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She’s Not There

She’s Not There. A LIFE IN TWO GENDERS Jennifer Finney Boylan Alyson Benitez and Jennifer Streeter. Jennifer Finney Boylan. Born James Finney Boylan (1958) in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Produced the first best selling work as a transgendered American.

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She’s Not There

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  1. She’s Not There A LIFE IN TWO GENDERS Jennifer Finney Boylan Alyson Benitez and Jennifer Streeter

  2. Jennifer Finney Boylan • Born James Finney Boylan (1958) in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. • Produced the first best selling work as a transgendered American. • She graduated from Wesleyan University (Middletown, Connecticut) in 1980. • Since 1988, Jenny Boylan has been a professor of creative writing and American literature at Colby College, in Waterville, Maine where she has been voted professor of the year.

  3. Summary “She’s Not There” chronicles and relates memories relevant to the abandonment and redevelopment of one’s personal identity from Boylan’s earliest memories of identifying with the opposite sex to her gender reassignment surgery.

  4. Images of Self in She’s Not There “Maybe you can be cured by love.”

  5. Boylan’s Images of Self • “On the big walk, I was going to try to solve whatever was wrong with me. … (p. 23)” – “Maybe you can be cured by love.” • “I felt that what I had always hoped for was true, that I’d been cured by love (p. 130).” • “Is it possible for things to just vanish inside us? That hadn't been my experience (p. 276).”

  6. Image of Self Through Music • “Look around you. All you see/ Are sympathetic eyes. / Stroll around the grounds until you feel at home…. (p.44)” • Mrs. Robinson by Simon and Garfunkel • “The people are saying that these two were wed, But one had a sorrow that never was said. He moved away from me, with his goods and his gear. And that was the last I saw of my dear (p. 114).” • She Moves Through the Fair by Sandy Denny • “I Wanna Be Like You” from The Jungle Book (p. 114) • “ I’m Gonna Wash The Man Right Out of My Hair (p. 231)”

  7. “Sometimes I think the best way to understand gender shift is to sing a song of diaspora.”

  8. Literary Elements • Style(p. 19) • Imagery(p. 39) • Sensory(pp.37, 60) • Dialog(pp. 35, 157) • Repetition- (pp. 88, 232) • “Tis is a good life, the life at sea.”

  9. Frameworks • Formalist: Language, scene, sensory, musing, plot, character, setting, point of view, tone, etc. • Readers Response: Creates personal meaning, involve yourself during interpretation, make personal connection. • Feminist: Concerned with gender role, women status, double standards relating to gender, stereotypes.

  10. Things to Consider • Targeted Audience Stated in back of book • Morals and Beliefs of Author Each reader could interpret this differently • Topics and Themes  Gender, Family, Sexuality, Love, Life, Finding One’s Place in Society, identity, death/ rebirth, • Time Era and Location  1974-2002 • Societies Views on Topic How we as readers view this topic and how characters presented in the book view this topic

  11. Comparison to Karr Storm- a disturbance of the normal condition of the atmosphere She’s Not There The Liars Club • Page 23 • Hurricane • “All around me were echoes of the ocean and the howling wind and the seagulls and the rain, the smell of creosote and tar” • Storm represents his dilemma of wanting to be a girl • Page 26 • Bug storm • “you can hear the hum of wings get closer and closer” • Storm represents Mary’s dysfunctional family

  12. Comparison to Lucy Grealy She’s Not There Autobiography of a Face • Maybe you can be cured by love. • Still, all the while, I was secretly hoping that in the process some potential lover might accidentally notice I was wearing my private but beautiful heart on my stained and fraying sleeve. (Grealy 193-194)

  13. Recommendations • Truthful to actual events • Addresses relatable issues or dilemmas • Explores a BIG question of memoir as defined by Barrington • Unique language & style • Influences techniques of writing distinctive memoirs

  14. Alyson’s response to Reading Reading Jennifer Finney Boylan’s She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders is like… A game of tug of war between sympathy & self value.

  15. Jennifer’s response to Reading Reading Jennifer Finney Boylan’s She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders is like… Experiencing a new situation with familiarity.

  16. Work Cited Boylan, Jennifer. She's Not There. New York: Broadway books, 2003. Print. Biography of Jennifer Finney Boylan for Appearances, Speaking Engagements, Endorsements Talent Agent." All-American Speakers Bureau Keynote Motivational Sports Speakers. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2012. <http://www.allamericanspeakers.com/celebritytalentbios/Jennifer-Finney-Boylan>. Karr, Mary. The Liars Club. New York: penguin group, 1996. Print.

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