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Essential Essays: Culture, Politics, and the Art of Poetry
Adrienne Rich was an award-winning poet, influential essayist, radical feminist, and major intellectual voice of her generation. Essential Essays gathers twenty-five of her most renowned essays into one volume, demonstrating the lasting brilliance of her voice, her prophetic vision, and her revolutionary views on social justice. Rich’s essays unite the political, personal, and poetical like no other.
Essential Essays is edited and includes an introduction by leading feminist scholar, literary critic, and poet Sandra M. Gilbert. Emphasizing Rich’s lifelong intellectual engagement, the essays selected here range from the 1960s to 2008. The volume contains one of Rich’s earliest essays,“When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision,” which discusses the need for female self-definition, along with excerpts from her ambitious, ground-breaking Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution. As the New York Times wrote, Rich “brought the oppression of women and lesbians to the forefront of poetic discourse,” as evidenced in her 1980 essay, “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence.”
Also among these insightful and forward-thinking works are: “Split at the Root: An Essay on Jewish Identity”; excerpts from What Is Found There, about the need to reexamine the literary canon; “Why I Refused the National Medal for the Arts”; “Poetry and the Forgotten Future”; and other writings that profoundly shaped second-wave feminism, each balanced by Rich’s signature blend of research, theory, and self-reflection.
Essential Essays is edited and includes an introduction by leading feminist scholar, literary critic, and poet Sandra M. Gilbert. Emphasizing Rich’s lifelong intellectual engagement, the essays selected here range from the 1960s to 2008. The volume contains one of Rich’s earliest essays,“When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision,” which discusses the need for female self-definition, along with excerpts from her ambitious, ground-breaking Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution. As the New York Times wrote, Rich “brought the oppression of women and lesbians to the forefront of poetic discourse,” as evidenced in her 1980 essay, “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence.”
Also among these insightful and forward-thinking works are: “Split at the Root: An Essay on Jewish Identity”; excerpts from What Is Found There, about the need to reexamine the literary canon; “Why I Refused the National Medal for the Arts”; “Poetry and the Forgotten Future”; and other writings that profoundly shaped second-wave feminism, each balanced by Rich’s signature blend of research, theory, and self-reflection.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published August 28, 2018
162 people are currently reading
2319 people want to read
About the author
Adrienne Rich
139 books1,580 followersWorks, notably
Diving into the Wreck
(1973), of American poet and essayist Adrienne Rich champion such causes as pacifism, feminism, and civil rights for gays and lesbians.
A mother bore Adrienne Cecile Rich, a feminist, to a middle-class family with parents, who educated her until she entered public school in the fourth grade. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Radcliffe college in 1951, the same year of her first book of poems, A Change of World. That volume, chosen by W. H. Auden for the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award, and her next, The Diamond Cutters and Other Poems (1955), earned her a reputation as an elegant, controlled stylist.
In the 1960s, however, Rich began a dramatic shift away from her earlier mode as she took up political and feminist themes and stylistic experimentation in such works as Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law (1963), The Necessities of Life (1966), Leaflets (1969), and The Will to Change (1971). In Diving into the Wreck (1973) and The Dream of a Common Language (1978), she continued to experiment with form and to deal with the experiences and aspirations of women from a feminist perspective.
In addition to her poetry, Rich has published many essays on poetry, feminism, motherhood, and lesbianism. Her recent collections include An Atlas of the Difficult World (1991) and Dark Fields of the Republic: Poems 1991–1995 (1995).
A mother bore Adrienne Cecile Rich, a feminist, to a middle-class family with parents, who educated her until she entered public school in the fourth grade. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Radcliffe college in 1951, the same year of her first book of poems, A Change of World. That volume, chosen by W. H. Auden for the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award, and her next, The Diamond Cutters and Other Poems (1955), earned her a reputation as an elegant, controlled stylist.
In the 1960s, however, Rich began a dramatic shift away from her earlier mode as she took up political and feminist themes and stylistic experimentation in such works as Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law (1963), The Necessities of Life (1966), Leaflets (1969), and The Will to Change (1971). In Diving into the Wreck (1973) and The Dream of a Common Language (1978), she continued to experiment with form and to deal with the experiences and aspirations of women from a feminist perspective.
In addition to her poetry, Rich has published many essays on poetry, feminism, motherhood, and lesbianism. Her recent collections include An Atlas of the Difficult World (1991) and Dark Fields of the Republic: Poems 1991–1995 (1995).
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April 8, 2021
This is a hard book to review. Because on the one hand, this selection of essays by a lesbian Jewish socialist feminist are immensely important and life-changing. On the other hand, she's a TERF.
Let me start again. I checked this book out from the library, not knowing a lot about Rich except that she was a feminist and she had written the famous essay on Compulsory Heterosexuality, which has been a really important theory for me over the years. From the get-go, I really connected with how she talked about womanhood and poetry, and I really respected her openness about sexuality and politics. I found myself in how she talked about her own gender, how she felt alienated from other women, how she wrote poetry because she couldn't exist without it, how she talks about growing up white in a racist country. And I didn't relate to but nevertheless found myself entranced by her descriptions of marriage to a man, of having children, of being Jewish.
About halfway through, I started getting weird vibes from some of the paragraphs about women. I couldn't find anything explicitly offensive or wrong, but some things didn't feel right. And so I looked up some of her opinions, and I discovered that yes, she's a Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist. My comfort and connection with her words shattered. It didn't disappear, because I do relate to some of what she says-- but only in pieces. Only in quotes that I can pick up and look at, and then put away again. Only in ideas that more accepting people will co-opt and redefine over the years, like Comp-Het.
I decided to finish the book, and I am glad that I did. I want to make clear that there was no explicit transphobia (that I noticed) in the book. Transgender people/issues are simply not present. (The only mention of trans people is one of the authors in the bibliography, whose book is listed under the published [dead]name [which I understand from a publishing perspective], and copyrighted under his current name, while using his correct pronouns to list his website. The note reads: "The author . . . is today [current name], a transsexual man." The book was published in 2018, 6 years after Rich's death, so this was the editor's work, not hers.)
For essays written in the 70s through early 2000s by a cis woman, I kind of expected trans people to not be included, and I'm very thankful that this is in itself not an actively hateful work, just an incomplete one. Nonetheless, this should not overshadow the fact that what has been called the defining manuscript for transmisogyny, The Transsexual Empire by Janice Raymond (1979), cites Rich in the acknowledgements section, saying that she had been "a very special friend and critic. She has read the manuscript through all its stages and provided resources, constant criticism, and constant encouragement." A conversation between Raymond and Rich is detailed in one of the chapters, which I will not even summarize here-- it's absolutely disgusting. Article about this here.
Adrienne Rich, then, like so many feminists before and after her, will be admitted to the ranks of "influential feminists who did so much good and should be remembered/read/recognized but were also racist/homophobic/transphobic/ableist/something else disgusting." It's a large, diverse group and I hope she's happy there with her peers, which includes people from Susan B. Anthony to Margaret Sanger.
