2. The Feminine Gospels

3. The Title
Connotations?
‘Feminine’?
‘Gospels’?

4. What are ‘The Feminine Gospels’?
Narrative poems with a female perspective. They aim to reveal the truth about women’s experiences
The word ‘Gospel’ means ‘Good News’ but the poems do not entirely(if at all) focus on positive aspects
The collection is dedicated to men- a warning not to be limited to feminist perspectives?
Duffy aims to give a ‘voice to the voiceless’

5. ‘The Feminine’ ‘femaleness’ & qualities associated with it
‘life-giving’- earth & nature as well as women
Qualities of ‘holding’ or ‘receiving’ which people consider archetypally feminine
The moon (monthly cycle)
Feminine qualities in psychoanalysis (everyone has masculine and feminine qualities)
Images of the feminine e.g, graceful, kind, pure or vengeful, threatening and jealous

6. Group 1: Women’s Bodies
The Diet
The Woman Who Shopped
The Map-Woman

7. Bodies- Discussion
A woman’s body makes a lot of the decisions in her life for her
All the products that exist for women to use on their bodies are just a form of exploitation
Men are less concerned about women’s bodies than women are
If you’re a woman, nature wants you to reproduce
Women who want to lose weight should stick to a diet with discipline
Men make women want to diet
The media presents women’s bodies as possessions
Because women’s bodies change more, they have more decisions to make
Men face just as much pressure to look ‘good’ as women
Women who choose not to have children are missing out on what it really means to be a woman
Women shouldn’t bother trying to change their bodies.
Men never go on diets

8. Dieting

9. Some depressing dieting facts!
95% of people put any weight they lose back on 
By the age of 45, the average woman will have been on 61 diets since the age of 16
80% of 10 year old girls have been on a diet
90% of people with eating disorders are female
In year olds, the death rate from Anorexia is 12 times higher than from any other cause
95% of Weightwatchers members are female

10. The Diet
Duffy plays with the idea that inside every fat person there is a thin one waiting to get out
Cyclical structure- self-denial contrasted with the desire to return to self-indulgence
Alludes to Alice in Wonderland BUT will never return to her true self
Counters the traditional view- actually the ‘real’ self is trapped in the anorexic body
The woman who once ate everything is left with nothing to eat but herself
Fairy tale (Alice) but dwindling self is very real for people struggling with body image and size
Scatological references reflect society’s revulsion with obesity AND with the human body
Conforming to society’s demands in terms of body shape, results in unhappiness and even death

11. Aphoristic- short, terse, reflective, philosophical, observations
Bathetic- moving from the ‘exalted’ to the ‘mundane’- e.g ‘she floated into the barman’s eye’
Allusion- hinting at other literary works
Protagonist- main character
Conceit- fanciful poetic image, especially an elaborate or exaggerated comparison

12. The Woman Who Shopped
Why do we shop?

13. Vocab Imagery Cunt= prostitution/exploitation
Wanted= desire for consumerism
Concrete nouns= reinforces consumerist theme
Stone cold= nothing left
Ran like paint in the rain= shopping blurs into one
Vocab
Imagery

14. structure Themes and ideas
2 halves- rel with shopping v shopping becomes her. Consumerism consumes you
Enjambment- lists of items. Overwhelming experience
Greed- wants to buy everything non- essential goods
Addiction/compulsion- woman is unable(?) to stop. Shopping is a drug which kills her

15. Connections to ‘The Diet’
Questions raised
Connections to ‘The Diet’
How common is this?
At what point (if any?) does the woman realise it has gone too far
What has motivated Duffy to comment on this?
Do we NEED so much stuff?
What support is there for people in this situation?
Criticism of stereotypical images
Enjambment- lists used to show obsessions and their progression
Criticises obsessive superficiality

16. Form and Structure
Stanzas are very controlled shapes- what does this suggest?
Avoids full stops in favour of caesura. In effect, 1 single sentence
Short clauses and lists, like ‘The Diet’

17. The Repulsive Transformation
From the initial, ‘simple’ desires grown an obscene, vapid creature of capitalism
Repulsive transmogrification until the end for dramatic impact
Alludes to Ovid’s Metamorphoses (terrible fates exacted on overreaching, aspiring mortals) ‘stone hair’ and birds which ‘shriek’ in the same way classical harpies did. Is Duffy presenting a similar, punishable ‘sin’ to that of offending the gods>
Image of prostitution- protagonist welcomes and anticipates being the vehicle of an obscene capitalist ceremony- the desecration of her own body. Reference to people queuing at her ‘cunt’

18. Starter Discuss: What are the different purposes of maps?
How are maps connected to a sense of identity?

19. The Map-Woman

20. Task
Our bodies are maps of our lives. The scars we have, the hand that is held by our first love, the ears that stick out and get us picked on. Map your life on your A4 body. Think of key physical/ emotional landmarks ad symbolically map yourself! Geographers can add geeky topographical stuff if they want!

