Write your final essay in response to one of the following topics:
1. What role does silence play in the feminist epic? Examine the innovative use of form and sound
in Daphne Marlatt’s Ana Historic. Compare this to the use of silence in M. NourbeSe Philip’s
Zong! Whose voices are heard in official history? Whose voices are silenced by institutions of
power? Prepare an argument about the significance of re-writing marginalized lives in the
feminist epic.
2. What role does place play in the feminist epic? Examine the imagery, diction, and figures of
speech with which Daphne Marlatt represents British Columbia in Ana Historic — in the 1870s,
1950s, and 1980s. Compare this representation of place to the settings examined in one of the
following epic poems: Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red or Dionne Brand’s thirsty. Prepare an
argument that explains the importance of rural or urban space in the feminist epic.
3. Who is the hero of the feminist epic? Who is the hero of Daphne Marlatt’s Ana Historic — Annie,
Ana, or Ina? In particular, consider the role of the narrator or speaker in the construction of this
hero. Compare this representation to the heroic construction in one of the following epics: Lisa
Robertson’s Debbie: An Epic, Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red, or Dionne Brand’s thirsty.
Prepare an argument about the presence or absence of a traditional epic hero in these feminist
re-visions.
