Open AccessStill Christmas
Author(s) -
Paula Mathieu
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
writers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2688-9595
DOI - 10.15763/issn.2688-9595.2020.1.1.29-37
Subject(s) - silence , sister , shame , copying , psychology , art , psychoanalysis , literature , visual arts , aesthetics , social psychology , law , political science
This nonfiction essay recounts the story of a sister I never knew I had, and how I ended up inadvertently copying my mother’s pattern of keeping a secret about my own pregnancy. But it’s also an essay of how to write about silence, how families adopt patterns of silence, and how being a teacher of writing is my effort to break a pattern of secrets and shame.