21. The Map-Woman
Title recalls the feminist Jeanette Winterson’s ‘Written on the Body’ which contains the line: ‘the letters feel like Braille’ which Duffy has also included
Language: The poem explores connections between identity and environment. In scrubbing to remove the imprint and in trying to disguising her skin, Duffy exposes the idea that many women may not desire to be female but that trying to escape this is futile.
The Map-Woman needs to evolve and change (shedding her skin) but this is not totally successful. Her original identity reasserts itself however much she tries to escape.

22. Form and Structure:
Free Verse with internal rhymes but tightly controlled (reflect the sense of restriction experienced)
Extended metaphor
Maps are synonymous with a history of exploration and enlightenment (patriarchal) and therefore maps could symbolise the idea that women are ‘drawn’ from male expectations

23. Group 2: How women respond to world events
Loud
Tall
History
These poems explore the attitude of female characters to suffering and the attitude of the world to their concern

24. Starter
Discuss these statements and then rank order them in terms of their accuracy 1= most truthful, 8= least truthful
Women are more affected by suffering in the news than men are
Most of the women I know think that politics is just for men
If women actually care about suffering in the world, why don’t more of them speak up?
If a woman was president of the USA there would be less war
Women don’t want to join the army as much as men because they are more opposed to death and destruction
The reason women often don’t discuss what goes on in the news is that it is too terrible for words
Women might feel isolated from politics because all they see is old, white men arguing and lying all the time
Many women are mothers. Maybe it is too painful to think about pain and suffering when you have a baby.

25. Male MPs outnumber female MPs 4 to 1
Out of a cabinet of 23, only 4 are women
The UK is 57th in the world in terms of representation of women in politics

26. Loud
Why include the quotation, taken from a Guardian newspaper report about the US bombing of Afghanistan?
Who does she blame for global conflict?
Stanza 1: a literal/metaphorical ‘finding their voice’. Learning to ‘roar’ reflecting that much is achieved from militancy
The poem presents the argument that the ‘righteous’ rage of an individual woman is, in fact, a force of nature- consider what her rampage involves?
To be ‘loud’ is a feminine taboo. Duffy describes a force she feels to be powerful, real and possible to unleash

27. Tall

28. Tall
‘Growing’ as a woman- again the theme of transformation is taken to the extreme
Crucially, she ‘outgrows’ her environment whilst still feeling connected to it.
Religious overtones- forgiveness and deliverance are feminine qualities? God is flawed and lonely? Duffy, the poet, must describe the human condition from a distance?
A reflection on a poetic career? ‘needed a turret’ reflecting the need for privacy?
Poet’s perspective explored- numerous vantage points are presented. Promotes a willingness to ‘save’ the world she originates from? Encouraging responsibility?

29. History
Rhythm fluctuates between iambic and dactylic, often with a pair of spondees used to emphasise a short phrase. Effect= ?
Looks outward at history as a whole rather than feminine histories (such as The Long Queen)
Protagonist seems everyday. Duffy effectively arguing that history IS something we meet daily
She WAS history (past tense- life over?)
Protagonist is history personified. Feminine history is ‘dead’ and female perspective on history is not recorded. Ordinary females connected to the virgin Mary through torment, torture and lack of voice

30. The Virgin’s Memo The voice of Mary
In the poem she writes a ‘memo’ to the youthful Jesus
The Jesus she speaks to is a worry. His creative work appears to focus on the negative qualities in creation.
A message from his Mother, hoping he will make the better place OR an attack on the voiceless nature of Mary in historical accounts?

