Before I was ever a poet, my father was writing poems about me, so it was a turning of the tables when I became a poet and started answering, speaking back to his poems in ways that I had not before.
Natasha TretheweyRead
For a long time, I've been interested in cultural memory and historical erasure.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Cultural memory shapes our identity, and its absence can lead to gaps in understanding our history.
In this quote, Natasha Trethewey speaks to the significance of cultural memory and the consequences of historical erasure. She implies that our understanding of identity and heritage is deeply tied to the memories and narratives we preserve or forget, highlighting the importance of acknowledging and honoring diverse histories to foster a more inclusive understanding of the past.
Themes
Cultural MemoryHistorical ErasureIdentityHistoryNarratives
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on social justice, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of preserving diverse histories.
More from Natasha Trethewey
All quotes βI've been telling my students, 'Imitate, imitate.' And they say, 'Well, what if I plagiarize, or what if I'm not original? I want to be myself.' And I always tell them, 'Your self will shine through'... If you allow yourself to feel deeply and honestly, what you say won't be like anyone else.
Natasha TretheweyRead
I think that it's hard enough being an adolescent and wanting so much to fit in with your peers, your schoolmates, and to erase any sign of difference, to be part of the group. And being biracial but also being black in a predominately white school marked me as different.
Natasha TretheweyRead
'Memory.' 'Race.' 'Murder.' That's what they say about me. I am an elegiac poet. I have some historical questions, and I'm grappling with ways to make sense of history; why it still haunts us in our most intimate relationships with each other, but also in our political decisions.
Natasha TretheweyRead
Often as a poet I find that I am somewhat outside an experience I want to hold onto, consciously taking mental notes or writing them down in my journal - for fear that I will forget. It's not unlike being on a trip and taking pictures, your face behind a camera the whole time - the entire experience mediated by a lens.
Natasha TretheweyRead
People always want to be on the right side of history; it is a lot easier to say, 'What an atrocity that was' then it is to say, 'What an atrocity this is.'
Natasha TretheweyRead
Similar quotes
History was not a matter of missing minutes on the tape. I did not stand helpless before it. I hewed to the texture of collected knowledge, took faith from the solid and availing stuff of our experience. Even if we believe that history is a workwheel powered by human blood -- read the speeches of Mussolini -- at least we've known the thing together. A single narrative sweep, not ten thousand wisps of disinformation. (82)
Don DelilloRead
...They cannot escape their history any more than you yourself can lose your shadow.
Zadie SmithRead
Black history is a series of missing chapters from British history. I'm trying to put those bits back in.
David OlusogaRead
As a kid, I was growing up in an era of celebration of the Civil War centennial, with a lot of 'Lost Cause' emphasis on the Confederacy. I used to play Civil War soldiers with my brothers as a child, and my older brother always insisted that he got to be Lee, and I got be Grant. I never knew that Grant won until quite some time had passed.
Drew Gilpin FaustRead
The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and continued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
Abraham LincolnRead
The Holocaust is a sacred subject. One should take off one's shoes when entering its domain, one should tremble each time one pronounces the word.
Elie WieselRead