[In this discussion I wanted to make connections between these specific writers and the power of vulnerability. I made it up for debate if these writers were truly being vulnerable or not. Then I made connections about vulnerability and made a question pertaining to what this could means for our own personal lives]
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Group: Discussion Leader C
Material: https://poetryarchive.org/poet/john-berryman/
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/collections/151109/an-introduction-to-confessional-poetry
Blog post Confessional poetry: Anne Sexton and John Berrymore
https://poetryarchive.org/poet/anne-sexton/embed/#?secret=PrK62GE34r
Introduction: There is an uncanny resemblance between John Berry’s and Anne Sexton’s lives. They both experienced extreme trauma in their most developmental years. Tragically, both of their lives started in similar ways and ended in the same way.
Throughout their writing growth, they began to use their success as a coping mechanism to the pain inside. It’s ironic that they used the success they received from their writings that are so raw, honest, and dark to sustain their illusion that their success/writing in general would fix their pain. This seems to work fine for both of them until something catastrophic stops them from continuing on in their illusion. Anne Sexton got a divorce and this triggered her deppression and reliance on drugs, leading her to turn her car on with the garage door closed. John Berryman relied on alcohol and became to a slave to depression, eventually leading him to jump off of a bridge.
In the introduction to confessional poetry, it is described as writing where the “mask is taken off”. Although both of these writers do write about very honest details of their lives in a way that is unprecedented in history, the way they release it into the world is with a mask on.
Consider Anne Sextons’ raspy seductive voice she uses as her disguise as she speaks her soul out. John Berryman detached from his words by using unnatural shifts in tone. On top of this, both of them refused to identify with their characters, writing in third person for the majority of the time. They also both did not like being identified as confessional writers.
Question:
After taking a closer look at Anne Sexton and John Berryman,
Does vulnerability make a person stronger, weaker, or is it ineffective in an individual’s healing? Why? Do you think they are still technically being vulnerable if they do not identify publicly with their vulnerable words?
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