There's an essay in this book that I found especially interesting: "Rotten Names," which is about Rich coming to terms with the fact that one of her favorite poets, Wallace Stevens, was racist. She can't understand it-- how he could make such beautiful things, and hate a group of people. Reading it, I knew exactly what she meant. How could Rich, who had made such beautiful things, demonize trans women in the way she did? And she helped me understand:
This is one of the things I am taking with me: that her transphobic comments are not a tiny part or a momentary collapse. They are part of Adrienne Rich's whole. I need to grasp the deforming power of transphobia over her imagination, and the writings of her peers, where I, a queer person, am trying to take my place.
This book is much less complicated than its author, and it's a worthwhile book. There are much more worthwhile books, written by better authors, that I will read in the future. Let's learn our past and our present, and look toward the future. Let's not forget Rich's poetry or ideas, but let's find better people to read political theory by.
Let me start again. I checked this book out from the library, not knowing a lot about Rich except that she was a feminist and she had written the famous essay on Compulsory Heterosexuality, which has been a really important theory for me over the years. From the get-go, I really connected with how she talked about womanhood and poetry, and I really respected her openness about sexuality and politics. I found myself in how she talked about her own gender, how she felt alienated from other women, how she wrote poetry because she couldn't exist without it, how she talks about growing up white in a racist country. And I didn't relate to but nevertheless found myself entranced by her descriptions of marriage to a man, of having children, of being Jewish.
About halfway through, I started getting weird vibes from some of the paragraphs about women. I couldn't find anything explicitly offensive or wrong, but some things didn't feel right. And so I looked up some of her opinions, and I discovered that yes, she's a Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist. My comfort and connection with her words shattered. It didn't disappear, because I do relate to some of what she says-- but only in pieces. Only in quotes that I can pick up and look at, and then put away again. Only in ideas that more accepting people will co-opt and redefine over the years, like Comp-Het.
I decided to finish the book, and I am glad that I did. I want to make clear that there was no explicit transphobia (that I noticed) in the book. Transgender people/issues are simply not present. (The only mention of trans people is one of the authors in the bibliography, whose book is listed under the published [dead]name [which I understand from a publishing perspective], and copyrighted under his current name, while using his correct pronouns to list his website. The note reads: "The author . . . is today [current name], a transsexual man." The book was published in 2018, 6 years after Rich's death, so this was the editor's work, not hers.)
For essays written in the 70s through early 2000s by a cis woman, I kind of expected trans people to not be included, and I'm very thankful that this is in itself not an actively hateful work, just an incomplete one. Nonetheless, this should not overshadow the fact that what has been called the defining manuscript for transmisogyny, The Transsexual Empire by Janice Raymond (1979), cites Rich in the acknowledgements section, saying that she had been "a very special friend and critic. She has read the manuscript through all its stages and provided resources, constant criticism, and constant encouragement." A conversation between Raymond and Rich is detailed in one of the chapters, which I will not even summarize here-- it's absolutely disgusting. Article about this here.
Adrienne Rich, then, like so many feminists before and after her, will be admitted to the ranks of "influential feminists who did so much good and should be remembered/read/recognized but were also racist/homophobic/transphobic/ableist/something else disgusting." It's a large, diverse group and I hope she's happy there with her peers, which includes people from Susan B. Anthony to Margaret Sanger.
There's an essay in this book that I found especially interesting: "Rotten Names," which is about Rich coming to terms with the fact that one of her favorite poets, Wallace Stevens, was racist. She can't understand it-- how he could make such beautiful things, and hate a group of people. Reading it, I knew exactly what she meant. How could Rich, who had made such beautiful things, demonize trans women in the way she did? And she helped me understand:
"Reading Stevens in other years I had tried to write off [his racism] as a painful but encapsulated lesion on the imagination, a momentary collapse of the poet's intelligence. I treated [his racist characters] as happenstance, accidental. There in the high desert I finally understood: This is a key to the whole. Don't try to extirpate, censor, or defend it. Stevens's reliance on [racist characters] is a watermark in his poetry. To understand how he places himself in relation to these . . . is to understand more clearly the meanings . . . It's to grasp the deforming power of racism . . . over the imagination-- not only of this poet, but of the collective poetry of which he was a part, the poetry in which I, as a young woman, had been trying to take my place." (pp. 276-277)
This is one of the things I am taking with me: that her transphobic comments are not a tiny part or a momentary collapse. They are part of Adrienne Rich's whole. I need to grasp the deforming power of transphobia over her imagination, and the writings of her peers, where I, a queer person, am trying to take my place.
This book is much less complicated than its author, and it's a worthwhile book. There are much more worthwhile books, written by better authors, that I will read in the future. Let's learn our past and our present, and look toward the future. Let's not forget Rich's poetry or ideas, but let's find better people to read political theory by.
April 25, 2020
Más de 30 ensayos escritos a lo largo de casi 30 años podrían contener muchas contradicciones, muchos vaivenes ideológicos y personales. En el caso de Adrienne Rich, lo que muestran es un deseo constante de repensarse, de no dejar nunca de aprender ni dar nada por sentado. Una actitud vital fuertemente enraizada en la experiencia personal (poeta, mujer, blanca, judía, lesbiana, madre, hija, estadounidense, de clase media, activista, socialista) y con un coherente posicionamiento a favor de la justicia y la transformación social. Del feminismo interseccional.
A lo largo de casi 700 páginas, comparte artículos publicados originalmente en revistas del movimiento lesbofeminista, conferencias pronunciadas en diversas universidades, reflexiones leídas en encuentros poéticos y marchas políticas. Son especialmente reveladores de esa actitud de cuestionamiento constante -sin caer en en el ensimismamiento- las notas que incluye para la edición de esta complicación de 2019, publicada por Capitán Swing con prólogo de Bàrbara Ramajo y traducción de Mireia Bofill Abello.
Su aportación más famosa es “Heterosexualidad obligatoria y existencia lesbiana” (1980), donde desarrolla ese concepto de continuum lésbico para hablar de la identificación de las mujeres entre nosotras, de esos lazos de apoyo mutuo y vinculación que, en sí mismos, suponen un desafío al patriarcado. También son muy conocidas sus reflexiones sobre el hecho de la maternidad, desde un punto de vista antropológico, que publicó en 1976 bajo el título Nacemos de mujer: la maternidad como experiencia e institución.
Los ensayos bajo ese epígrafe han sido los que más he subrayado, los que más me han hecho reflexionar (y también llorar). Porque como feministas, dedicamso mucho espacio político a la maternidad de arriba a abajo (el mandato impuesto de ser madres, los costes de rechazarlo, cómo lidiar con ese deseo cuando no se obtiene fácilmente, cómo gestionar la crianza…) pero no tanto sobre qué supone ser hijas, qué demandamos y recriminamos a nuestras madres -mujeres, como nosotras- cuando ya somos adultas. Cómo las ubicamos en nuestra lucha personal y colectiva contra el patriarcado.
En ocasiones, parece que esa visión del lesbianismo como algo que trasciende la atracción sexual, la relación erótica y romántica, puede deslizarse hacia el misticismo del que adolece el feminismo de la diferencia. Pero Rich, siempre a tiempo, lo enmarca en una materialidad histórica y geográfica concreta. Es también destacable su concepción del arte, de la poesía, como una necesidad pero no como un lujo; como un necesidad individual con responsabilidades colectivas.
