Embody the Image
I first learned about making the abstract physical during a seminar offered by Paul Lisicky, one of my instructors at Antioch University. We took the study of “show don’t tell” deeper, looking at how writers make the body–its sensations and movement– integral to an image. My understanding of “embodiment” and writing deepened when I read Gayle Brandeis‘ book Fruitflesh.
During a recent trip to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, I revisited the power of physicality in writing while taking part in an actor’s workshop. Our workshop focused on how an audience views a play through a cultural lens. We did a number of exercises to get in touch with cultural and societal concepts, particularly those in the last 60 years, and then we looked closely at language in the plays we would be seeing, teasing out specific images and working with them.
Most importantly, we got actively involved with the imagery. For instance, in one activity we were broken into groups to study a small passage from “Midsummer’s Night Dream.” Our instructions were to chose a line of text and create a tableau that expressed that text in terms of the culture and thinking of the 1950s. What was most interesting was the process of finding a way to express the words visually so that our audience (the rest of the class) would get it. Here is my group’s line of text and a picture of our tableau:
Egeus speaking to the Duke after Hermia, his daughter, has told him she wishes to marry Lysander rather than Demetrius, his choice for her:
Egeus: “As she is mine, I may dispose of her.”
We made the image graphic by having one of the men shove a woman’s head into a trash can while the other women cowered submissively nearby, with one exception. In the background, this woman was “just” stepping up onto a chair, beginning to rise above such patriarchal behavior, to signify the rumbling of change in the 1950s.
I walked away from this workshop considering how effective ACTING is in feeling the meaning behind an image. We actually took the line of text into our bodies as we worked with it.
Now my question is how can I bring this “knowing” into my writing? How do I get more engaged physically as I write? I have a few ideas but wonder if you, dear readers, have your thoughts about embodiment and writing?
hey Patricia,
I think these last post is my favorite. There is much to harvest from the story of the workshop and your musings regarding what you are endeavoring to absorb into your own work. This piece gives much to we wordsmiths. Thank you.
I had this thought what it have been like to all be in drag and put the men in the subservient roles? What comment could that have made about gender meshing? And how it seems that often hip women act out violence on women as violence on men… Have you seen the recent Britney Spears video? I stumbled across the link at kcra news online, and was curious—watched, was appalled and disgusted by what was called supposedly about punishing a womanizer. Contemporary sexual violence mush. Somehow when I read the line from Shakespeare and then your post the two crashed together.
mic
Mic,
How I wished you’d been a member of our group and suggested this gender reversal. It would certainly have taken the role play/tableau to quite a different place in terms of embodying the intent of that single line. Thanks for the comment.
I don’t think I’ll seek out the Britney Spears video. I don’t need that kind of disgust right now . . . there are so many appalling things to digest in our world each day.
ph