Persona

I've been wondering about the use of persona in literature... Lately, I've been using persona frequently in my poetry. I think of persona as when the "I" of the poem does not reflect the "I" of the real-life writer... but by broad this definition ANY poem could be perceived as persona. So maybe I mean an intentional masking or intentional use of voice or character to create a desired effect (I'm not sure).




Anyway-- sometimes it's not a huge risk to write in persona. Most times, I find it easier than writing in a voice that is closer to being really me and might fall into the category of the confessional.

But sometimes writing in persona can be a HUGE risk. The last section of Susan Musgrave's new book, Origami Dove, is called "Heroines" and depicts the lives of Vancouver women. These poems are written in the first person and Musgrave adopts their voices to tell their stories. Of the project, Musgrave writes: "The poems in the sequence Heroines were drawn from the life stories of six women, heroin-addicted prostitutes from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside[...] My job was to find a voice in which to speak of these women's lives, from the inside out--the wrecked childhoods, addictions, the loss of their own children, their bad dates, and their dreams" (116-117).


I found it very difficult to read these poems, but they are incredibly powerful. Musgrave succeeds in giving insight into the lives of women that the reader may not otherwise think about. Through these poems, the reader hears these women's voices. The poems are incredibly moving but they are also risky. It is a huge risk for the poet to take the voice of someone else and attempt to tell their story. Musgrave does it with tact, honesty, and I think, empathy.

There's been some controversy over Stockett's The Help which is not only about a white woman telling the stories of black women during the 60s, but is also literally written by a white woman and thus depicts the voices of black women. There's a fine line between giving a voice to those who may not otherwise have one.... and appropriating the voices of others for your own artistic purposes. I can't comment on this book because I haven't read it (which seems to be the common thread of most articles I've read ABOUT this controversy). But I think it is important to think about this. An author of any text might wish to give voices to oppressed individuals but in the process they may further oppress those they wish to aid... this is one of the risks of writing in persona (or even third-person narration).

I'm not sure I would feel comfortable writing a story about residential schools (for instance) told from the perspective of a First Nations person who had experienced it. But is it okay for me to write about my experiences growing up in North Central Regina and attending schools where I was the only white girl in my class? Is it okay to write about some of the things I saw (poverty, addiction, racism), and some things I experienced (alienation at times, and belonging and friendship at others)? Maybe it's impossible to speak in these general terms...

To take another approach-- what about the use of persona when depicting the ugliness of the world? I wonder about the effects of writing about rape from the perspective of the rapist, or writing about racism by speaking from the perspective of a person who hates. What are the effects of taking that ugliness and putting those words into the speaker's mouth? Will the reader identify with that hatred? Will they feel uneasy? Will they misinterpret the work and simply wish to censor it? Will these words unconsciously become normalized or even perceived as logical and right?

Many balk from reading that depicts disturbing imagery. I have difficulty reading depictions of violence... but I know sometimes it is necessary. I know that by writing about violence I am not condoning it... but what if the reader now appropriates the hateful words of the personified voice in order to fuel their real-life violence? I am thinking now of those who commit acts of atrocity based on misinterpretation of literary texts (Salinger).. To be fair, the texts don't even need to depict hatred in order for certain individuals to appropriate them for their own purposes.

Maybe what I'm really concerned about are the purposes of art and the ethical responsibilities of the writer... hopefully anything I read is complicated enough to render black-and-white interpretations impossible!