Especialmente relevante es su diálogo constante, transversal, con el feminismo negro, con las mujeres (activistas, artistas, esclavas, amas de casa) negras. Una escucha que no cae en la culpabilización paralizante (de hecho, dedica espacio a analizar y combatir ese sentimiento) ni en la atomización individualista de la identidad sino que es un camino hacia la solidaridad en su sentido más revolucionario. La historia compartida de las mujeres negras y blancas está atravesada por la opresión. Que sea un trayecto incómodo no es excusa para no recorrerlo.
Los Ensayos esenciales. Cultura, política y el arte de la poesía de Adrienne Rich son una lectura muy estimulante donde, más que respuestas fáciles, vamos a encontrar preguntas y retos sobre y para la lucha feminista, el reconocimiento de las aportaciones de las mujeres (de todas las mujeres, no solo del minúsculo grupo de blancas privilegiadas) a la cultura, arte y política de la historia de la humanidad. Resulta un tanto desalentador que, 30 años después, prácticamente todas esas cuestiones sigan abiertas.
A lo largo de casi 700 páginas, comparte artículos publicados originalmente en revistas del movimiento lesbofeminista, conferencias pronunciadas en diversas universidades, reflexiones leídas en encuentros poéticos y marchas políticas. Son especialmente reveladores de esa actitud de cuestionamiento constante -sin caer en en el ensimismamiento- las notas que incluye para la edición de esta complicación de 2019, publicada por Capitán Swing con prólogo de Bàrbara Ramajo y traducción de Mireia Bofill Abello.
Su aportación más famosa es “Heterosexualidad obligatoria y existencia lesbiana” (1980), donde desarrolla ese concepto de continuum lésbico para hablar de la identificación de las mujeres entre nosotras, de esos lazos de apoyo mutuo y vinculación que, en sí mismos, suponen un desafío al patriarcado. También son muy conocidas sus reflexiones sobre el hecho de la maternidad, desde un punto de vista antropológico, que publicó en 1976 bajo el título Nacemos de mujer: la maternidad como experiencia e institución.
Los ensayos bajo ese epígrafe han sido los que más he subrayado, los que más me han hecho reflexionar (y también llorar). Porque como feministas, dedicamso mucho espacio político a la maternidad de arriba a abajo (el mandato impuesto de ser madres, los costes de rechazarlo, cómo lidiar con ese deseo cuando no se obtiene fácilmente, cómo gestionar la crianza…) pero no tanto sobre qué supone ser hijas, qué demandamos y recriminamos a nuestras madres -mujeres, como nosotras- cuando ya somos adultas. Cómo las ubicamos en nuestra lucha personal y colectiva contra el patriarcado.
En ocasiones, parece que esa visión del lesbianismo como algo que trasciende la atracción sexual, la relación erótica y romántica, puede deslizarse hacia el misticismo del que adolece el feminismo de la diferencia. Pero Rich, siempre a tiempo, lo enmarca en una materialidad histórica y geográfica concreta. Es también destacable su concepción del arte, de la poesía, como una necesidad pero no como un lujo; como un necesidad individual con responsabilidades colectivas.
Especialmente relevante es su diálogo constante, transversal, con el feminismo negro, con las mujeres (activistas, artistas, esclavas, amas de casa) negras. Una escucha que no cae en la culpabilización paralizante (de hecho, dedica espacio a analizar y combatir ese sentimiento) ni en la atomización individualista de la identidad sino que es un camino hacia la solidaridad en su sentido más revolucionario. La historia compartida de las mujeres negras y blancas está atravesada por la opresión. Que sea un trayecto incómodo no es excusa para no recorrerlo.
Los Ensayos esenciales. Cultura, política y el arte de la poesía de Adrienne Rich son una lectura muy estimulante donde, más que respuestas fáciles, vamos a encontrar preguntas y retos sobre y para la lucha feminista, el reconocimiento de las aportaciones de las mujeres (de todas las mujeres, no solo del minúsculo grupo de blancas privilegiadas) a la cultura, arte y política de la historia de la humanidad. Resulta un tanto desalentador que, 30 años después, prácticamente todas esas cuestiones sigan abiertas.
November 28, 2018
For anyone who didn't "grow up" reading Adrienne Rich, this is where to start. Not only her "greatest hits" essays, but an inspiring portrait of the development of her thinking about her work as a poet/artist and the role of art and artists in the world. I had read many of these pieces either many years ago (when I was learning to be a feminist) or soon after her death in 2012 when I immersed myself in both her poetry and essays as remembrance. Still, reading this collection, as arranged in roughly chonological order, provided new insights. My one sadness is that so much of what she wrote 40, 30, 20 years ago about patriarchy, capitalism, racism . . . is still so true today . . . though I'm certain both she (and my younger self) hoped it would not be.
Just one example: In 1971 she wrote: "The creative energy of patriarchy is fast running out; what remains is its self-generating energy for destruction. As women, we have our work cut out for us." from "When We Dead Awaken".
I hope younger readers can appreciate the long history and find the ways to continue to move forward . . . for what other choice do we have?
Just one example: In 1971 she wrote: "The creative energy of patriarchy is fast running out; what remains is its self-generating energy for destruction. As women, we have our work cut out for us." from "When We Dead Awaken".
I hope younger readers can appreciate the long history and find the ways to continue to move forward . . . for what other choice do we have?
December 19, 2018
It's about the power of people to speak up, to be honest and active and kind. I don't know that Rich uses the word kind in these pages, but kindness was there for me. Choosing something to quote is tough when you want to quote an entire book. I can flip to any page and find a line I love:
. . . if we care about the imagination, we will care about economic justice."
This book gave me a hard time because I did not want it to end. It's very smart and deeply thoughtful. I have been recommending it all over the place for Rich's humanity and prescience. She writes of poetry, of her own early success and recognition of her immaturity in that early work. She writes about political repression and activism, about personal growth and public service, about the risks of speaking out and the risks of remaining silent. She was writing about the current political situation more than twenty years ago!
The selection of her speeches and essays is presented in chronological order, with the earlier selections somewhat more personal than the later. This isn't memoir, however, but a brilliant mind looking at how our role in life can best be served. She always is speaking to all of us, to the world whether her original audience was a room of poets or readers of a widely published journal. So graceful and humble and bold and strong and smart!
I have not read everything because I have only read her poetry in the past and now these selected essays. I mourn not to have found her prose long ago and read each as it was delivered into the world. She was writing things that would have been of help to me in my twenties and thirties and forties and fifties as much as they speak to me today.
I needed her words. I need them still.
. . . if we care about the imagination, we will care about economic justice."
This book gave me a hard time because I did not want it to end. It's very smart and deeply thoughtful. I have been recommending it all over the place for Rich's humanity and prescience. She writes of poetry, of her own early success and recognition of her immaturity in that early work. She writes about political repression and activism, about personal growth and public service, about the risks of speaking out and the risks of remaining silent. She was writing about the current political situation more than twenty years ago!
The selection of her speeches and essays is presented in chronological order, with the earlier selections somewhat more personal than the later. This isn't memoir, however, but a brilliant mind looking at how our role in life can best be served. She always is speaking to all of us, to the world whether her original audience was a room of poets or readers of a widely published journal. So graceful and humble and bold and strong and smart!
I have not read everything because I have only read her poetry in the past and now these selected essays. I mourn not to have found her prose long ago and read each as it was delivered into the world. She was writing things that would have been of help to me in my twenties and thirties and forties and fifties as much as they speak to me today.
