Reviews

Silences by Tillie Olsen

elysehdez19's review against another edition

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5.0

"¿Por qué las mujeres silenciadas son muchas más que los hombres? ¿Por qué, cuando las mujeres escriben (una de cada cuatro o cinco obras publicadas), apenas se sabe, enseña o reconoce nada de sus obras?"

Estas han sido dos preguntas que han resonado en mi cabeza desde que me puse las gafas moradas para analizar el contenido literario que leo, recomiendo, analizo y que en algún momento estudié en la universidad. Tillie Olsen retoma estos cuestionamientos a través de dos ensayos que nos hablan de los _silencios_ que impiden que muchas obras salgan a la luz o que el genio creativo de los escritores les permita seguir produciendo obras literas.

Tillie Olsen no sólo se enfoca en los silencios otorgados a las mujeres escritoras, también hace énfasis en la raza, religión, preferencias, etc... Es decir, aquellos grupos vulnerables que históricamente ha sido ignorados.

En el segundo ensayo (que a manera personal es mi favorito) nos habla de un dato muy alarmante: por cada escritora hay doce escritores. Constantemente nos recuerda este dato cuando habla de las trabas que se les han puesto a la mujeres para escribir y publicar.

El papel otorgado socialmente, en el que las mujeres son esposas, madres y cuidadoras, las aleja más del arte de escribir y es ahí donde aquello que tienen que decir queda mudo, en silencio.

Sin duda estoy ante un libro al que seguramente voy a regresar en más de una ocasión. Es de esos libros que se vuelven un acompañante para reafirmar porqué muchas creadoras de contenido nos hemos comprometido en visibilizar el trabajo intelectual de las mujeres a lo largo de la historia.

irisbg42's review

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informative inspiring reflective

4.25

carola_cares's review against another edition

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5.0

La primera edición de Silencios es del año 1965. Si bien, en la actualidad hay esfuerzos explícitos por leer a más mujeres, así como visibilizar su producción artística e intelectual, las barreras estructurales impuestas por el patriarcado a la plena realización de las mujeres (sean escritoras o no) siguen intactas. El prólogo de Marta Sanz (incluído en esta edición de Las afueras) es una maravilla.

bluestarfish's review

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5.0

Tillie Olsen's 'Silences' has opened up a gaping hollow of loss that is rattling around me. Mourn the loss of the voices of so many people over the years! Questions of which voices are still silenced now are as relevant now as then sadly... 'Silences' examines the creative promise/urge/need in authors and the circumstance around why some creative capacity is lost or impaired.

The first part has two essays recreated from talks Tillie Olsen gave from notes and the third one is an afterword for a reprint of Rebecca Harding Davis' 'Life in the Iron Mills; or, The Korl Woman' which introduces the author and her work. They were all illuminating and provocative and true. The second part of the book are snippets and notes expanding on the themes of the essays. A glimpse at what research has gone into creating a talk/essay and gives us the chance to expand the hints and inferences in them. It makes it more disjointed as they are essentially notes - but there is such incredible material packed into them that I really appreciated having the opportunity to see them.

There is a lot of insight in this book that I am grateful to Tillie Olsen for naming and showing so clearly.

mireiaaaaaa3's review against another edition

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4.0

Es complementa molt bé amb el meu assaig preferit sobre el tema, el de la Russ, aporta nous punts de vista que tot i semblar molt obvis, moltes vegades ens pasen per alt. Llegiu a més dones per favor.

paloma_sanchezh's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

adriarato's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

kjboldon's review

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4.0

Essential history on the history of gaps in creation by writers, especially women, recognizing that race and money and sexual orientation were issues long before they became widely understood. Discursive and repetitive, sometimes more like notes and lists, but fascinating and instructive, even 50 years later. I read the old edition and wished for the newer one, in case some things had been cleaned up or organized.

bobbo49's review

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5.0

Although I didn't find the parts of the book focused on the writer Rebecca Harding Davis as captivating as the rest, I had to give Silences five stars because overall it is so remarkable, even nearly a half century later. The book is a reflection and analysis and commentary by Olsen on the overwhelming social and economic challenges and obstacles to writers - and particularly female writers - that produce the "silences" that so many (even the greatest male) writers suffer. Her observations are so deep and powerful that I literally gasped at some of them; much of the book is filled with quotations from history's best authors reflecting their own struggles and periods of silence. I think that every teacher of literature, every (even aspiring) writer, and every reader interested in the challenges of writing , should read this book.

jenna0010's review

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5.0

Oh gosh. Tillie Olsen is so sharp and lovely even when she writes about labour that takes women away from the writing desk. Unnatural silences. The threads she strings throughout build into such a beautiful conclusion yet at once feel as though they might all come undone.