31. Connotations of historical writings which are now unintelligible
Women’s advice is often not understood
Illiterate= voiceless
Biblical translations: Arabic-Greek-Latin-German-English

32. White Writing
White Ink is an important feminist text by Helene Cixous. The title refers to women writing in ‘white’ implying they are invisible.
A paradox- the writing is black and we CAN read it. What is Duffy saying about her writing (and the writing of other women)
Irony of writing in black- is Duffy pointing us to what is NOT written about the relationship? Is she highlighting what she feels to be important/insignificant?
Ephemeral imagery- reflects that lesbian relationships have no traditional place in society. It leaves less of a trace behind it and won’t be written in marriage registers etc

33. A Dreaming Week
Paralipsis or litotes- in denying something you invoke the reality of it.
The ‘week’ is symbolic of a life
The power of imagination
Duffy denies she is creating poetry…but she IS! Oh the tricky trickster

34. “That’s what makes you beautifullllll!”
What is beauty? Is it on the inside? Nature? A pretty face? A rocking body?
“That’s what makes you beautifullllll!”

35. Beautiful
The lives of four famous, beautiful women are reflected upon in such a way as to focus upon the fact that being beautiful can often be fatal- not just to those captivated by it but to those who possess it

36. Helen of Troy
Helen was born from an egg produced as a result of the rape of Leda by Zeus.
When Paris abducted her, her husband Manelaus launched a thousand ships & sailed to Troy to bring her back.
As a princess with a common touch she links to Princess Diana (the people’s princess)

37. Cleopatra Queen of Egypt Influential, sexual, powerful
Had a child with Julius Caesar
The Roman leader Mark Antony became her lover
In Shakespeare’s play (as in real life), Antony believes her to be dead and kills himself. When she finds this out she kills herself

38. Marilyn Monroe A difficult early life Multiple marriages and affairs
Married to famous baseball player Joe DiMaggio
Married to Arthur Miller the playwright
Became dependent on drugs/alcohol
Hints of an affair with JFK
Ironic truth that HollYwood both killed and immortalised her

39. Princess Diana
Images of her life mirrored in death. E.g She was ‘elegant’ but became ‘elegant bone’
‘beautifully pale’- connotations of the moon and the Roman goddess Diana (goddess of the hunt- Earl Spencer spoke of this irony at her funeral)
Love/hate relationship with the press
In death, linked to Marilyn- ‘Candle in the Wind’
Duffy highlights the hypocrisy of those grieving her death

40. Structure: Traditions:
Free verse with inclusion of tetrameter and trimeter with extended lines. No pentameter. Consider which lines are tetrameter/trimeter and how this may connect women/elements of women.
Line length reduces towards the bleak ending, increasing the impact of Diana’s experiences
Traditions:
Duffy adopts a punchy, masculine vernacular which belongs to a feminist tradition which seeks to explore a patriarchal society’s reflection on women. This ‘tough-guy vernacular’ originates in the poetry of Sylvia Plath and, more recently, Anne Sexton

41. Questions Is beauty more a hindrance than a help?
What is Duffy criticising in this poem?

42. Women and History
Women have achieved less fame throughout history because they are less outgoing.
Real history is the history no one shows us
Lack of education/literacy has prevented women’s voices from being heard
Women who are famous for being beautiful deserve the attention and intrusion they get
Famous women manipulate people and their own image as much as men
Men are more successful in the public sphere and women are more successful in the private sphere
Poems in this category:
Beautiful
The Long Queen
History
Sub

43. The Long Queen
Sub
Presents a patron saint of women, or a goddess through the amalgam of Queen Victoria or Queen Elizabeth I
Life cycle presented in the four assertions/ laws: childhood, blood, tears, childbirth
Summative and syncretic language
The speaker highlightS the challenges faced by women a) male-dominated society b) motherhood not regarded as an achievement c) women are expected to do the same things as men but with added difficulties (e.g periods!) D) isolation when entering masculine cultures.

44. Motherhood and Children
The Light-Gatherer
The Cord
Work

45. Motherhood Is motherhood the greatest thing a woman can aspire to?
SHOULD all women have children?
Why are motherhood and fatherhood viewed differently?