I needed her words. I need them still.
March 12, 2024
A brilliant assortment of Rich’s fierce mind through her multiple essays, penned across four decades. I would recommend (and lend!) to anyone! Favourite essays are listed below.
It was intriguing to follow her ideas and thinking from the seventies through to 2005, and map the ways in which they have changed but also the ways in which her core beliefs on poetry, womanhood, socialism, society, etc, grew stronger as life went on. That is to say, I found the evolution of her feminist thought fascinating.
In 400 pages, there were, of course, parts that resonated more and parts that did not, but what I came away admiring was her commitment to art — specifically poetry — as a political, mobilising force to act as both balm and catalyst for the times.
There are so many quotes I want to repeat but I think these two are perhaps the best sentiments to end on, for their optimism and defiance, their hope for the path ahead.
“We’re not simply trapped in the present. We are not caged within a narrowing corridor at ‘the end of history.’ Nor do any of us have to windsurf on the currents of a system that depends on the betrayal of so many others. We do have choices.”
“For now, poetry had the capacity … to remind us of something we are forbidden to see. A forgotten future: a still-uncreated site whose moral architecture is founded not on ownership and dispossession, the subjection of women, torture and bribes, outcast and tribe, but on the continuous redefining of freedom—that word now held under house arrest by the rhetoric of the ‘free’ market. This ongoing future, written off over and over, is still within view.”
———————————————
NOTABLE ESSAYS
“When We Dead Awaken: Writing as re-Vision” (1971)
“Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution” (1976)
“What Does a Woman Need to Know?” (1979)
“Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence” (1980)
“Blood, Bread, and Poetry: the Location of the Poet” (1984)
“Arts of the Possible” (1997)
It was intriguing to follow her ideas and thinking from the seventies through to 2005, and map the ways in which they have changed but also the ways in which her core beliefs on poetry, womanhood, socialism, society, etc, grew stronger as life went on. That is to say, I found the evolution of her feminist thought fascinating.
In 400 pages, there were, of course, parts that resonated more and parts that did not, but what I came away admiring was her commitment to art — specifically poetry — as a political, mobilising force to act as both balm and catalyst for the times.
There are so many quotes I want to repeat but I think these two are perhaps the best sentiments to end on, for their optimism and defiance, their hope for the path ahead.
“We’re not simply trapped in the present. We are not caged within a narrowing corridor at ‘the end of history.’ Nor do any of us have to windsurf on the currents of a system that depends on the betrayal of so many others. We do have choices.”
“For now, poetry had the capacity … to remind us of something we are forbidden to see. A forgotten future: a still-uncreated site whose moral architecture is founded not on ownership and dispossession, the subjection of women, torture and bribes, outcast and tribe, but on the continuous redefining of freedom—that word now held under house arrest by the rhetoric of the ‘free’ market. This ongoing future, written off over and over, is still within view.”
———————————————
NOTABLE ESSAYS
“When We Dead Awaken: Writing as re-Vision” (1971)
“Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution” (1976)
“What Does a Woman Need to Know?” (1979)
“Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence” (1980)
“Blood, Bread, and Poetry: the Location of the Poet” (1984)
“Arts of the Possible” (1997)
July 10, 2019
Esta obra —-que para mi sofá y para mí ya se ha vuelto indispensable— rompe ese silencio en el que queda sumida toda la historia de lucha de las mujeres por su autodeterminación y critica esa tendencia a recibir cada libro feminista como si surgiera de la nada. Reivindica nuestro pasado histórico feminista desmontando continuamente los discursos androcéntricos, heterocéntricos y blancocéntricos. Rich nos tiende la mano y nos anima a ejercer la autocrítica desde el propio feminismo y lo hace desde el sofá, el metro, la librería, la biblioteca o cualquier espacio en el que podamos acceder a sus palabras. Después, que cada cual construya su momento con ella.
https://alibreria.com/2019/07/10/ensa...
https://alibreria.com/2019/07/10/ensa...
August 31, 2023
so america-ferrera-speech-in-barbie coded
May 2, 2019
If I were into poetry, I would have liked this a whole lot more. Rich has great essays on motherhood, Emily Dickinson, exploring her identity as a Jewish woman, and a speech to graduates from Smith College. There are also essays about poetry and art, and that's where the book loses me a little. Not because it's not well-written; it most definitely is. It's just that the subject of poetry does not interest me, so it was difficult for me to pay attention. I did enjoy her meditation on Muriel Rukeyser, because a professor of mine once told me that Rukeyser would be a good poet to read if I don't like poetry. Someday I will attempt both Rich and Rukeyser, and maybe they will be my gateway into liking poetry.
June 30, 2024
no wybitne myśli wybitnej osoby
October 5, 2024
Do twórczości Adrienne Rich przyciągnął mnie jej kultowy esej „Przymus heteroseksualności a egzystencja lesbijska” i cieszę się, że tak się stało, ponieważ jej zbiór prac urzekł mnie przejrzystym językiem i stylem pisania. Mimo że moja relacja z poezją nie jest łatwa, niezwykle doceniam sposób, w jaki autorka rozumie ją i analizuję. Nie popada w sentymentalizm, ale pokazuje jej sprawczość oraz społeczny kontekst, co wydaje się kluczowe.
