Writing the Self
“Writing the Self” Workshop Report
-Neha Mustafi
Women Study Centre, Jesus and Mary College organised a workshop on “Writing the Self: the importance of writing as an expression of one’s agency” on the 20th of September, 2019. The workshop was conducted by Dr. Nitoo Das, who is a birder, caricaturist and poet. She also teaches literature at Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi.
When asked, all the students had different expectations from the workshop. Everyone interpreted the meaning of “self” and “agency” differently. While some were looking forward to a more theoretical, academic discussion about women’s writing- about how women writers have been sidelined through the history dominated by male writers and about the relevance of the canonisation of women writers others attended the workshop for a more practical learning a handful of girls wanted to go back to writing and hence came to the workshop to learn a few skills while others were curious about expressing gender specific emotions.
Hence, Dr. Das began the workshop by talking about the “self” that writers want to articulate. As a warm up exercise she asked the students to jot down five words that they thought defined their “self”, however, she also brought attention to the fact that, “the self that we think is our own is also a constructed self, it is several layers of what people have told you about who you are and who you are meant to be.” Once, everyone was done writing the five words, Dr. Das asked each student to tell the group what their first word was- the words ranged from childish, anxiety to confident, caring and fighter. Dr. Das explained that,”how much of who we think we are is a story, is a narrative that we tell ourselves or is a narrative that is told to us by others, so this(exercise) is an important entry point to see that the self that we think we know so well is various levels of which we only see the top or the superficial layer.”
Dr. Das then asked the students if a fictional character made out of the qualities listed by each individual student would be interesting or not. To this most of the students agreed that yes if a character had all of the qualities listed by her, he or she would be interesting. Dr. Das then went on to ask if we knew what features a good fictional character should have- to this some of the qualities mentioned by the students were- contradictions and development, a good character should have something unique something that holds the attention of the reader.
Dr. Das then moved on to the second exercise in which she asked the students to write five words which described a moment in their childhood which created conflict, anxiety and disruption within them. Some of the words that were floated in the group were- lost, insecurity, unsettling and math problems. She noted that the words that were produced in the second exercise were more interesting and with more depth. These were words with which an interesting character could be created. She added that the very fact that a lot girls didn’t want to share their words was because these words made them vulnerable, she continued, that the very act of writing was an act of vulnerability. Dr. Das mentioned that the “first set of words describe your external self while the second set of words are more about who you are or who you have become”.
As an extension of this exercise, Dr. Das asked the students to look for an object within the college premises that could act as a metaphor for the word chosen by them. After ten minutes few objects mentioned by the students were- the basketball court, a withered leaf, playground, a calculator, etc. According to Dr. Das, writing about the self is vulnerable but it does not always mean that the writer has to bare herself to the audience as it is. Substituting objects for emotions can help the writer in expressing her vulnerabilities. She then took an example of a poem-“The Years Come A- Tumbling” from an anthology of poems called the Terranium by Urvashi Bahugana in which the narrator draws a relation between a ring broken by her lover and how as a child the narrator too broke a fancy dress butterfly wing which was made by her mom. Dr. Das said that expressing through objects is a “trick” available to the writer, the writer does not always have to reveal everything to the reader.
Dr. Das now moved the focus of the workshop to love poems. She mentioned how writing about “love” is a huge part of writing about the “self”. She took the example of “The Years Come A- Tumbling” and drew attention to the fact that the poem was about a daughter’s love for her mother and not her boyfriend and hence clarified that love poems need not just talk about the hetero-normative kind of love. When a student raised a point about love poems turning into cliches because of the fact that so many people write about it, Dr. Das mentioned Margaret Atwood’s short story called “Happy Endings” which talks about how all the love stories are permutations and combinations of the same thing. Dr. Das continued that “Atwood deconstructs the idea of a love story and suggests a way of breaking away from the cliché”.
Dr. Nitoo Das concluded the workshop with a reading of one of her cynical poems called “How to cut a fish”.
