We Heal From Memory: Sexton, Lorde, Anzaldúa, and the Poetry of Witness

Through an examination of the poetry of Anne Sexton, Audre Lorde, and Gloria Anzaldúa, We Heal From Memory paints a vivid picture of how our culture carries a history of traumatic violence - child sexual abuse, the ownership and enforcement of women's sexuality under slavery, the transmission of violence through generations, and the destruction of non-white cultures and their histories through colonization. According to Cassie Premo Steele, the poetry of Sexton, Lorde, and Anzaldúa allows us to witness and to heal from such disparate traumatic events. Through an examination of the poetry of Anne Sexton, Audre Lorde, and Gloria Anzaldus, We Heal From Memory paints a vivid picture of how our culture carries a history of traumatic violence - child sexual abuse, the ownership and enforcement of women's sexuality under slavery, the transmission of violence through generations, and the destruction of non-white cultures and their histories through colonization. As Cassie Premo Steele demonstrates, the poetry of Sexton, Lorde, and Anzaldua allows us to witness and to heal from such disparate traumatic events because the "evidence" is not to be found in the events themselves but in the survivors' painful reaction to having survived." "It is not the event itself that determines whether it is traumatic; it is the way that the survivor survives such violence by not experiencing it in the normal way we experience and remember. This is why poetry allows survivors to witness others' survival: poetry, like trauma, takes images, feelings, rhythms, sounds, and the physical sensations of the body as evidence. It is in attending to this "evidence" that we may realize that not only women, but all of us - men, women, and children - are hurt by the horror of violence, and such witnessing leads to the realization that we do not have to continue to be either the victims or the perpetrators of such violence if we heal from memory publisher's description "Through an examination of the poetry of Anne Sexton, Audre Lorde, and Gloria Anzaldus, We Heal From Memory paints a vivid picture of how our culture carries a history of traumatic violence - child sexual abuse, the ownership and enforcement of women's sexuality under slavery, the transmission of violence through generations, and the destruction of non-white cultures and their histories through colonization. As Cassie Premo Steele demonstrates, the poetry of Sexton, Lorde, and Anzaldua allows us to witness and to heal from such disparate traumatic events because the "evidence" is not to be found in the events themselves but in the survivors' painful reaction to having survived." "It is not the event itself that determines whether it is traumatic; it is the way that the survivor survives such violence by not experiencing it in the normal way we experience and remember. This is why poetry allows survivors to witness others' survival: poetry, like trauma, takes images, feelings, rhythms, sounds, and the physical sensations of the body as evidence. It is in attending to this "evidence" that we may realize that not only women, but all of us - men, women, and children - are hurt by the horror of violence, and such witnessing leads to the realization that we do not have to continue to be either the victims or the perpetrators of such violence if we heal from memory."--Jacket Cover 1 Half-Title 2 Title 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 Introduction We Heal From Memory: Sexton, Lorde, Anzaldua and The Poetry of Witness 12 PART I 24 Chapter 1: "My night mind saw such strange happenings": Anne Sexton and Childhood Sexual Trauma 25 Chapter 2: "We are sisters and our survival is mutual": Audre Lorde and the Connections between Individual and Collective Trauma 36 Chapter 3: "Una Herida Abierta": The Border as Wound in Gloria Anzaldúa's Borderlands/La Frontera 49 PART II 64 Chapter 4: "This Kind of Hope": Anne Sexton and the Language of Survival 65 Chapter 5: "My eyes are always hungry and remembering": Audre Lorde and the Poetry of Witness 78 Chapter 6: Healing from Awakened Dreams: Anzaldúa as Individual and Collective Witness 86 PART III 97 Chapter 7: "I wish to enter her like a dream": Anne Sexton and the Prophecy of Healing 98 Chapter 8: Drawing Strength from Our Mothers: Tapping the Roots of Black Women's History 117 Chapter 9: Grinding the Bones to Create Anew: Gloria Anzaldua's Mestiza Mythology 131 Conclusion The Emperor Wears No Clothes 151 Notes 156 Bibliography 192 Anne Sexton 192 Audre Lorde 199 Gloria Anzaldúa 205 Trauma Studies 212 Index 217 Front Matter....Pages i-x Introduction....Pages 1-12 Front Matter....Pages 13-13 “My night mind saw such strange happenings”: Anne Sexton and Childhood Sexual Trauma....Pages 15-25 “We are sisters and our survival is mutual”: Audre Lorde and the Connections between Individual and Collective Trauma....Pages 27-39 “Una Herida Abierta”: The Border as Wound in Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera....Pages 41-55 Front Matter....Pages 57-57 “This Kind of Hope”: Anne Sexton and the Language of Survival....Pages 59-71 “My eyes are always hungry and remembering”: Audre Lorde and the Poetry of Witness....Pages 73-80 Healing from Awakened Dreams: Anzaldúa as Individual and Collective Witness....Pages 81-91 Front Matter....Pages 93-93 “I wish to enter her like a dream”: Anne Sexton and the Prophecy of Healing....Pages 95-113 Drawing Strength from Our Mothers: Tapping the Roots of Black Women’s History....Pages 115-128 Grinding the Bones to Create Anew: Gloria Anzaldúa’s Mestiza Mythology....Pages 129-148 Conclusion....Pages 149-153 Back Matter....Pages 155-221