Finals: The Blank Page Flashcards
Author of The Blank Page
Isak Dinesen
Who is the speaker in the story?
An old black-veiled woman who is a storyteller
How long has the woman been telling stories?
200
Why must a storyteller remain loyal to the story?
For the sake of the blank page
For the sake of the truth
“Where the storyteller is loyal, eternally and unswervingly loyal to the story, there, in the end, silence will speak. Where the story has been betrayed, silence is but emptiness” (Dinesen 167).
According to the storyteller, what can tell a finer tale than anyone?
Silence
It is in the blank page that one can read the finest tales
Why can blank page tell the finest tales
Because in a blank page, because in silence, anything is possible. In nothingness, there is something.
Where does the story about the blank page take place?
A convent for sisters of the Carmelite order
Convento Velho
Where did the flax originate?
The lands of Lecha and Maresha
A crusader brought the seeds to the convent
What are the two privileges that the convent has?
“to procure and bridal sheets for all the young princesses of the royal house” (Dinesen 168).
“receiving back that central piece of snow-white sheet which bore witness to the honour of a royal bride” (ibid.)
What is the purpose of the linen?
To serve as a bridal sheet and to see whether the royal princess was a virgin
Where can the bridal sheets be found in the convent?
In the gallery of the convent’s main wing
What can be found on the canvassed sheets?
Faded Markings
Compare the sheets with the markings to the blank sheet.
The sheet with the markings may be free to interpretation and to the imagination but there is a limit because of the forms that the markings show.
A blank page has endless possibilities.
What then does “silence” or a “blank page” mean?
It is nothing and it is everything.
It is imagination, hope, joy, the world.
It goes hand-in-hand with a story’s truth.
