top of page
Search
  • Writer's pictureRegina Tantlinger

Representation Matters


History has always been written by the winners. Unfortunately, the majority of these winners have been rich white men. This means that everyone else gets left out and must fight to have their voice heard. Women had to fight to vote. Then black men had to fight to vote. Then black women had to fight to vote. African Americans had to fight for equality. Homosexual people had to fight to marry and now are fighting to keep their rights.

Because of all this fighting and struggle to be represented, many writings have been lost because they were written by women. Fortunately, during the 2nd wave of feminist movement there was a large push to regain these writings and to bring these previously unknown/frighten writers to the surface. Adrienne Rich’s poem “Diving into the Wreck” is an extended metaphor to illustrate how works written by women were ‘submerged’ in water and forgotten by many. Rich begins the poem saying

I put on

the body-armor of black rubber

the absurd flippers

the grave and awkward mask. I am having to do this

not like Cousteau with his

assiduous team

aboard the sun-flooded schooner

but here alone (Rich 72).

This passage sounds like not like someone who enjoys diving, but rather a person who feels it is their duty to dive down to this wreckage and recover what is down there. This person has come to dive site alone, which to me signifies that they have shouldered all of the responsibility and that they alone can complete this task.

For many years, women’s voices where suppressed and discredited. Adrienne Rich is illustrating to us that it is time to find these works by women and bring them to the surface; to save them from the wreck of the patriarchy. Everyone needs a chance to be represented and shown in works of art. Women write about things only women understand, people of color write about things only other people of color understand. We need to continue diving into the wreck of past works to find those that have been submerged and bring them into the light once more.

Work Cited

Rich, Adrienne. “Diving into the Wreck.” Writing the Nation: A concise introduction to American literature 1865 to present. Berke, et. Al. Editors. Online.

8 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All
Post: Blog2_Post
bottom of page