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carola_cares's review against another edition
5.0
La primera edición de Silencios es del año 1965. Si bien, en la actualidad hay esfuerzos explícitos por leer a más mujeres, así como visibilizar su producción artística e intelectual, las barreras estructurales impuestas por el patriarcado a la plena realización de las mujeres (sean escritoras o no) siguen intactas. El prólogo de Marta Sanz (incluído en esta edición de Las afueras) es una maravilla.
bluestarfish's review against another edition
5.0
Tillie Olsen's 'Silences' has opened up a gaping hollow of loss that is rattling around me. Mourn the loss of the voices of so many people over the years! Questions of which voices are still silenced now are as relevant now as then sadly... 'Silences' examines the creative promise/urge/need in authors and the circumstance around why some creative capacity is lost or impaired.
The first part has two essays recreated from talks Tillie Olsen gave from notes and the third one is an afterword for a reprint of Rebecca Harding Davis' 'Life in the Iron Mills; or, The Korl Woman' which introduces the author and her work. They were all illuminating and provocative and true. The second part of the book are snippets and notes expanding on the themes of the essays. A glimpse at what research has gone into creating a talk/essay and gives us the chance to expand the hints and inferences in them. It makes it more disjointed as they are essentially notes - but there is such incredible material packed into them that I really appreciated having the opportunity to see them.
There is a lot of insight in this book that I am grateful to Tillie Olsen for naming and showing so clearly.
The first part has two essays recreated from talks Tillie Olsen gave from notes and the third one is an afterword for a reprint of Rebecca Harding Davis' 'Life in the Iron Mills; or, The Korl Woman' which introduces the author and her work. They were all illuminating and provocative and true. The second part of the book are snippets and notes expanding on the themes of the essays. A glimpse at what research has gone into creating a talk/essay and gives us the chance to expand the hints and inferences in them. It makes it more disjointed as they are essentially notes - but there is such incredible material packed into them that I really appreciated having the opportunity to see them.
There is a lot of insight in this book that I am grateful to Tillie Olsen for naming and showing so clearly.
mireiaaaaaa3's review against another edition
4.0
Es complementa molt bé amb el meu assaig preferit sobre el tema, el de la Russ, aporta nous punts de vista que tot i semblar molt obvis, moltes vegades ens pasen per alt. Llegiu a més dones per favor.
kjboldon's review against another edition
4.0
Essential history on the history of gaps in creation by writers, especially women, recognizing that race and money and sexual orientation were issues long before they became widely understood. Discursive and repetitive, sometimes more like notes and lists, but fascinating and instructive, even 50 years later. I read the old edition and wished for the newer one, in case some things had been cleaned up or organized.
bobbo49's review against another edition
5.0
Although I didn't find the parts of the book focused on the writer Rebecca Harding Davis as captivating as the rest, I had to give Silences five stars because overall it is so remarkable, even nearly a half century later. The book is a reflection and analysis and commentary by Olsen on the overwhelming social and economic challenges and obstacles to writers - and particularly female writers - that produce the "silences" that so many (even the greatest male) writers suffer. Her observations are so deep and powerful that I literally gasped at some of them; much of the book is filled with quotations from history's best authors reflecting their own struggles and periods of silence. I think that every teacher of literature, every (even aspiring) writer, and every reader interested in the challenges of writing , should read this book.
jenna0010's review against another edition
5.0
Oh gosh. Tillie Olsen is so sharp and lovely even when she writes about labour that takes women away from the writing desk. Unnatural silences. The threads she strings throughout build into such a beautiful conclusion yet at once feel as though they might all come undone.
sg94's review against another edition
informative
fast-paced
3.5
This is a great teaching resource but it's hardly a book "for reading", meaning, it is one speech (or lecture), a bunch of quotes and snippets, and then a conclusion. It's a good jumping off point, if this is a topic you'd like to research, but if you already know where you want to go with your research, it's unnecessary. The lecture at the start is interesting, though, if for nothing else than to help frame the way the topic might be taught.