My blog 'littlewords' centres largely around personal connection across cultures and developing an understanding of the specificities of communication that can both enable and hinder these interactions. I explored this both analytically and in creative pieces and came to develop stronger opinions throughout the course. My blog posts also illustrate how I learnt to link with different elements of an individual's interests and personality in order to find commonality and mutual understanding. I sought to exemplify the sensitivities and consideration towards cultural differences in my creative practice and began to discuss them more directly in my poetry.
HABITUS POST:
Early on I developed a sense of what my personal habitus is as a writer, and more importantly an awareness of how this influences my work. This was extremely important to establish as the vantage point from which I not only write, but also from which interact with other works and people. I defined 'habitus' as "the collection of social norms, customs, communication and body language that shape an individual's experience of the world." One of the most important ramifications of the notion of habitus is that it "contends that many of these things we take for granted and see as inherent in the human experience are actually learned and constructed, either deliberately or subconsciously." This assertion was consolidated by Kerry Mullan's presentation on the differing cultural constructs of language and politeness. Furthermore, in my blog post I realised that I "often write about elements of metropolitan, western womanhood that may be common to other individuals who belong to this habitus." Whilst it is often easier to connect with those who belong to a similar habitus to ourselves, meaningful connection can still be forged across habitus and is extremely important. In this blog post I stated that "as a writer, I seek to interrogate and be aware of these constructions and systems that impact my sense of reality, and consider how other people's may be different." Throughout the course I did this and aim to continue to do so in my future practice. Since writing this blog post I have reflected further upon both the opportunities and limitations my geographic and socio-political place in the world provide.
WHO CAN WRITE POST:
Being exposed to a wide range of texts and dissecting their origins and implications allowed me to develop my personal opinions and ethical stance on issues I had not previously interrogated deeply. When asked "who can write whom? who can't write whom?" I was prompted to put into exact words and logical argument an opinion that existed formerly as an undeveloped gut feeling. My learning around the notion of habitus informed this post as I opened by stating "everything we write comes from some form of our own experience and perspective, whether it be observations, travel or research." I used inclusive language such as "we" to speak to the writing community I am a part of. My main contention was as follows:
"Events we may write about often include other people and characters we create are either consciously or subconsciously drawn from individuals we've interacted with. However, some stories belong more to us than others. Although there is no concrete rule, we need to know when we do not have the right to tell a story based in fact. We should not bare the trauma of those who have confided in us on the page. We must recognise that our perspective is only one of many."
Furthermore, I encouraged all writers to consider the subjectivity of everything they 'know', as "memory is not fact." As I affirmed my stance on this issue, my writing took on a more authoritative and directive tone, stating "you do not always have to be the writer. Do not be greedy....Remember you know nothing other than being yourself. Know your privileges and know your limitations. Encourage quiet voices. Be quiet and still for a moment and see what you learn." These statements are not only directed at others, but have become mantras by which I myself aim to live and write by.
PROSE POEM POST:
In one of my final blog posts Delving (deeper) I sought to encapsulate the emotional and theoretical learning I had acquired over the course. I wrote this prose poem in response to my initial interactions with Tiffany, my HKBU counterpart. At first I was disappointed that we didn't have more in common in terms of reading and writing interests, however I then embraced the challenge of connecting with someone who has both a different habitus and personal taste. This required an awareness of the differences in our perspective, such as culture, location and family as well as the similarities of our experiences including gender, age and to some extent language. The metaphor "we are trying to reach into the bottom of a box that has no walls, whose wood is soft like water and dances around our fingers" is included to reflect the confusion and lack of distinct rules when engaging in cross-cultural communication. I sought to move "past names and numbers and words and labels, past requisites and forms and blank spaces." Through this poem and analysis of habitus, I concluded that it is not, in fact, the concrete details that define someone. Whilst I knew this in theory before the course, I got to experience and deepen this understanding. Acting as a creative interpretation of the opinions I shared on 'who can write whom' and the subjectivity of knowledge, I wrote in this poem that "we know one thing at one time about one person who is ever morphing into other people in other times and other places and we follow or drift, adjusting our sight from afar." The final lines of this poem, and my parting words for the course are;
"We speak and are heard and listen and try to understand the sounds as little bones oscillate deep in our tiny ears. We are always under the surface, bubbles floating from our lips and rising, rising to the names and numbers and words above."
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