The Laughter of Stafford Girls' High Flashcards
What is the poem loosely based on?
Duffyās own experiences attending a grammar school in the 1960s.
The girls start giggling - leads to revolution at the school.
When did Duffy attend Stafford Girlsā High?
Between 1970 & 1974.
Who was one of the teachers that inspired Duffy?
Jim Walker - her English teacher
Duffy was at the school during which time?
Second wave feminism and the womenās liberation movement.
What does Duffy explore in the poem and how?
Freedom, power of womenās voices, and education through a laughter pandemic.
What type of poem is TLOSGH?
A mock-epic poem.
How does Duffy present education in the poem?
Stifling, more concerned with churning out identical students rather than favouring creativity.
What is the fit of laughter and irreverence (disrespect)?
An extended metaphor for feminism.
How did Peter Forbes describe the poem?
āan allegory of the rise of feminism, sweeping away dowdy post-war austerity and buttoned-up emotional sterility.ā
The grammar school represents this old-fashioned attitude. How does this differ between the female teachers and the girls?
Female Teachers - Representing the āold guardā, wanting to hold onto old-fashioned ideas.
Girls - Language (to an extent is their laughter) subverts and permanently alters the status-quo.
What is the initial response of the female staff at the school and what can this be compared to?
To repress and control the girlsā laughter. Can be compared to the āconservatizingā effect of the world wars on women in Europe, and perhaps the subsequent limitations that came about for feminists.
AO4 - What is said in The Feminist Mystique in Chapter 2?
women want āsomething more than my husband and my children and my homeā
- this is reflected in the poem by the enterprising and often heroic escapades the teachers get up to when they leave the profession, including mountaineering.
Jouissance - Jacques Lacan + Julia Kristeva. (AO5)
Joy + pleasure. JK identified a specific feminine jouissance linked to the mother and the female body - to argue that art is āthe flow of jouissance into languageā
This takes the form of musical and rhythmic language.
AO3 - Dancing Plagues
Strasbourg in 1518. After one woman in town began to dance, hundreds of residents followed her lead and danced for days without stoppingānot even to eat or sleep. Some people danced themselves to death.
AO3 - Witch Trials
Witch trials throughout history, such as the Salem Witch Trials, are prime examples of mass hysteria related to groupthink and extremism. People in communities became convinced that individuals were responsible for causing symptoms, illnesses, and other misfortune through the use of witchcraft.
AO3 - War of the Worlds radio broadcast.
In 1938, a play by Orson Welles about a Martian invasion of Earth was played nationwide on the radio. People did not realize it was fiction, and soon people panicked because they believed that an alien invasion was taking place.
How is the opening stanza significant?
The list of rivers begins a theme that is carried on throughout the poem, that of flowing water. It suggests movement and change, something that humans canāt control, just as the girlsā rebellion ā the advent of feminism ā is impossible to stem.
The first girl to be named, Carolann Clare, has a rhythmic, four-syllable, alliterative name, as do the other girls in the poem, reinforcing the sense of unity of the pupils.
