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Please post original questions below that will facilitate a class discussion of Isak Dinesen's short story, "The Blank Page." Note that this is the first work on our syllabus dealing with silence as neither deafness nor muteness in their physiological manifestations.
what does being loyal to a story have anything to do with silence having meaning or being empty? how is silence even related to the story the story teller tells of the black sheet?
ReplyDeleteWhy are only females transfixed by the blank canvas? Is Dinesen trying to send a feminist message to the reader? Can this be related to the following passage, "...since that time when I first let young men tell me, myself, tales of a red rose, two smooth lily buds, and four silky, supple, deadly entwining snakes" (page 99)?
ReplyDeleteWhat is the relationship between a story-telling and the blank pages? Is Dinesen saying that story-teller are the ones who create/pass on history?
ReplyDeleteIs the tradition of the white canvas one that is as anachronistic as the ancient city gate or does it propose an eternal and far-reaching symbolism for all to follow? If so, what does it symbolize?
ReplyDelete--Jesse Chang
Can Dinesen's 'second story' (about the linen sheets) with no main characters or obvious plot be a kind of 'blank page' for readers to imagine their own story?
ReplyDeleteWhile no character in Dinesen's story is literally deaf or mute, a strong sense of silence is demonstrated by the characters in the story. How are the royal characters from the story silenced and how do they also choose to keep their silence?
ReplyDeleteHow is silence symbolized upon the "blank page"? Also, what is the connection between the linen sheets and the blank page? Furthermore, how does silence play a role in the royal family?
ReplyDeleteWhat is the significant of the "blank page"? Can silence also be characterized as a story untold? How does the blank page relate to the royal family?
ReplyDelete“Where the story-teller is loyal, eternally and unswervingly loyal to the story, there, in the end, silence will speak.” How does the blank sheet in the end captures the old woman’s loyalty to her story? Dinesen demonstrates the power of the blank page, how do the three different ancedotes end in silence?
ReplyDeleteWhy does Dinesen reference a wide variety of "white" imagery or anything that is associated with the color white (such as purity, innocence, etc.) ? Some examples include " bride", "milk white bullocks","heaven", "dove", "snow-white", "virgin", etc. What significance does it have to the text to allude to white? Also, just as importantly, what significance does the black imagery have scattered throughout the text?
ReplyDeleteOn the walls of the gallery hang gold-plated frames, which enclose pieces of the royal wedding linen sheets. What might the symbolic meaning behind this reveal about imagination as well as containment of imagination for these women?
ReplyDelete-Fanny Du
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ReplyDeleteHow does the detail that the storyteller (page 102) is illiterate affect the meaning of story? How does it affect the meaning of the blank page?
ReplyDelete--Tristan
How does a vow of silence change the nature of ones thoughts? Do the sisters spend more time thinking of the present, or the past?
ReplyDeleteWhy does Dinesen say that "old and young nuns" sink into the deepest thought in front of a blank page? Can the blank page symbolize the first step to writing each story?
ReplyDelete