January 19, 2023
I
Wish
I could say
That I
Better Understand
Poetry
But I
Cannot
Because I
Do not
Wish
I could say
That I
Better Understand
Poetry
But I
Cannot
Because I
Do not
January 27, 2025
as with any collection of pieces, i enjoyed some a lot more than others (rating it a 3.5? but easily a 4-4.5 if not for the essays analysing poetry/writers)
the chapters from ‘of woman born’ stood out to me by far - life changing, healing my mummy issues one sentence at a team, helping me have more compassion/understanding forgiveness towards both my mum and myself - cannot wait to read the whole book - should be essential reading for any mother/daughter
some cons - didn’t find the essays analysing poets/writers as enjoyable/interesting (for me personally), a lot of repeating themes, a lot of ideas that aren’t so revolutionary anymore (but of course can appreciate they were at the time)
favourite essays:
- when we dead awaken (especially examining virginia woolf)
- anger and tenderness - recognising that multiple things can be true at once - my mum can both love and resent me/being a mother, she can make mistakes and not be perfect but still be a good mother and trying, it is ok for me to have complicated feelings about her and others also (“you seemed to feel you ought to love us all the time. but there his no human relationship where you love the other person at every moment”
- motherhood and daughterhood (see below for quotes)
- “my hunger at her dissolves into grief and anger for her, and then dissolves back again into anger at her: the ancient, unpaged anger of the child… i no longer have fantasies - they are the unhealed child’s fantasies, i think - of some infinitely healing conversation with her, in which we could show all our wounds, transcend the pain we have shared as mother and daughter, say everything at last. but in writing these pages, i am admitting, at least, how important her existence is and has been for me”
- “whatever our rational forgiveness, whatever the individual mother’s love and strength, the child in us, the small female who grew up in a male-controlled world, still feels, at moments, wildly unbothered. when we can confront and unravel this paradox, this contradiction, face to the utmost in ourselves the groping passion of that little girl lost, we can begin to transmute it, and the blind anger and bitterness that have repetitiously erupted among women trying to build a movement together can be alchemised”
- “there is no indifference or cruelty we can tolerate less than the indifference or cruelty of our mothers”
- “now i am ready to go back and understand the one whose body actually carried me. now i can begin to learn about her, forgive her for the rejection i felt, yearn for her, ache for her. i could never want her until i myself had been wanted… now that i know, i can return to her who could not cherish me as i needed. i can return without blame, and i can hope that she is ready for me”
- compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence
- split at the root - developing an identity and consciousness - “when i try to go back and touch the pulse of that girl of sixteen, growing up in many ways so precocious and so ignorant, i am overwhelmed by a memory of despair, a sense of inevitability more enveloping than any i had ever known”
- blood, bread, and poetry - importance of poetry in relation to social/political issues
- a poets education - the importance of poetry, poetry is not a luxury
- arts of the possible - types of silences, importance of education/literacy
- poetry and the forgotten future - “poetry has the capacity… to remind us of something we are forbidden to see”
the chapters from ‘of woman born’ stood out to me by far - life changing, healing my mummy issues one sentence at a team, helping me have more compassion/understanding forgiveness towards both my mum and myself - cannot wait to read the whole book - should be essential reading for any mother/daughter
some cons - didn’t find the essays analysing poets/writers as enjoyable/interesting (for me personally), a lot of repeating themes, a lot of ideas that aren’t so revolutionary anymore (but of course can appreciate they were at the time)
favourite essays:
- when we dead awaken (especially examining virginia woolf)
- anger and tenderness - recognising that multiple things can be true at once - my mum can both love and resent me/being a mother, she can make mistakes and not be perfect but still be a good mother and trying, it is ok for me to have complicated feelings about her and others also (“you seemed to feel you ought to love us all the time. but there his no human relationship where you love the other person at every moment”
- motherhood and daughterhood (see below for quotes)
- “my hunger at her dissolves into grief and anger for her, and then dissolves back again into anger at her: the ancient, unpaged anger of the child… i no longer have fantasies - they are the unhealed child’s fantasies, i think - of some infinitely healing conversation with her, in which we could show all our wounds, transcend the pain we have shared as mother and daughter, say everything at last. but in writing these pages, i am admitting, at least, how important her existence is and has been for me”
- “whatever our rational forgiveness, whatever the individual mother’s love and strength, the child in us, the small female who grew up in a male-controlled world, still feels, at moments, wildly unbothered. when we can confront and unravel this paradox, this contradiction, face to the utmost in ourselves the groping passion of that little girl lost, we can begin to transmute it, and the blind anger and bitterness that have repetitiously erupted among women trying to build a movement together can be alchemised”
- “there is no indifference or cruelty we can tolerate less than the indifference or cruelty of our mothers”
- “now i am ready to go back and understand the one whose body actually carried me. now i can begin to learn about her, forgive her for the rejection i felt, yearn for her, ache for her. i could never want her until i myself had been wanted… now that i know, i can return to her who could not cherish me as i needed. i can return without blame, and i can hope that she is ready for me”
- compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence
- split at the root - developing an identity and consciousness - “when i try to go back and touch the pulse of that girl of sixteen, growing up in many ways so precocious and so ignorant, i am overwhelmed by a memory of despair, a sense of inevitability more enveloping than any i had ever known”
- blood, bread, and poetry - importance of poetry in relation to social/political issues
- a poets education - the importance of poetry, poetry is not a luxury
- arts of the possible - types of silences, importance of education/literacy
- poetry and the forgotten future - “poetry has the capacity… to remind us of something we are forbidden to see”
May 4, 2021
This read was a second pass at this phenomenal, landmark collection of essays, which presents a scrumptious blend of cultural commentary, literary criticism, second wave feminism, and writer-activism. I think Adrienne Rich most shines when she’s writing *about* poetry (hers or others’) or about feminism and lesbianism. For the time of writing, these essays had a sharp race/class/materialist bend that was surprising and invigorating. I could do without the Freud stuff (replacing parents with lovers in particular ways) but you can’t blame her for interacting with the vogue ideas of the time. The later essays struck me as weaker, or at least less polished/nuanced - who doesn’t think military regimes are bad? In contrast, some of her earlier work does the nearly impossible task of “describing the water to the fish.” (See Split at the Root, a must read!). I also want to note her humility and work-in-progress-ness, which I adored. There were times when her quotes of writers of Color felt obligatory or tokenizing, but as she advanced in her politics, I think she got more adept at bringing together a chorus of voices. (The later essays do this really well, except I think the ideas aren’t as compelling). Excited to dig into her poetry at some point as a complement to this volume of prose!
October 14, 2024
C'est Rich, donc c'est bien écrit, intéressant [update je découvre qu'elle a joué un rôle questionnable dans la publication du bouquin de Janice Raymond, bon]. Au-delà de ce constat de base, j'ai trouvé que les textes étaient quand même d'intérêt assez inégal, donc j'en ai survolé certains. Ce que j'ai trouvé bien, c'était l'accent mis sur ses textes réfléchissant à l'intersection des luttes, et à sa manière spécifique de se positionner elle entre blanchité et judaïté. Corollairement, c'est la réflexion lesbienne qui est un peu minorisée cependant. Après, j'ai trouvé parfois frustrant que la plupart des textes soient autobiographiques ; c'est parfois hyper intéressant, mais dans le recueil, ça crée de la redondance là où on a envie de pouvoir monter un peu en généralité.
Read
September 7, 2024I won’t attempt to give this essay collection a rating because there were many essays I found insightful and thought-provoking and others that I skimmed (not for lack of quality writing, but for a lack of knowledge about poetry). I had been interested in reading more by Rich after reading her famous essay “compulsory heterosexuality” and I also found her essays on motherhood, her Jewish identity, and socialist political philosophy quite interesting. Despite not having that much interest in poetry, some of the essays on the connection between poetry and activism/history made me reflect on some pre-conceived notions I had about poetry. At the end of the day, Rich’s feminism is incomplete (second wave, trans exclusionary), but she is undoubtedly an important voice of her generation and I’m glad I included her work on my literature/feminism self-educational journey.
August 8, 2024
A fantastic collection of essays covering everything from feminism, motherhood, identity, and literary criticism. I was surprised by how intersectional Adrienne Rich's feminism is. My one complaint is that these essays could've been better organized. Instead of being in chronological order and grouped by their original publication, they should've been sorted by subject matter. It would've made the collection more cohesive.
