Sono mama: what goes without saying, right up until now?

Clarke, Jennifer

Abstract

I was moved to respond to the request to reflect on my experience of the Roland Barthes Reading Group partly because of the beautiful phrasing around ‘the situation of encounter'. I had joined this group as a visitor, intent only on dipping my toe into an unfamiliar eddy of words and thoughts after a period of maternity leave from my regular role as a lecturer at an art school. The idea of being just a visitor was glorious: here was an opportunity to listen, not speak, to be a good guest, observe and appreciate, connect, perhaps respond. Really, I wanted to find out what the addition of a baby might make to my capacity to do any of those, especially at the same time. The text excerpt we read aloud together was entitled 'Setting a Bell Ringing', and in the reverberation of sound and metaphor, question and response, I found myself, again, for a moment. I was pleased by the selection and with what came along with it, recognising that my years of living and working in Japan brought some pertinent experience. The reverberations also sounded a lot like a previous life, or lives, of mine, lived in the seminar room of a university—sitting close, close reading, slow reading, aloud.

Citation

CLARKE, J. 2021. Sono mama: what goes without saying, right up until now? In The Roland Barthes Reading Group (eds.) Setting a bell ringing. The constellations, 17. London: MA Bibliothèque, pages 31-39.

• Acceptance Date: Jan 25, 2021
• Publication Date: May 31, 2021
• Deposit Date: Jun 2, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 1, 2023
• Publisher: MA Bibliothèque
• Pages: 31-39
• Series Title: The constellations
• Series Number: 17
• Book Title: Setting a bell ringing
• ISBN: 9781910055816
• Keywords: Poetry; Japan; Literary interpretation; Reading groups; Feminism
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/1290189
• Publisher URL: https://mabibliotheque.cargo.site/The-Roland-Barthes-Reading-Group-SETTING-A-BELL-RINGING-2021
• Additional Information: The print copy of this book is available for purchase from the publisher's website: https://mabibliotheque.cargo.site/The-Roland-Barthes-Reading-Group-SETTING-A-BELL-RINGING-2021