More diverse groups of people are entering the field of digital humanities and feminism is becoming more and more existent. Feminism in the digital humanities was our main topic of discussion this week.
“My Body: A Wunderkammer,” a hypertext fiction by Shelley Jackson, does a great job of expressing femininity through a very interesting topic: the human body. This piece of digital literature begins with a drawing of the female human anatomy. As you click on the names of each body part, you are taken to a new page with Shelley Jackson’s personal story about that specific body part as she is growing up. Each personal story has hyperlinks that will take you to another new page with another new story about a different body part. Jackson was very detailed with her writing and did not hold back while talking about these very personal things.
No matter who we are, we are always aware of our physical appearance. Our bodies go through many changes as we experience puberty and many of us may become self conscious during that awkward time. Since we all go through the awkward stage, I thought this piece was very relatable which made me want to keep reading.
Another piece of digital literature we looked at this week was “Pieces of Herself” by Juliet Davis. It is a click and drag story that talks about the female embodiment and the interactions with private and public spaces. It’s about finding yourself and interacting with your surroundings. When objects are dragged to the body it can “trigger audio files ranging from music to a biblical pronouncement about the "proper" socio-cultural function of women.” This gave more emphasis to what was happening in the story and created a gray atmosphere. Each of the environments has a different story to tell and different objects to drag. Overall this hypertext was a great representation of the female embodiment and her interactions with the world.
Nice work, guys!
ReplyDeleteI liked how you discussed how we all can relate to Jackson's work. All of our bodies, male and female, go through changes, awkward awkward changes and our awareness of them often does lead to an almost negative hyper-awareness of ourself. Reading about someone else's very personal and honest retelling of how they viewed and interacted with themselves also keep me reading.
ReplyDeleteI like how you integrated what Dr. Justus talked about in class about how women are just now starting to show themselves into this field. I think this piece will grab more interest from females and let it continue to grow in diversity. good work!
ReplyDeleteI like how you integrated what Dr. Justus talked about in class about how women are just now starting to show themselves into this field. I think this piece will grab more interest from females and let it continue to grow in diversity. good work!
ReplyDeleteThe images selected are key to describing this piece of e-lit! They are awesome! I agree with your viewpoint of how it relates to us, humans and how it kept you interested. Overall, I found your blog post was very nice and helpful!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this blog. Everyone has their own experiences with the maturation of their body, all unique in their own ways. So making these body part hyperlinks gives the reader a strong feel for what she was thinking, and how we can ponder on our feelings and thoughts of our pubescent stage of life. Well done!!
ReplyDeleteI agree that these pieces were easy to relate to. I especially thought your reflection, "No matter who we are, we are always aware of our physical appearance," was a perfect description.
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