October 13, 2024
i’m so sorry i just feel like nothing was said 🫢 picked this up to read her essay on comp het and i feel like i didn’t learn anything new from reading that essay? and then the rest of the works also felt boring and repetitive (sorry!). i don’t know maybe i missed something. the first few sections about her early life and relationship to motherhood were interesting! after page 100 i felt like it was just the same thing over and over again
1.5⭐️
1.5⭐️
November 22, 2020
Wonderful collection of essays and reflections on poetry, politics, resistance, and becoming socially conscious in a violent, homogenizing, and dissociating society
July 5, 2022
docked one star down because adrienne rich was allegedly a terf.
this was my introduction to rich’s writing, having never read her poetry before. these are illuminating essays that continue to make for timely reading today, and i really appreciate her consistent attempts to locate a historical/material situatedness in poetry. her essays that push for poetics as a praxis of survival are especially convincing. as i was reading, i found myself constantly asking, “what would adrienne rich say about our world in 2022?”
like what other reviewers have pointed out, some of her feminist/lesbian critiques can feel dated now, but i don’t think that’s necessarily rich’s fault because she was writing in the radfem climate that dominated the 70s and 80s. this explains her tendency to rely on gender binaries and bioessentialist readings of the ‘female’ body, which you would be hard-pressed to find in queer studies curricula nowadays. rich is reflexively aware of these issues, and acknowledges that she is not a theorist by training nor does she have the final say on how we should conduct sexual politics—rather, she is trying to propose new epistemic perspectives for feminists as a starting point. i think she achieved what she set out to do, and i imagine reading this stuff in the 80s would have been revelatory.
this was my introduction to rich’s writing, having never read her poetry before. these are illuminating essays that continue to make for timely reading today, and i really appreciate her consistent attempts to locate a historical/material situatedness in poetry. her essays that push for poetics as a praxis of survival are especially convincing. as i was reading, i found myself constantly asking, “what would adrienne rich say about our world in 2022?”
like what other reviewers have pointed out, some of her feminist/lesbian critiques can feel dated now, but i don’t think that’s necessarily rich’s fault because she was writing in the radfem climate that dominated the 70s and 80s. this explains her tendency to rely on gender binaries and bioessentialist readings of the ‘female’ body, which you would be hard-pressed to find in queer studies curricula nowadays. rich is reflexively aware of these issues, and acknowledges that she is not a theorist by training nor does she have the final say on how we should conduct sexual politics—rather, she is trying to propose new epistemic perspectives for feminists as a starting point. i think she achieved what she set out to do, and i imagine reading this stuff in the 80s would have been revelatory.
October 19, 2019
Brilliant, searching, revelatory, and yes, essential, these essays have helped reconnect me to the necessity of poetry and storytelling. Rich's loving unpacking of "Jane Eyre" and her stripping away of the spinsterish sentimentality popularly attributed Emily Dickinson were just what I needed. She tosses off trenchant bons mots on every page. Poets are "not interior decorators"! Poetry is not some soothing form of "linguistic aromatherapy"! Her intellect and erudition are fierce, her beliefs firmly held and solidly grounded, while her understanding is broad, compassionate, embracing.
This was the book I needed when I needed it, to make me fall back into love, into hope and faith too, with the work that properly belongs to writers and artists. And as for "culture" and "politics" (which rub elbows with "poetry" in the title), it's more than a little eerie to see Rich describing our current political/cultural situation twenty, thirty years ago.
I see that another reviewer felt excluded, as a male reader, by Rich. I didn't experience that al all — if anything, I felt specially included. Privileged to be made privy to insights no male writer could have shown me. Privileged to be invited into the powerful mind of a writer whom words never failed and whose experience, rendered with such clarity, was so unlike mine.
Every writer needs this book.
This was the book I needed when I needed it, to make me fall back into love, into hope and faith too, with the work that properly belongs to writers and artists. And as for "culture" and "politics" (which rub elbows with "poetry" in the title), it's more than a little eerie to see Rich describing our current political/cultural situation twenty, thirty years ago.
I see that another reviewer felt excluded, as a male reader, by Rich. I didn't experience that al all — if anything, I felt specially included. Privileged to be made privy to insights no male writer could have shown me. Privileged to be invited into the powerful mind of a writer whom words never failed and whose experience, rendered with such clarity, was so unlike mine.
Every writer needs this book.
October 22, 2018
This is, hands-down, the best book I have read all year. I am so grateful it exists.
December 4, 2018
History's transgressions are angled,
the physical is a mining of the mind,
we are all slippery for blood,
a prayer for the possessed, the wayward, the lost.
#poem
Chris Roberts, Sudden God
the physical is a mining of the mind,
we are all slippery for blood,
a prayer for the possessed, the wayward, the lost.
#poem
Chris Roberts, Sudden God
June 2, 2024
Kocham myśli inteligentnych kobiet
May 30, 2024
He leído con detenimiento los ensayos de Adrienne Rich y debo decir que su postura feminista es una de las más radicales y coherentes que he encontrado. Rich no se limita a denunciar la opresión de las mujeres; va mucho más allá al cuestionar las estructuras mismas de poder que perpetúan la desigualdad. Su enfoque es profundamente interseccional, reconociendo cómo el racismo, el clasismo y la heteronormatividad se entrelazan con el patriarcado para oprimir a diferentes grupos de mujeres de maneras específicas y complejas.
Una de las ideas más poderosas que Rich desarrolla es la de la "heterosexualidad obligatoria" como una institución política, no simplemente una preferencia sexual. Ella argumenta que la heterosexualidad ha sido impuesta a las mujeres como una forma de control social que asegura su dependencia económica y emocional de los hombres. Este control, sostiene Rich, no solo afecta a las mujeres heterosexuales, sino que también invisibiliza y margina a las lesbianas, creando un ambiente donde cualquier desviación del modelo heterosexual es vista como una amenaza al orden patriarcal.
Además, Rich no teme explorar las complejidades y contradicciones dentro del movimiento feminista mismo. En su ensayo "Para una crítica más feminista", critica la tendencia de los feminismos blancos a ignorar las experiencias de las mujeres de color, subrayando cómo su propio privilegio de mujer blanca influye en la recepción de sus ideas. Ella señala que, aunque es consciente de su posición y de los límites de su perspectiva, su trabajo todavía es tomado más en serio que el de muchas mujeres de color cuyas experiencias y conocimientos son igualmente, si no más, valiosos.
Rich también aboga por una "política de la localización", una noción que toma prestada de la filósofa Donna Haraway. Esta idea implica que nuestras teorías y prácticas feministas deben ser situadas en contextos específicos y ser sensibles a las diferencias de lugar y tiempo. Rich insiste en que el feminismo no puede ser una talla única para todas, sino que debe adaptarse y responder a las realidades concretas de las mujeres en diferentes partes del mundo y en diferentes momentos históricos.
Lo que encuentro más admirable de Rich es su capacidad para integrar lo personal con lo político. Para ella, la poesía y la prosa no son solo formas de expresión artística, sino herramientas poderosas de resistencia y cambio social. En "Heterosexualidad obligatoria y existencia lesbiana", Rich utiliza su poesía para articular una crítica feroz del patriarcado y para imaginar nuevas formas de comunidad y solidaridad entre mujeres. Su obra es un testimonio de cómo el arte puede ser una forma de conocimiento y un medio para desafiar y transformar las estructuras de poder opresivas.
Rich también es conocida por su enfoque en la maternidad, distinguiendo entre la experiencia de ser madre y la institución de la maternidad. Argumenta que el patriarcado ha domesticado y controlado la maternidad para mantener a las mujeres en roles subordinados, pero al mismo tiempo celebra la potencialidad transformadora de la experiencia materna cuando se libera de estas constricciones institucionales. Esta distinción entre experiencia e institución es fundamental para entender cómo Rich aborda otras áreas de la vida de las mujeres y sus luchas por la autodeterminación.
