1. + She’s Not There A LIFE IN TWO GENDERS Jennifer Finney Boylan By: Alyson Benitez and Jennifer Streeter

2. + What image of self does our author portray?

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4. + Summary This memoir chronicles and relates memories relevant to the abandonment and development of personal identity from her earliest memories of identifying with the opposite gender to her gender reassignment surgery.

5. + Image to Self Page 23 –”On the big walk, I was going to try to solve whatever was wrong with me. …” – “Maybe you can be cured by love.” Page 130 - “I felt that what I had always hoped for was true, that I’d been cured by love.” Page 276 – “Is it possible for things to just vanish inside us? That hadn't been my experience.”

6. + Image to self through music Page 44 – I sang “Look around you. All you see/ Are sympathetic eyes. / Stroll around the grounds until you feel at home….” Page 114 Page 115- “I Wanna Be Like You” from Jungle Book. Page 231- “ I’m Gonna Wash The Man Right Out of My Hair.”

7. + Jennifer Finney Boylan Born James Finney Boylan (1958) in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Produced the first best selling work as a transgendered American. She graduated from Wesleyan University (Middletown, Connecticut) in 1980. Since 1988, Jenny Boylan has been a professor of creative writing and American literature at Colby College, in Waterville, Maine (voted professor of the year).

8. + Literary Elements

9. + Frameworks Formalist: Language, scene, sensory, musing, plot, character, setting, point of view, tone, etc. Readers Response: Creates personal meaning, involve yourself during interpretation, make personal connection. Feminist: Concerned with gender role, women status, double standards relating to gender, stereotypes.

10. + Things to Consider Targeted Audience  Stated in back of book Morals and Beliefs of Author  Each reader could interpret this differently Topics and Themes  Gender, Family, Sexuality, Love, Life, Finding One’s Place in Society, identity, death/ rebirth, Time Era and Location  1974-2002 Societies Views on Topic  How we as readers view this topic and how characters presented in the book view this topic

11. + Comparison to Karr

12. + Recommendations Truthful to actual events Addresses relatable issues or dilemmas Explores a BIG question of memoir as defined by Barrington Unique language & style Influences techniques of writing distinctive memoirs

13. + Erica’s Approach to Reading Formalist Framework Perplex characters  Jim/Jennifer, Grace, Russo, Luke, Patrick Style of writing within the book The way the reader is guided through the book  Book broken up into pieces, flashbacks from past to future, Title of sections… Reader’s Response Perspective Personal thoughts on gender role Personal thoughts on life and love Feminist Framework Looking at a women’s life from a mans perspective Stereotypes presented within the book

14. + Alyson’s response to Reading Relationships Perspective Personal thoughts on gender role Personal thoughts on life and love

15. + Work Cited Biography of Jennifer Finney Boylan for Appearances, Speaking Engagements, Endorsements Talent Agent." All-American Speakers Bureau Keynote Motivational Sports Speakers. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2012..