This is where it begins - Melinda Bobis Flashcards
What is her ancestral language?
Bikol, Pilipino
What is the other language spoken?
English
What does the mixture of these languages show?
A hybridisation of culture and identities that occur due to emigrating to a foreign place
What are the stories her grandparents told her?
“the crab stealer / hiding under the bed” and “the lady in the hills / walking into his dream”
what does the stories told by her grandparents show us?
The confusion she felt listening to them as a child
What languages are contained in the first three stanzas?
Bikol, Tagalog and English, they all state the same info
What is the recurring phrase and what uncertain terms prefix it?
“This is where it begins” “But” and “Or”
What effect do the uncertain terms have on the recurring phrase?
displays the poets obfuscated sense of identity, which is repaired through the poem
“they have never left, they who ‘storytold’ before us, / they who are under our skin”
Technique(s): Anaphora Idea(s): Cultural connections, Connection across time through storytelling
“Once upon a time in Bikol, Pilipino, English — /we tell it over and over again.”
Technique(s): Accumulation, Repetition, Literary allusion Idea(s): Cultural connections, Centrality of storytelling
“No, storytelling is not lonely, / not as we claim”
Technique(s): Personification Idea(s): Connection through storytelling, Cultural connection
“And so this poem is for my father, mother, grandmother, grandfather and all the storytellers, conjurers who came before us.”
Technique(s): Accumulation Idea(s):Familial and cultural connection, Cultural connection, Connection through storytelling
“Under my skin”
Technique(s): Repetition, Metaphor Idea(s): Connection with storytelling
“This is where it begins’
Technique(s): Repetition, Motif Idea(s): Cultural connection with storytelling, Connection over time
“I am six years old, perhaps five.”
Technique(s): Repetition Idea(s): Storytelling, Connection over time
