New (french) title



When we read Recitatif I didn’t think too much of the title I figured it had something to do with the story but as the story went on we were never introduced to that word. I thought it was interesting to look into according to Wikipedia “"Recitatif" is the French form of recitative, a style of musical declamation that hovers between song and ordinary speech, particularly used for dialogic and narrative interludes during operas and oratorios”. This sort of makes sense because the structure of the story is somewhat random and sporadic. We get this sense that it's not quite a normal story. However, I don’t really see a strong connection to the music aspect of it and I am not sure if the french part plays into it so I would like to propose an alternate title. Les mystères des souvenirs (the mysteries of memories). Sorry if that’s not how you actually write in french I took Spanish so I just used google translate so I could keep the French theme.

For the first part of the story we just hear about the main characters' memories of the orphanage and this is what sets up the main things we know about each of the characters. In addition to this, the climax of sorts is this idea of what happened to the woman who they saw fall and get tormented by the other girls. We hear Roberta and Twyla's differing opinions on what happened and her race but we also see this confusion in both of them about what was real. The mystery of this memory clearly affects how the main character views herself and her time at the orphanage so it has many implications. Due to these reasons, I would make the new title “Les mystères des souvenirs”.

Comments

  1. UnknownMay 17, 2020 at 10:17 AM

    I've also puzzled over the title "Recitatif" for many years and never been totally satisfied with my interpretation. And I've never read a statement from Toni Morrison explaining the choice. I agree with the connection you're drawing between the title and the story's structure--vignettes, which can be seen to function like "narrative interludes" in a larger story. I also like the way your suggested alternative title calls attention to the importance of memory for the story, as well as its evasive! Thanks for sharing! - Ms. O'Brien

    ReplyDelete
  2. Olivia TaylorMay 20, 2020 at 5:55 PM

    This is a really good new title! It also makes much more sense than "Recitatif", while keeping the slightly mysterious French theme. While "Recitatif" has meaning behind it, this meaning isn't immediately clear to the readers, and I like that your title (after using google translate) is more accessible in its meaning.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How do the stories balance real life and apocalypse?

How do the stories balance real life and apocalypse? One of the things I always admire about apocalyptic fiction is the balance the authors have to create. They need to make the apocalypse scary and jarring as well as make us feel as though this could be our world if we continue down a certain path. The technique of making readers feel as though this is an unlikely yet still possible reality pulls readers in because it opens their imagination of what could happen in their world. In Ray Bradbury’s There Will Come to Soft Rains we see this high tech house that can cook food as well as cleans and do all the chores people normally hate to do. With the capabilities of robots I’m sure there is a robot out there that can make eggs and after a programmed amount of time throw them away like in the story. Many people have robotic vacuums like the mice we see in the story. Therefore, these details make us feel as though we could be living in this society at first. However, we then here about the
Read more

The Englishmen in Guests of the Nation

“‘I want you and noble to bring them out: you can tell them they’re being shifted again; that’ll be the quietest way.’ ‘Leave me out of that,’ says Noble suddenly. Jeremiah Donovan looked at him hard for a minute or two. “All right so,” he said peaceably. ‘You and Feeney collect a few tools from the shed and dig a hole by the far end of the bog’”. 5th paragraph on page 296 from Guests of the Nation by Frank O’Connor I think this passage shows a lot about the dynamic of the Irish soldiers throughout the story. The passage starts with Jeremiah Donovan explaining how he wants Noble and Bonaparte to start the process of taking the Englishmen to their death. Jeremiah clearly doesn’t seem to have much empathy for the Englishmen. Jeremiah’s orders are very blunt and he has no problem lying to them in a way that might give them false hope. It also seems a bit cruel that Jeremiah has Bonaparte and Noble play a role in the execution of the Englishmen. As we saw throughout the story Noble and Bon
Read more