-Neha Mustafi
Women Study Centre, Jesus and Mary College organised a workshop on “Writing the Self: the importance of writing as an expression of one’s agency” on the 20th of September, 2019. The workshop was conducted by Dr. Nitoo Das, who is a birder, caricaturist and poet. She also teaches literature at Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi.
When asked, all the students had different expectations from the workshop. Everyone interpreted the meaning of “self” and “agency” differently. While some were looking forward to a more theoretical, academic discussion about women’s writing- about how women writers have been sidelined through the history dominated by male writers and about the relevance of the canonisation of women writers others attended the workshop for a more practical learning a handful of girls wanted to go back to writing and hence came to the workshop to learn a few skills while others were curious about expressing gender specific emotions.
Hence, Dr. Das began the workshop by talking about the “self” that writers want to articulate. As a warm up exercise she asked the students to jot down five words that they thought defined their “self”, however, she also brought attention to the fact that, “the self that we think is our own is also a constructed self, it is several layers of what people have told you about who you are and who you are meant to be.” Once, everyone was done writing the five words, Dr. Das asked each student to tell the group what their first word was- the words ranged from childish, anxiety to confident, caring and fighter. Dr. Das explained that,”how much of who we think we are is a story, is a narrative that we tell ourselves or is a narrative that is told to us by others, so this(exercise) is an important entry point to see that the self that we think we know so well is various levels of which we only see the top or the superficial layer.”
Dr. Das then asked the students if a fictional character made out of the qualities listed by each individual student would be interesting or not. To this most of the students agreed that yes if a character had all of the qualities listed by her, he or she would be interesting. Dr. Das then went on to ask if we knew what features a good fictional character should have- to this some of the qualities mentioned by the students were- contradictions and development, a good character should have something unique something that holds the attention of the reader.
Dr. Das then moved on to the second exercise in which she asked the students to write five words which described a moment in their childhood which created conflict, anxiety and disruption within them. Some of the words that were floated in the group were- lost, insecurity, unsettling and math problems. She noted that the words that were produced in the second exercise were more interesting and with more depth. These were words with which an interesting character could be created. She added that the very fact that a lot girls didn’t want to share their words was because these words made them vulnerable, she continued, that the very act of writing was an act of vulnerability. Dr. Das mentioned that the “first set of words describe your external self while the second set of words are more about who you are or who you have become”.
As an extension of this exercise, Dr. Das asked the students to look for an object within the college premises that could act as a metaphor for the word chosen by them. After ten minutes few objects mentioned by the students were- the basketball court, a withered leaf, playground, a calculator, etc. According to Dr. Das, writing about the self is vulnerable but it does not always mean that the writer has to bare herself to the audience as it is. Substituting objects for emotions can help the writer in expressing her vulnerabilities. She then took an example of a poem-“The Years Come A- Tumbling” from an anthology of poems called the Terranium by Urvashi Bahugana in which the narrator draws a relation between a ring broken by her lover and how as a child the narrator too broke a fancy dress butterfly wing which was made by her mom. Dr. Das said that expressing through objects is a “trick” available to the writer, the writer does not always have to reveal everything to the reader.
Dr. Das now moved the focus of the workshop to love poems. She mentioned how writing about “love” is a huge part of writing about the “self”. She took the example of “The Years Come A- Tumbling” and drew attention to the fact that the poem was about a daughter’s love for her mother and not her boyfriend and hence clarified that love poems need not just talk about the hetero-normative kind of love. When a student raised a point about love poems turning into cliches because of the fact that so many people write about it, Dr. Das mentioned Margaret Atwood’s short story called “Happy Endings” which talks about how all the love stories are permutations and combinations of the same thing. Dr. Das continued that “Atwood deconstructs the idea of a love story and suggests a way of breaking away from the cliché”.
Dr. Nitoo Das concluded the workshop with a reading of one of her cynical poems called “How to cut a fish”.
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