Friday, April 23,1982
Page 8
Daily Nebraskan
'I
Arts & EBtertairanniemt
Women authors examine
feminist aesthetics in art
By Cydney Wilson
A capacity crowd filled the Sheldon
Auditorium Wednesday evening for a
forum, "The Feminist Aesthetic: Women
Writers and Society."
Presented were: Tillie Olsen, author of
Tell Me A Riddle, Silences and Yonnondio;
Catherine Stimpson, critic, editor, founder
of Signs, and author of Class Notes, and
Mary Hellen Washington, critic and editor
of Black-Eyed Susans and Midnight Birds.
Each woman spoke in turn, allowing
questions after their speeches. Moira Fer
guson, UNL English professor and chair
person of the Women's Studies Program,
made the introductions.
In speaking about women in the arts,
Stimpson spoke of women having not yet
achieved a female aesthetic, and summarized
her speech by attributing new forms of art,
poetry, performance art and literature to
the feminist movement.
Washington spoke from a different
frame of reference than the other two wo
men, addressing minority women as well.
Near the conclusion of the evening, Wash
ington made a clear statement concerning
language and the printed word in the world
of the arts, saying "the emphasis of the
written word is practicality. In a world
where film is dominated by men and
whites one breaks barriers to only find one
behind it."
Different perspectives
Olsen spoke of the female aesthetic,
defining it in many different perspectives
but initially as "that which we strive to
judge our own work."
She traced the origins of the aesthetic,
saying "it came from the creatures out of
caves, the creation of language. The crea
tion of food, clothing, and shelter bring in
a sense of beauty and form, giving us our
tradition. The female aesthetic also tries as
much as possible to cling to reality , which
has to do with the nature of human be
ings." Olsen commented briefly on many to
pics, trying to cover different areas than
those raised previously by Washington
and Stimpson.
Her views of the world of art were
enlightening. She spoke of art forms as
coming out of "women's restriction and
confinement," adding that her daughter
"engages in the art of quilting out of joy
and freedom, yet one cannot help but
conjure images of the women first engaged
in such an activity and their role in society."
Olsen's definition of the female aes
thetic broadened with the addition of form
and content - "the old forms do not suit
us, you have to make it so clear and so dir
ect because you're writing against assump
tions and silences." (Silences she defines as
"being silenced, only, in those realms as
which we define as arts or literature.")
She lauded her fellow panel member,
Washington, for taking strides in present
ing changes in writing.
"The change, the leap in subject man
ner - it is what women embrace and what
they command," she said.
Lesbianism
In closing comments, Olsen remarked,
"In women everyday, what is called crea
tivity goes on in forms that people don't
realize."
Continuing by remarking that women's
bodies are "beasts of burden," and naming
class, sex and race as the "three greatest
classes of women," she added that lesbian
ism is an important new element to the
female aesthetic.
Olsen addressed many issues, all very
briefly, and sometimes rather sporadically.
In summary, she said, "too much unsaid,
not enough clarified. . .love."
Olsen, the final speaker of the three, is
a native Nebraskan. Born and raised in
Omaha, she received a Doctorate of Arts
and Letters from the University of Nebra-
Photo courtesy of UPC
Cornstock stages rockers
Cornstock XII, featuring three Midwestern rock bands, is slated for this af
ternoon. Comedian Tom Parks will open the show at 12:30 pjm., and will in
troduce the first band, Mischief, at 12:45 p.m. At 2:15 p.m., Lincoln country
rocker Footloose will begin its set, and at 3:45 p.m., the Minneapolis-based
group Chameleon is scheduled to take the stage.
Cornstock XII will be held in the grassy area between Filley Hall and the
East Union. According to the National Weather Service, the temperature today
could reach 80 degrees.
ska in 1979.
Olsen calls herself a woman who has
lived a "triple life," one of mother, house
wife and full-time working woman. She
said "women who write must voice the un
voiced." Olsen, along with four daughters, is
currently a resident of San Francisco where
May 1 8 has been declared Tillie Olsen Day
by Mayor Diane Feinstein, (Olsen later
admitted that Feinstein lias named the
other 364 days of the year for 364 other
people).