Una de las contribuciones más importantes de Rich es su insistencia en que el feminismo debe ser un movimiento inclusivo y diverso. Ella desafía al feminismo a enfrentar y desmantelar sus propias formas de exclusión y opresión, y llama a una solidaridad que atraviese líneas de raza, clase y sexualidad. Su obra es un llamado constante a expandir el alcance y la profundidad de nuestra lucha por la justicia, y a hacerlo de una manera que reconozca y respete las diferencias y las complejidades de las vidas de todas las mujeres.
En "Las mujeres y el honor: algunos apuntes sobre el mentir", Adrienne Rich aborda el impacto de la mentira y el silencio en las relaciones entre mujeres, y cómo estos actos son utilizados como herramientas de supervivencia dentro del patriarcado. Rich explora cómo la mentira, en sus diversas formas, ha sido una estrategia necesaria para las mujeres, obligadas a ocultar sus verdaderas identidades y deseos bajo la presión de expectativas sociales opresivas. Ella argumenta que el mentir es una forma de protegerse en un mundo que no permite la autenticidad femenina, lo que perpetúa un ciclo de deshonestidad y alienación entre las mujeres. Rich destaca la importancia de crear una nueva ética entre mujeres, basada en la honestidad y el reconocimiento mutuo. Ella cree que la liberación femenina pasa por romper estos silencios y mentiras, abriendo espacios para el diálogo y la autenticidad. Al hacerlo, las mujeres pueden construir comunidades más fuertes y solidarias, capaces de resistir y desafiar las imposiciones patriarcales.
Una de las ideas más poderosas que Rich desarrolla es la de la "heterosexualidad obligatoria" como una institución política, no simplemente una preferencia sexual. Ella argumenta que la heterosexualidad ha sido impuesta a las mujeres como una forma de control social que asegura su dependencia económica y emocional de los hombres. Este control, sostiene Rich, no solo afecta a las mujeres heterosexuales, sino que también invisibiliza y margina a las lesbianas, creando un ambiente donde cualquier desviación del modelo heterosexual es vista como una amenaza al orden patriarcal.
Además, Rich no teme explorar las complejidades y contradicciones dentro del movimiento feminista mismo. En su ensayo "Para una crítica más feminista", critica la tendencia de los feminismos blancos a ignorar las experiencias de las mujeres de color, subrayando cómo su propio privilegio de mujer blanca influye en la recepción de sus ideas. Ella señala que, aunque es consciente de su posición y de los límites de su perspectiva, su trabajo todavía es tomado más en serio que el de muchas mujeres de color cuyas experiencias y conocimientos son igualmente, si no más, valiosos.
Rich también aboga por una "política de la localización", una noción que toma prestada de la filósofa Donna Haraway. Esta idea implica que nuestras teorías y prácticas feministas deben ser situadas en contextos específicos y ser sensibles a las diferencias de lugar y tiempo. Rich insiste en que el feminismo no puede ser una talla única para todas, sino que debe adaptarse y responder a las realidades concretas de las mujeres en diferentes partes del mundo y en diferentes momentos históricos.
Lo que encuentro más admirable de Rich es su capacidad para integrar lo personal con lo político. Para ella, la poesía y la prosa no son solo formas de expresión artística, sino herramientas poderosas de resistencia y cambio social. En "Heterosexualidad obligatoria y existencia lesbiana", Rich utiliza su poesía para articular una crítica feroz del patriarcado y para imaginar nuevas formas de comunidad y solidaridad entre mujeres. Su obra es un testimonio de cómo el arte puede ser una forma de conocimiento y un medio para desafiar y transformar las estructuras de poder opresivas.
Rich también es conocida por su enfoque en la maternidad, distinguiendo entre la experiencia de ser madre y la institución de la maternidad. Argumenta que el patriarcado ha domesticado y controlado la maternidad para mantener a las mujeres en roles subordinados, pero al mismo tiempo celebra la potencialidad transformadora de la experiencia materna cuando se libera de estas constricciones institucionales. Esta distinción entre experiencia e institución es fundamental para entender cómo Rich aborda otras áreas de la vida de las mujeres y sus luchas por la autodeterminación.
Una de las contribuciones más importantes de Rich es su insistencia en que el feminismo debe ser un movimiento inclusivo y diverso. Ella desafía al feminismo a enfrentar y desmantelar sus propias formas de exclusión y opresión, y llama a una solidaridad que atraviese líneas de raza, clase y sexualidad. Su obra es un llamado constante a expandir el alcance y la profundidad de nuestra lucha por la justicia, y a hacerlo de una manera que reconozca y respete las diferencias y las complejidades de las vidas de todas las mujeres.
En "Las mujeres y el honor: algunos apuntes sobre el mentir", Adrienne Rich aborda el impacto de la mentira y el silencio en las relaciones entre mujeres, y cómo estos actos son utilizados como herramientas de supervivencia dentro del patriarcado. Rich explora cómo la mentira, en sus diversas formas, ha sido una estrategia necesaria para las mujeres, obligadas a ocultar sus verdaderas identidades y deseos bajo la presión de expectativas sociales opresivas. Ella argumenta que el mentir es una forma de protegerse en un mundo que no permite la autenticidad femenina, lo que perpetúa un ciclo de deshonestidad y alienación entre las mujeres. Rich destaca la importancia de crear una nueva ética entre mujeres, basada en la honestidad y el reconocimiento mutuo. Ella cree que la liberación femenina pasa por romper estos silencios y mentiras, abriendo espacios para el diálogo y la autenticidad. Al hacerlo, las mujeres pueden construir comunidades más fuertes y solidarias, capaces de resistir y desafiar las imposiciones patriarcales.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 10, 2024
The first thing I ever read by Adrienne Rich was her famous poem, Diving Into The Wreck. I was a freshman in college, and it took my breath away...it still does. I picked up this book of her essays upon reading the New York Times book review in 2019 and finally started reading it 2 years later (my only excuse is my TBR pile was huge and growing). One of the essays is a discussion of Emily Dickinson’s work from a feminist perspective, thoroughly skewering the infantilization of the poet, largely by men, along with the insipid analyses and anthology inclusions. An amazing piece of writing. Her analysis of Jayne Eyre is also greatly elucidating. While I never felt the need to read anything by the Brontë sisters, I do believe I will tackle this book soon (which I did).
The introduction to Essential Essays, written by Sandra M. Gilbert, references a 1965 article in Poetry magazine where Rich reviewed a new collection of DH Lawrence's work, whose poetry and prose I have also read and love. I found that article online. Though not as meaty as the treatise on Dickinson or Brontë, it was still an enjoyable and informative read.
I found myself mesmerized, nodding in agreement with every word of Adrienne Rich's writing on motherhood. The expectation (on a societal and individual level) of the nearly complete abnegation of the self to motherhood is something only I caught faint glimpses of out of the corner of my eye from time to time while I was in the thick of it. As a mother of an older teen and in a crumbling marriage, I was desperate to reclaim my SELF. I did some shameful, hideous things in my violent, yet incomplete, reclamation of a self I hardly knew. That I still have a close relationship with my son is something I hold sacred. I came far too close to losing it.
I read the mother-as-daughter section of the book with a great deal of trepidation, given my fraught relationship with my mother. Throughout my son's infancy and toddlerhood, I was acutely aware of how my feelings about my mother—feelings I thought I had resolved—were bubbling up, forcing new questions to which there would be no answers. As I age I am beginning to wonder if I, as a child, had unrealistic expectations of my mother. I know I had some pretty unrealistic expectations of myself as a mother. I had to be perfect, even as I professed my imperfection to my child.
