instigate her own subtraction from it : suggesting that true power doesn ’ t necessarily reside in the act of narration itself , but in having the power to create or destroy it .
On the other hand , both Rich and Arshi examine the centrality of destruction harnessed as a form of innate power ; a power to re-write one ’ s own narrative , and through it , reconstruct the self . Irene Lara examines the power of destruction in revisionist mythmaking through a post-colonial lens , observing how writers ‘ challenge this type of monolingualism practiced by such dominant groups who have the power to narrate official history .’ Arshi uses this to powerful effect in her poem , Mirrors , which is in itself a re-imagining of Frederico Garcia Lorca ’ s Mirror Suite . She replaces Lorca ’ s original image of Christ in the first stanza with a ‘ Loose haired girl , a mirror in each hand .’ Arshi ’ s replacement of Christ with the figure of a young girl embodies the power in re-imagining traditional narratives , re-anchoring the focus upon the female self . Furthermore , the image of this girl faced with innumerable reflections of herself in these mirrors echoes Rich ’ s ‘ fellow-creature , sister , sitting across from me ’ in her poem , When We Dead Awaken . Both centralise female self-reflection
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and scrutiny of the feminine aesthetic , which Arshi later reexamines and rejects , describing ‘ How we learn to break into mirrors ’ ( p19 ). This act of destruction shatters the image of female identity this ‘ loose haired girl ’ has been faced with , as a ‘ flimsy veined soul clinging to the surface ’ ( pp16-18 ), a ‘ compacted spirit ’ ( p24 ) who destroys the identity assigned to her to forge her own . Having been reduced to the translucent incongruity of a mere ‘ soul ’ and ‘ spirit ’, Arshi ’ s protagonist regains her physicality through the poem . This is examined by Kim Socha , who raises questions ‘ about anger , flesh , destruction as protest and embodiment ’ in her examination of destruction in terms of the Avant-Garde . In this context , destruction is a fundamental aspect of protest throughout both Arshi and Rich ’ s work , highlighted particularly in Rich ’ s When We Dead Awaken , as a vital aspect in the embodiment of a re-constructed self . In Rich ’ s words – ‘ Revision [...] is an act of survival . This drive to self-knowledge is more than a search for identity : it is part of our refusal of the self-destructiveness of male-dominated society .’ She describes two women knitting , ‘ working like me to pick apart , working with me to remake ’ ( pp20- 21 ). Regarding it as ‘ an image of