Her first work was published in 1934.
Since then, she has received many honors
and awards for her writing, including the
O'Henry Award in 1969 for Tell Me A
Riddle.
The audience Wednesday evening was
appreciative, and during parts of the even
ing enthusiastic, yet they lacked the spark
that great women such as Washington,
Olsen and Stimpson are capable of igniting.
Bergman film plays fatalistic message too well
By David Thompson
Ingmar Bergman made his first film in 1945. Since then
he has explored the technique of film making as few peo
ple have. Those explorations serve as an explanation for
the technical perfection of From the Life of Marionettes,
Bergman's second German film which first appeared in
America in 1980 and which will be showing at the Shel
don Film Theater Friday, Sunday and Monday. It is a film
yg. Movie Review
flawlessly crafted to the extent that it is almost too well
done. The edges are neatly trimmed, and the film perhaps
falls into place too easily, but this does not detract from
its powerful beauty.
The story begins with a murder. In a scene of raw, dry
color a man chokes a woman to death. From there it
swings back in time to a soft black and white, and Bergman
explores the events that led to the murder. We meet Peter,
the murderer; Katarina, his wife; Mogens Jensen, a psy
chologist; Cordelia, Peter's mother; Tim, a friend of Kata
rina's, and Ka, the prostitute who dies by Peter's hand.
Using an interview structure that has been used in such
American films an Lenny and Reds, Bergman presses these
characters into talking about themselves and their feelings
about Peter.
Answering the questions of an interviewer who is usual
ly off screen, these characters come under the close scruti
ny of Bergman's camera and explain their side of the
story. The interviews, which take place after the murder,
are interwoven with events which took place before the
murder, and together the scenes form a tapestry which
comes full circle. The screen flashes to color when the
murder comes again at the end of the film, and this time it
is filled with all that we know about what motivates the
character and with the weight of Bergman's message. Like
a Bach canon the melodies intertwine and we end where
we began.
Sound confusing? It's not really, and Bergman flashes
words on the screen explaining exactly where in time each
scene takes place. We discover that Peter is a successful
businessman who is beginning to feel the emptiness that
lies behind a marriage filled with bickering and a social life
filled with dinner parties, alcohol and drugs. "We like our
pleasure, or perhaps each other's pleasure," he says, un
sure where happiness lies.
That may not sound like adequate motivation for a
murder, but the murder was a necessary vehicle for Berg
man's message. He uses it as a tool, the speck of dust
around which his film grows like a crystal. Peter's premo
nitions and fears of such a horrible event taking place re
verberate throughout the film. "It frightens me that I
want to kill another human being," he says, admitting
that his desires are not always his own, that the puppeteer
controls the strings. The dream that Peter has of the mur
der is depicted in a fabulously blank void of white with
Peter and his intended victim huddling in the center of it,
players on an immense stage. It is one of the, many out
standing scenes in the film.
Another scene of considerable strength, though weak
ened somewhat by a hint of pathos, is a conversation be
tween Katarina and her friend Tim. Tim sits staring into
a mirror, turning to address Katarina from time to time.
Lamenting about his sad life, he looks back and forth
from her to the mirror, addressing alternately her and
himself, the game player and the game maker. "I'm gov
erned by the forces I cannot master," he says. "Lust and
mad excitement and beastliness." Like most of the char
acters, he is controlled by emotions and desires that are
beyond him. "People like me never give thought to the
mind," Katarina says.
The problem is that the film plays out Bergman's fatal
istic message all too well, and the characters are caught
within his finely tuned structure. "All ways out are
closed," Peter says. The symbolism culminates a little too
tidily in the murder, and one cannot quite justify Peter's
action as "the one experience of unconquered reality"
that Bergman makes it out to be.
Nevertheless, From the Life of Marionettes can be mar
veled at, being flawed only to the extent that it may be
too well done, which is an extremely pleasing fault to dis
cover in a film. Bergman has dipped below the skin of ex
istence, playing out his beliefs in perfect form. "Below
the surface I'm always crying," Katarina says after the
murder, and while we are below the surface we feel the
same.