46. Work
Women as much responsible for global capitalism as victims of it. Motherhood both negative and positive elements. Syncretic ending (fusion of differing ideologies/beliefs)
Transition from hyperbolic fairy tale of one woman’s efforts to support an ever-growing family into a meditation on motherhood and the impact of a growing population
Juxtaposes the archetypal ‘nurturing’ mother role with dangers of population growth
Rhyme and rapid listing reflects the momentum of speech and reflects the speed of population growth
Past-tense verbs make it clear that it is the woman’s responsibility but then Duffy paradoxically absolves the woman of guilt by saying she is ‘obliged’ to.
Rhymed enjambment creates incremental pace, moving to the frantic, catastrophic ending

47. Gambler
Hyperion’s tips refers to a mythological Titan from an unfinished narrative poem by John Keats. Hyperion is associated with creativity and poetry. Hyperion’s tips could refer to advice on writing poetry
Duffy merges images of poetry with betting (‘tips’) to show that writing poetry is a gamble
Extended joke that instead of studying the ‘form’ of horses, she is studying the form of poetry. Hilarious.
Is Duffy saying that prior performance and tradition is less important than people think
A poetic manifesto (check your notes)

48. Elegies
Duffy concludes the collection with a number of elegies. Elegies are sad, mournful pieces of writing which commemorate or express regret for something lost (esp used when people die) Elegies are a form of remembrance and give ‘life’ to the person who has died. This is a tradition explored by writers such as Shakespeare in his sonnets

49. Elegies
Wish
North-West
Death and the Moon

50. Tasks
Feminism states that the “personal is political”. To what extent is this true of Duffy’s elegies?

51. The Exam Sophisticated means: AO1 AO2 AO3 Terminology
Accurate, coherent expression
Analysis of:
Imagery
Techniques
Structure
Comparison
Connections
A grade
Sophisticated, mature writing
Appropriate terminology
Explore how writers use specific aspects of form/structure/ language for specific effects
Illuminating debate; alternative interpretations & original links
Sophisticated means:
High levels of accuracy.
Use of mature vocabulary
A sense of purpose (beginning, middle, end)
Clear connections between ideas
Increasingly ambitious evaluative/analytical phrases

52. Type 2: Debate a statement
Type 1: Discuss one poem in relation to the collection

53. How to choose poems Thematically Transformation: Women’s Bodies: Tall
Loud
History
Women’s Bodies:
The Diet
The Woman Who Shopped
The Map-Woman
Women’s Voices:
Anon
The Virgin’s Memo
White Writing
A Dreaming Week
Loud
Gambler
Thematically
Women’s History:
The Long Queen
Beautiful
Sub
History
The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ Hight
Motherhood:
The Light-Gatherer
The Cord
Work
Biography:
Wish
Death & The Moon
North-West

54. What you must include:
Analysis of poetic devices (at least 1-2 per poem)
Comparison
Exploration of the poetic form. Think: line length, rhymes, genre conventions
Consideration of structure- you may want to think of the organisation of stanzas/themes or even the collection itself
Duffy’s purpose(s) and methods
Evaluation
Discussion of the principles/politics Duffy is trying to present

55. Choose ONE of these titles to answer in full (poems in brackets are SUGGESTIONS only!)
‘Feminine Gospels presents suffering as a key element of female experience.’ Discuss.
(History, Tall, Loud, The Diet)
‘Each of our ages has its own idea of beauty, its own symbolic woman.’ Is Feminine Gospels trying to present women who represent all women?
(The Woman Who Shopped, Beautiful, Work)
Duffy’s poetry in Feminine Gospels presents women as partly responsible for their own problems. Discuss.
(‘The Woman Who Shopped, The Diet, Work)

56. How to ‘study’ a poem Don’t jump to conclusions about meaning
Read it many times (including aloud)
What is the tone of voice/mood?
Is there an argument/debate?
Is it descriptive?
Is the voice the poet’s own or is it a persona?
Which words stand out and why?
Which elements are used? Consider: alliteration, assonance, rhyme, rhythm, metaphor
Do the images suggest or symbolise anything?
Anything significant about arrangement of lines?
Do not consider the poem in isolation. How can you compare/contrast it with other work by the poet?
What is the poem about?
Support ideas with quotations and explore language, structure and form

57. How you are assessed

58. Weightings

59. Unpicking the questions

60. Introduction: setting out your stall
In your introduction, set up debate by engaging with the question. State to what extent you agree with the assertion and, if you disagree, briefly explain why. Don’t say ‘in this essay I will look at…’ and let the rest of your essay do the talking

61. Analyse Evaluate Debate Exhibits noteworthy
Perhaps, possibly, potentially
Exposes
substantial
conversely
Presents
weighty
feasibly
Reveals
focal
conceivably
displays
central
paradoxically
Connectives to DEVELOP ideas
‘Concluding’ sentence starters
Avoiding the ‘I think’
Furthermore
Ultimately, it is evident
One could consider..
Moreover
In conclusion, one can infer
A reader senses that..
additionally
In summation, I consider
My reflection on this..
Likewise
In closing,
A clear consideration is..
Consequently
With reference, then, to my initial postulation
Readers may deliberate that..

