What is a Lyrical Essay? it’s a form of literature that is a hybrid of essay and poetic writings to create a work that is neither and both. often times, the lyrical essay ends up being a form of autobiographical nonfiction literature. For this unit, we had to take a subject that was important to us and write a lyrical around it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What else is a woman but a foe to friendship?<\/p>
a desirable calamity or that domestic danger<\/p>
Is she a necessary evil or a natural temptation<\/p>
Or is she really, after this <\/p>
Just the object of your fixation<\/p>
The story of our dear marnie<\/p>
Starts and ends with a rope <\/p>
For the woman scorned <\/p>
And her wrath in hell <\/p>
Begins with a simple trope<\/p>
That hopeful shine in her eyes <\/p>
disappears and is no more. <\/p>
The leash tightening around her neck <\/p>
Her fate sealed, cast ashore<\/p>
For the finer sex <\/p>
makes a fine red pigment <\/p>
When cracked open with that hex <\/p>
In praise of the art<\/p>
And that red crimson hue <\/p>
Derived from her body<\/p>
And her spirit that once grew<\/p>
For the girl before the mirror <\/p>
Weeps softly in her sleep<\/p>
Her future slipping away <\/p>
As she takes that final leap <\/p>
He cries \u201cLolita my love!\u201d<\/p>
With the blood trickling through <\/p>
As there\u2019s no doubt, my dear humbert, <\/p>
It\u2019ll come back for you<\/p>
For tippi, for dora, for shelley and jacqueline<\/p>
For Uma, nicole, for Marie and francine <\/p>
The blood of these women <\/p>
Stain our hallowed halls of fame <\/p>
For the art we value at their expense <\/p>
Is only valued in name<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the Lyrical Essay Unit, I was really inspired by a specific interpretation of the novel Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov and the treatment of Women in the art world. Many of the most famous men in the world of art and literature like Picasso and Albert Camus have very famously treated women incredibly poorly. Picasso specifically had a habit of taking female artists as his lovers and muses and discarding them the second he got bored, leaving them often destroyed from mental abuse and emotional ties. From hearing these stories, I developed a fear of becoming simply a muse. I am a female presenting artist in a male dominated space and nothing scares me more than becoming someone’s muse and having my own work erased completely, becoming nothing more than an object of affection for a man who’s work will live in infamy for the wrong things. I came across an excerpt from a book from 1487 called the Malleus Maleficarum that is credited with starting the witch trials in the 1500s in Europe and later in America. The quote struck me as it’s perhaps the single most sexist passage I’ve ever read, describing women in all manners of horrible ways to punctuate the fact that the author himself was severely misogynist. I adapted pieces of it for the opening text of my essay to give it a satirical opening to compliment the seriousness of the subject. I formatted my lyrical essay into a poem because poetry in the medium I tend to be most comfortable with overall<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Lyrical Essay Production<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Our assignment for Digital Media was to produce the Lyrical Essay we wrote in English in audio form, complete with cover art, music and sound effects<\/p>\n\n\n\n