All Conference Presentations, Performances and Exhibits
Location
Guzman 112
Start Date
4-15-2016 3:20 PM
End Date
4-15-2016 3:35 PM
Student Type
Graduate
Faculty Mentor(s)
Thomas Burke, MFA
Presentation Format
Oral Presentation
Abstract/Description
“You have never heard of me before. You have never heard of me, but my name has come out of your mouth thousands of times.”
So begins my novel, Daughters of the Sun, the story of Jesus’s twin sister, Alleluia. Using the narrative framework seen in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, Alleluia tells her story over one night—Saturday into Sunday morning—in an appropriated apartment facing a church. She weaves into her story another tale of women who have lived in shadows cast by the men around them, women whom history chose to vilify—Lilith, Adam’s first wife who was written out of the Bible; Mary the “Virgin” Mother; and Mary Magdalene. This is the Gospel they didn’t want you to know. For this presentation, I will read one chapter from the novel’s beginning—and how do all of our stories begin? With birth. This project follows the thread of literature’s “extra gospel” tradition in reinterpretations of the Bible: Jose Saramago’s The Gospel According to Jesus Christ; Colm Toibin’s Testament of Mary; Christopher Moore’s irreverent and hilarious Lamb; and David Maine’s reinterpretation of Adam and Even in Fallen. In addition, Alicia Ostriker’s essay “I Make My Psyche from My Need” is useful for placing the mythical aspects of the project among other feminist retellings such as Anita Diamant’s The Red Tent.
Included in
Biblical Studies Commons, Christianity Commons, Fiction Commons, History of Gender Commons, History of Religion Commons, History of Religions of Western Origin Commons, Modern Literature Commons, Women's History Commons, Women's Studies Commons
Daughters of the Sun: "The Birth" (An Excerpt)
Guzman 112
“You have never heard of me before. You have never heard of me, but my name has come out of your mouth thousands of times.”
So begins my novel, Daughters of the Sun, the story of Jesus’s twin sister, Alleluia. Using the narrative framework seen in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, Alleluia tells her story over one night—Saturday into Sunday morning—in an appropriated apartment facing a church. She weaves into her story another tale of women who have lived in shadows cast by the men around them, women whom history chose to vilify—Lilith, Adam’s first wife who was written out of the Bible; Mary the “Virgin” Mother; and Mary Magdalene. This is the Gospel they didn’t want you to know. For this presentation, I will read one chapter from the novel’s beginning—and how do all of our stories begin? With birth. This project follows the thread of literature’s “extra gospel” tradition in reinterpretations of the Bible: Jose Saramago’s The Gospel According to Jesus Christ; Colm Toibin’s Testament of Mary; Christopher Moore’s irreverent and hilarious Lamb; and David Maine’s reinterpretation of Adam and Even in Fallen. In addition, Alicia Ostriker’s essay “I Make My Psyche from My Need” is useful for placing the mythical aspects of the project among other feminist retellings such as Anita Diamant’s The Red Tent.
Comments
While this is a creative piece, a section from my culminating project I began as an undergrad and finished while getting my MA at Dominican, it is grounded in research, history and theory of many disciplines. It exemplifies Dominican's interdisciplinary philosophy. It is something I have spent years working on and would be honored to share with my peers, professors and mentors before I graduate.