62. Planning Intro: 1 2 3 4 5 Conclusion
“Duffy’s talent in Feminine Gospels is to show us clearly what women want most”
How far do you agree with this view?
Intro: 1 2 3 4 5
Conclusion

63. Planning
“Duffy’s talent in Feminine Gospels is to show us clearly what women want most”
How far do you agree with this view?
Intro: To a slight degree (stereotypical wants) beauty, clothes, thinner bodies which come at a cost. However, also shows the ‘wants’ of SOME women, not ALL: (motherhood, homosexual love)
1: Beautiful: aspirational, famous women BUT consequences
2: The Woman Who Shopped (enjambment, metaphor)
3: The Diet: (aphoristic, bathetic, allusion)
4: The Cord (motherhood- personally rewarding. Duffy not NECESSARILY saying all women want this
5: White Writing: As above. Debate with the question. Don’t agree.
Conclusion: Duffy highlights what SOME women want, but in the diverse range of female experiences she draws on, she highlights there is no one or two things women want.

64. Planning
“Duffy’s talent in Feminine Gospels is to show us clearly what women want most”
How far do you agree with this view?
Intro: To an extent. Duffy is showing that what women want most is equality and a ‘voice’ which has been denied them for many years as exemplified in poems such as Sub, Tall, Loud, History and ‘The Virgin’s Memo’.
1: Sub: explores a range of roles denied women. Re-writes history with women in famous positions- women want opportunity and recognition
2: Tall: transformation to the extreme. Metaphor of growth BUT maybe less about ALL women and more about Duffy’s poetic perspective. More reflective
3: Loud: To be loud is a female taboo but do all women want to be heard?
4: History: Personification. Woman IS history
5. The Virgin’s Memo: listing, intelligible/illiterate writing reflects voicelessness but Mary DID want to be heard
Conclusion: The nature of this collection makes it impossible to generalise what women want most; Duffy reflects that there are complex historical and cultural influences on women and that there is no single definition.

65. Planning
Look again at the poem ‘The Virgin’s Memo’. How far do you agree this poem is of central importance to the collection?
Intro: To a degree. Choice of Mary- one of history’s most famous yet unknown women is given a voice. As the mother of Jesus she has huge significance. Positioned centrally in the collection- symbolically at the core of all female experiences. BUT in an increasingly secular society is she still so significant? Perhaps experiences of motherhood, history and women’s response to the world around them are explored more powerfully in other poem’s within the collection
1: ‘illegible’ and ‘untranslatable’- voicelessness/women forgotten in history is a central theme. Also seen in ‘Anon’ which is next to ‘Memo’ in the collection
2: logical, alphabetical listing of world’s ills. (Male?) creation produced many negatives. Juxtaposed with positive creation (motherhood) in ‘Light Gatherer’
3: ‘memo’ ironic in this ‘gospel’ of female truth. Significant connection between Mary and ‘feminine gospels’
4: Too focused on motherhood- only one role? Less of a contemporary concern than ‘The Diet’
5: ‘Memo’ focuses on an ignored female history. Possibly this is less central than Duffy’s focus on women’s increasingly vocal stance to the world around- ‘Loud’
Conclusion: To an extent this poem is the essence of the collection as it focuses on a famous woman who history has marginalised. Her role as a mother is reduced and redefined and Duffy liberates and gives humanity to her. Saying this, modern readers may find this focus increasingly irrelevant and find contemporary issues such as appearance, sexuality and the way in which women respond to the world around them more significant

66. E.g Paragraph:
Duffy uses a listing structure in the poem ‘The Virgin’s Memo’ to convey a woman’s representation of creation and their value in society. “Maybe not rats son” The uncertainty in the language shows a hesitancy suggesting the lack of power held by women, not only in potentially the modern day, but throughout history. It also plays on existing stereotypes as the Virgin Mary’s requests for items such as rats, snakes and spiders to be eliminated from the world has patently been ignored. Her one positive, the ‘unicorn’, does not exist. The fact that Jesus ‘ignored’ his mother’s requests convey the idea that woman are not valued or listened to. The long list and use of the phrase “son” gives the impression that the list is continuous and boring and seems like a list of chores set by a mother. The reader is overwhelmed by the negativity and ugly nature of the language and ideas used and leads them to link this to society itself in the way that women are treated.