://www.zazzle.ca/funny_poster_retro_housewife_sleepytime_cake-228606898716671746
A discussion could follow, inviting students to critically analyse the assumed traits of a wife/mother, based on these images, or those like them. What does the position of the woman in picture one suggest about her role in the family hierarchy; what does the joke in picture three suggest about motherly angst/stress; how does one read the caption in picture two -- with ironic overtones, literally, or in a sinister manner?
I would then ask students to search for an image that best represents as many of the roles of the narrator's mother in Atwood's text as possible, e.g. through strategic positioning of the characters in the picture, light/dark contrast, mise-en-scène. They will have to identify that she plays different roles in front of her husband, daughter, fellow wives/mothers, in private, etc. If they are enthusiastic and would like to, they could also form their own tableau and take a picture of it. I would not be fussy about the authenticity of the props, costumes, etc.
The point is twofold. Firstly to clarify the text by contrasting it with such images; secondly to alert students to the possibility of transferring textual analytical skills to pictorial analytical skills. I refer here to a reading that Dr. Loh sent out a few weeks ago -- http://www.
I have not written step by step clarifications on the lesson activity, but I hope that what I have produced so far gives a sense of it. With that, I am glad to have finally posted on multimodalities. An unfinished assignment nags in one's head more persistently than the narrator's mother's bunny-rabbit cookie story.
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