Not My Best Side Context Flashcards
Writer
U.A Fanthorpe
Published?
1978
What painting is it based on?
Based on a 1470 painting by Paolo Uccelo.
-The painter obsessively used triangles throughout the piece, indicating that he was a perfectionist rather than a realist, and perhaps had OCD.
-He created spear lines with the storm clouds, giving the idea that it was ordained by God.
Where does the original myth come from?
he original myth is from a popular collection of Saint’s lives, written in the 13th Century called ‘The Golden Legend’.
Contrast of context behind painting and themes in poem?
How are these characters still relevant today?
-The contrast of the context behind the painting and the themes in the poem creates bathos.
-shows that in a way these characters are still alive, wittily pointed out by the dragon – ‘I don’t mind dying ritually, since I always rise again’.
-These characters, as part of an English aetiological myth, still impact people today in the roles they have created within society.
-It shows that at its core, society has not changed between the time the painting was created and the time the poem was written - still perpetuates gender roles.
What do we do when we look at the painting that Fanthrope subverts?
-Our stereotyping nad cultural constructions of gender make us create narrative of situations (in this case we look at painting and seem stereotype of damsel in distress ect.)
-However Fanthrope subverts these gender norms - just because maiden is there - doesn’t mean shes the victim.
-She comically undermines these characters.
-Mocks ‘high art’
How does it relate to 1970s?
-Satirical representation of gender types and depictions of men and women in 1970s - ambitious, arrogant and priveleged man and vain, self obsessed woman.
