Analysis of Fisher and Braslavsky

 Alexander Pfau

03/29/24

    Once again, it was a pleasure to have the speakers here today. Fisher and Braslavsky were analyzing the former poet Mansour, a formerly Jewish woman whose family moved to Cairo later. A radical poet, her goal was to create a vision where women are just as awful as men rather than better, in order to create equal footing between the genders. I personally think this is the best way to go about this, as opposed to so called "corporate feminism", which is generally too publicized and unrealistic. However, her poet's constant reference to explicit content was not something I would read, sort of similar to the poems in snow at 5pm. Another important mention by Fisher was that there is a general panic created by translators where there is a hyperfocus on analysis. She argues that this should not be the case, since while analyzing the text is important, It can often distract from the initial purpose of the text, and in doing so hurts the translation 

    This poet was radical. Mansour's poetry was extremely focused on femineity, which, while not being a bad thing, is not my style as mentioned above. Her poetry was centered on the feminine parts of her body, and since she died of breast cancer, it is quite ironic. One of my favorite lines in her poetry was that she wished "To have the power to piss in the street". Obviously a strange line, I don't want to do that, and I don't think you do either Mr. Vincent. However, it is a pretty obvious metaphor for the ability to do inappropriate act at a point where they are frowned upon. This is not voyeurism. Instead, it's an outburst against the suppression of female sexuality in the 1900s, which is constant throughout all of her poems. While her methods are extremely direct, her wry symbolism makes me respect her ability to speak out with such force.