I have always loved to read. Literary fiction, historical fiction, and poetry were my staples. I do still love those genres, but that is distractive reading. As I seem to still be in the throes of self-discovery well into my 50s, I have a deep thirst for knowledge, especially from my foremothers. I was reading a review of Rebecca Solnit's book on George Orwell. While I understand the political connection, it's the disconnect with Orwell's views on women and feminism that intrigues me. I also read about several books on Hannah Arendt. I cannot WAIT to learn more about her! And down a philosophical and political rabbit hole, I go… I hope I can post about my discoveries here...
The introduction to Essential Essays, written by Sandra M. Gilbert, references a 1965 article in Poetry magazine where Rich reviewed a new collection of DH Lawrence's work, whose poetry and prose I have also read and love. I found that article online. Though not as meaty as the treatise on Dickinson or Brontë, it was still an enjoyable and informative read.
I found myself mesmerized, nodding in agreement with every word of Adrienne Rich's writing on motherhood. The expectation (on a societal and individual level) of the nearly complete abnegation of the self to motherhood is something only I caught faint glimpses of out of the corner of my eye from time to time while I was in the thick of it. As a mother of an older teen and in a crumbling marriage, I was desperate to reclaim my SELF. I did some shameful, hideous things in my violent, yet incomplete, reclamation of a self I hardly knew. That I still have a close relationship with my son is something I hold sacred. I came far too close to losing it.
I read the mother-as-daughter section of the book with a great deal of trepidation, given my fraught relationship with my mother. Throughout my son's infancy and toddlerhood, I was acutely aware of how my feelings about my mother—feelings I thought I had resolved—were bubbling up, forcing new questions to which there would be no answers. As I age I am beginning to wonder if I, as a child, had unrealistic expectations of my mother. I know I had some pretty unrealistic expectations of myself as a mother. I had to be perfect, even as I professed my imperfection to my child.
I have always loved to read. Literary fiction, historical fiction, and poetry were my staples. I do still love those genres, but that is distractive reading. As I seem to still be in the throes of self-discovery well into my 50s, I have a deep thirst for knowledge, especially from my foremothers. I was reading a review of Rebecca Solnit's book on George Orwell. While I understand the political connection, it's the disconnect with Orwell's views on women and feminism that intrigues me. I also read about several books on Hannah Arendt. I cannot WAIT to learn more about her! And down a philosophical and political rabbit hole, I go… I hope I can post about my discoveries here...
December 17, 2018
I am sure that I cannot easily articulate the experience of reading these essays. First, there is a sense of not being the intended audience. This is a discussion about, amongst and for women. The sources she draws on and the writers she writes about are predominantly women. Male society and culture are seen as a threat, as oppressive, as something which must be pushed back and away in order for this discussion to go on. At times I felt I would protest that she was unfair or simplistic in assigning all blame for the way the world is to men. She seemed to say in some essays that relationships with men are hurtful to women and that it is the women in women's lives that provide nurturing and support. I wanted to protest that this is too simplistic, and the easy counter-argument would be to ask her whether lesbian couples were not as prone to the same disagreements, misunderstandings, jealousies, changes of heart, etc., as heterosexual relationships. Isn't it part of the human condition? In the end, though, my reaction was mostly to find the discussion very interesting. Rich's poetry is wonderful and I found, in the end, that her essays did speak to me, although they bade me be silent to let the women get on with THEIR discussion of what it means to be a woman. Sometimes just listening is best.
December 21, 2023
3,5. Me lo recomendó una profesora de Sociología. Es un ensayo denso, yo lo he ido leyendo poco a poco a lo largo de casi dos meses. Me ha gustado, creo que tiene cosas muy interesantes. Hace que te pares a pensar en aspectos que a lo mejor si no te los dicen no te percatas (al menos yo). El último artículo, por llamarlo de alguna manera, es el único que no me ha acabado de convencer, he sentido que no me aportaba lo mismo que los anteriores.
«No podemos esperar poder llegar a definir una cultura feminista, una visión ginocéntrica, desde una perspectiva racista, porque en ese caso no llegaríamos a conocer nunca una parte de nosotras».
«No pretendo sugerir con ello que la mujer con todos o muchos de los privilegios que compartan la piel blanca, la heterosexualidad, unos determinados orígenes de clase queda descalificada por ese hecho para escribir y comentar críticamente la obra de otras. No obstante, pienso que tiene la responsabilidad de no leer, pensar, escribir y actuar como si todas las mujeres tuvieran los mismos privilegios o de presuponer que el privilegio le confiere algún tipo de percepción especial».
«No podemos esperar poder llegar a definir una cultura feminista, una visión ginocéntrica, desde una perspectiva racista, porque en ese caso no llegaríamos a conocer nunca una parte de nosotras».
«No pretendo sugerir con ello que la mujer con todos o muchos de los privilegios que compartan la piel blanca, la heterosexualidad, unos determinados orígenes de clase queda descalificada por ese hecho para escribir y comentar críticamente la obra de otras. No obstante, pienso que tiene la responsabilidad de no leer, pensar, escribir y actuar como si todas las mujeres tuvieran los mismos privilegios o de presuponer que el privilegio le confiere algún tipo de percepción especial».
April 6, 2021
I kind of lost touch with Adrienne Rich's work in the late 80s so it was interesting to go back to her 1970s essays and also to see what she was thinking about in the early 21st century. I can only say it's a mercy she didn't live to see the 2016 election, because she was already in despair about the possibility of justice and equity in the US in the 1990s. It was both bracing and depressing to see that she was saying even then the things that we are still having to say today, in a voice every bit as angry and radical.
One thing she repeatedly pointed out in her late essays was that, while totalitarian communism as a system of government has been totally discredited, the economic and social questions Marx asked have never been answered and have been pushed out of the public arena completely as valid topics of discussion.
Her constant concern throughout her life was the role of the poet in the real world. I wonder where she would stand today.
One thing she repeatedly pointed out in her late essays was that, while totalitarian communism as a system of government has been totally discredited, the economic and social questions Marx asked have never been answered and have been pushed out of the public arena completely as valid topics of discussion.
Her constant concern throughout her life was the role of the poet in the real world. I wonder where she would stand today.
July 1, 2021
Before reading this book, I assumed Adrienne Rich was a typical 2nd wave 1970s feminist. I remember the line that first jolted me out of that tidy label. Writing in the 70s, she mentions the repression of doing dishes and caring for children, like I'd expect her to. But then she considers the women who do other people's dishes and care for other people's children. And then she considers the women who had to spend all night on the streets just to have the basics to care for their children.
For many white, middle-class feminists, the problems of patriarchy begin and end with the obstacles they face. For Adrienne Rich, that's an entry point to deeply intersectional work. The final essays in this collection are about Guantanamo and Palestine.
I'm so grateful I was able to spend this time with such a wise and open-hearted person.
For many white, middle-class feminists, the problems of patriarchy begin and end with the obstacles they face. For Adrienne Rich, that's an entry point to deeply intersectional work. The final essays in this collection are about Guantanamo and Palestine.
I'm so grateful I was able to spend this time with such a wise and open-hearted person.
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