Unexplained Presence by Tisa Bryant

by Tisa Bryant

By remixing stories from novels and films to zoom in on the black presences within them, Tisa Bryant's UNEXPLAINED PRESENCE ruminates on the sublime power of history to shape culture in the subconscious of both the artist and the reader/viewer. Moving from interrogations of Francois Ozon's "8 Femmes" and Virginia Woolf's "Orlando" to the machinations of the "Regency House Party" reality TV show, UNEXPLAINED PRESENCE weaves threads of myth, fact and fiction into previously unexplored narratives lurking in our collective imagination. "This is truly a bold book, one that combines scenes of rich technicolor with the light of truth, at once invoking and dissolving cultural myths and faux histories" -Brenda Coultas.

Genres: Nonfiction, Poetry, Essays, Short Stories, Read For School, Theory

Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Tisa Bryant’s work often traverses the boundaries of genre, culture and history, creating multi-layered texts that demand new forms.

Her first book, Unexplained Presence (Leon Works, 2007), is a collection of original, hybrid essays that remix narratives from Eurocentric film, literature and visual arts and zoom in on the black presences operating within them. In her introduction to Bryant’s recent reading, Stacy Szymaszek, director of the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church in New York, said, “Like the great Edouard Glissant, her work is at once novel, essay and poetry, these modulations emerging and transmuting in a practice Bryant's latest publication, a collaborative volume with author/filmmaker Chris Kraus for the Belladonna Elders Series, contains an excerpt from her next novel, [the curator], a rumination on cinema and a black woman's ways of seeing.

Bryant maintains an active engagement with visual arts and literary community as a founding editor/publisher of the cross-genre hardcover annual, The Encyclopedia Project, and as faculty in the MFA Writing Program at the California Institute of the Arts.

Reviews

[Adina]

I like the writer to be writing to their smartest audience, but this book felt indifferent as to whether or not I followed its train of thought. Aggressive towards its subjects, indifferent to its reader; I wrestled with this book but ultimately gave up the fight.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bryant also employs various voices and points of view appropriate to her object of study. She uses a broad second person through “Looking a Mad Dog in the Eyes” in order to familiarize the reader with the Marta’s world and experience. She uses a more specific second person voice, speaking to and questioning Dido’s (132-133) and Miss Samuel’s (148) actions. Never do we get Bryant’s singular voice; we only hear her in the collective “we,” such as in her discussion of Woolf’s Orlando (116). We also hear others’ voices in the form of epigraphs between chapters. These moments gave me necessary pause both to look backward (at the chapter I just read) and forward (at what might connect the previous piece to the one at hand). The epigraphs served also as proof that Bryant is not alone in her interpretation and analysis of the unexplained presence. In this way, these voices confirm and contextualize the themes Bryant develops.

[corinne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the interconnections and genre crossing of this book. I think it created new neural pathways in my brain, crossovers that could bolster new amalgamations... its at once theory, cultural criticism, autobiographical, fictional... tisa has really woven a mini masterpiece here.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bryant crosses several layers of invisibility negotiating the gaze of the viewer (reader) so that a new way of seeing begins to develop as a photographs of the same scene set to different levels of exposure.

[Steven Felicelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Roland Barthes meets Claudia Rankine meets Laura Marks - meditations on race, gender, representation and unrepresentation powered by electric prose/poetry - Bryant is that rare combination in the Anglophone world at present: a fantastic writer with something to say

[Kate Schatz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tisa is a brilliant lady. This book is like nothing else.

[Marcella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible!

[in8 · Rating 4 out of 5]

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