One of the discussions from class last week was answering the question, why might Phillis Wheatley be writing to certain people? Many great arguments were brought up that she is writing to George Washington and other white superiors so they can spread the word that this little black girl is a great poet, so other African Americans may also be able to write literature like Wheatley. She wants to build a good word for her race. It is also worth noting that she is writing to white superior MEN. If these poems were written to women, they would have no effect on the black race because women are less superior to men so even if women enjoy the writings, word wont get out. Therefor, Wheatley has to write to the white men to make sure that her voice is heard.
It is also interesting to look at many of her other poems. They are dedicated to random people that have died. If she came over and worked in the U.S. as a slave, spending nearly all of her time learning and writing the English language, how could she had known and interacted with all of these people to dedicate poems to them? I believe that it is safe to say Wheatley was writing under the scope of her white owners. What I mean by that is she has very little real world experience and that it may be hard to write with little influence. I believe that her owners forced her to dedicate these poems to the deceased white people because it gives them a superiority over other whites saying, "we took this dumb, black child and made her into a spectacular writer."
I know that we've debated these possibilities or assumptions before getting to Audre Lorde, but I think that you are on a good track about how if Wheatley only wrote to other women, even if they were white or wealthy, her words would not have had the same effect. Especially given a historical context (even if assumed), there is a certain hegemony that came with the male-dominated political society.
ReplyDeleteI would propose a sort of extension to that argument, on thinking about the relationship between women and men, and black and white. Of course, there is a level of hegemony in both relationships, but the question is: Are they both compatible in the context of Wheatley and her poems? I guess what I am looking for an answer to is whether Wheatley was thinking solely about her status as a slave, and not really thinking about the implications of here being a woman. As you suggested, by default, her being a woman doesn't afford her any recognition, until men start to read her work. In my opinion, with the most pressing social issue (or hypocrisy) of the day being slavery, I believe that Wheatley was thinking about her position as a slave, and not wholly as a woman. Anyone can, of course, disagree with me, as I believe that both issues are consequential to understanding Wheatley's impact as a poet, no matter if she was influenced by her masters.