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    Ah Mah (Ascutia &amp Salvador 1SLP)

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    grace_ascutia
    Shirley Geok-Lin Lim is a Malaysian poet born in 1944 who was educated in a Catholic school under British colonial rule. She received her PhD in English and American literature. Her first poetry collection won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1980, making her the first woman and Asian to receive the award. She is currently a professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara where she teaches Asian American cultural productions and post-colonial literature. The poem "Ah Mah" is about Lim's grandmother and describes her as very small and thin, with bound feet, alluding to her hard life despite the family having money.

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    Ah Mah (Ascutia &amp Salvador 1SLP)

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    grace_ascutia
    2K views8 pages
    Shirley Geok-Lin Lim is a Malaysian poet born in 1944 who was educated in a Catholic school under British colonial rule. She received her PhD in English and American literature. Her first poetry collection won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1980, making her the first woman and Asian to receive the award. She is currently a professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara where she teaches Asian American cultural productions and post-colonial literature. The poem "Ah Mah" is about Lim's grandmother and describes her as very small and thin, with bound feet, alluding to her hard life despite the family having money.

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    Ah Mah (Ascutia & Salvador 1SLP)

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    Shirley Geok-Lin Lim is a Malaysian poet born in 1944 who was educated in a Catholic school under British colonial rule. She received her PhD in English and American literature. Her first poetry collection won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1980, making her the first woman and Asian to receive the award. She is currently a professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara where she teaches Asian American cultural productions and post-colonial literature. The poem "Ah Mah" is about Lim's grandmother and describes her as very small and thin, with bound feet, alluding to her hard life despite the family having money.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    2K views8 pages

    Ah Mah (Ascutia &amp Salvador 1SLP)

    Uploaded by

    grace_ascutia
    Shirley Geok-Lin Lim is a Malaysian poet born in 1944 who was educated in a Catholic school under British colonial rule. She received her PhD in English and American literature. Her first poetry collection won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1980, making her the first woman and Asian to receive the award. She is currently a professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara where she teaches Asian American cultural productions and post-colonial literature. The poem "Ah Mah" is about Lim's grandmother and describes her as very small and thin, with bound feet, alluding to her hard life despite the family having money.

    Copyright:

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    Ah-Mah

    Shirley Geok-Lin Lim

    Shirley Geok-Lin Lim


    Born in Malacca, Malaysia in 1944

    Educated at a Catholic convent school under the British colonial education


    She won a federal scholarship at the University of Malaya, then at the age of 24, went to graduate school and afterwards received her Ph.D. in English and American Literature Her first poetry collection, Crossing the Peninsula and other Poems, won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1980 making her the first woman and the first Asian to receive the award.

    Shirley Geok-Lin Lim


    She is currently a professor in the English Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Shirley also taught in Singapore and in Hong Kong as well. Areas of interest: AsianAmerican cultural productions, post-colonial literature, ethnic and feminist writing and creative writing

    Overview of the Poem


    "Ah Mah" is a poem about the authors grandmother. The author, Lim, describes her grandmother in detail and explains how her grandfather "bought" her grandmother. Lim describes her grandmother as a very small and thin woman (10-11). She gives the impression that her grandmother had a hard life even though it appears that the family had enough money. This poem contains many references to Chinese culture that are very interesting and inspire curiosity. By researching the culture of China, one can better understand the references to it in "Ah Mah." Then, the poem has more meaning to the reader than if he did not posses any knowledge about Chinese culture.

    Literary Devices
    Grandmother was smaller than
    Me at eight. Had she Been child forever? Helpless, hopeless, chin sharp As a knuckle, fan face Hardly half-opened, not a scrap Of fat anywhere; she tottered In black silk, leaning on

    Soochow flower song girl.


    Every bone in her feet Had been broken, bound tighter Than any neighbors sweet Daughters. Ten toes and instep Curled inwards, yellow petals Of chrysanthemum, wrapped In gold cloth. He bought the young

    Handmaids on two tortured


    Fins. At sixty, his sons all Married, grandfather bought her

    Face, small knobby breasts


    He swore hed not dress in sarong Of maternity. Each night

    Literary Devices
    He held her feet in his palms Like lotus in the tight Hollow of celestial lakes. In his calloused flesh, her Weightless soles, cool and slack Clenched in his strangers lever

    Symbolism

    Silk & Soochow flower song girl - wealth Tortured fins - bound feet Yellow petals of chrysanthemum - bound feet

    PERSONAL INSIGHTS
    Reported by: Mary Grace Ascutia Justine Leonard Salvador

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