{"product_id":"semblance-two-essays","title":"Semblance: Two Essays","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe eponymous two essays Divya Victor produced for \u003cem\u003eSemblance: Two Essays\u003c\/em\u003e are prefaced by an original contribution by the poet and librettist Douglas Kearney. Victor’s first essay, “Cicadas in the Mouth,” is a revised and annotated version of her 2014 Leslie Scalapino Memorial Lecture. Victor explores the politics of language and meditates on the meaning of being a plurilingual writer in relation to the history of colonialism. In her account, the cicada becomes a complex figure for the historical layers present in language ownership and usage. The second essay, “An Unknown Length of Rope,” is a completely original essay\/lecture on the history of black representation via an insightful discussion of Singleton Copley’s painting, Watson and the Shark. Sir Brook Watson had lost his leg in Havana, Cuba to a shark attack in 1749 just as Cuba was becoming a thriving slave post and Victor speculates on the meaning of Copley’s painting “gaining” a black actor thirty years after the incident he was commissioned to depict had taken place. [publishers’ note]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sputnik \u0026 Fizzle","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57357499531604,"sku":"A8B-27800","price":15.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1072\/9609\/6596\/files\/Scan_20200703_101338.jpg?v=1790812162","url":"https:\/\/after8books.com\/products\/semblance-two-essays","provider":"After 8 Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}