Brontë Prescripted

The latest issue of the Kaleidoscope magazine (Issue 72: The Complexity of Human Connections) contains a poem by Rita María Martínez, author of the recent compilation of poems The Jane and Bertha in me, with Brontë mentions:

The Literature of Prescription by Rita Maria Martinez

(...)
At times Brontë pushed past this discomfort,
channeled lambasting pain into pristine prose.
Perhaps she would’ve been more prolific without
migraine—without Robert Southey’s infamous advice.
~ ~ ~
The poet laureate’s infamous advice reminiscent of Mitchell’s:
The daydreams in which you habitually indulge are likely to induce a distempered state of mind,& in proportion as “all the ordinary uses of the world” seem to you “flat & unprofitable,” you will be unfitted for them, without becoming fitted for anything else.

Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life,& it ought not to be. The more she is engaged in her proper duties,the less leisure will she have for it…

Charlotte Perkins Gilman renounced the rest cure,
regained her wits, and wrote The Yellow Wallpaper.
Charlotte Brontë followed Southey’s admonition selectively,
writing as a means of soothing the mind & elevating it —which is also what he prescribed.

UDS Press Release:

The work of writer Rita Maria Martinez of Miami, Florida, has been published in the current issue of Kaleidoscope: Exploring the Experience of Disability through Literature and the Fine Arts. Her poem, “The Literature of Prescription,” appears in issue number 72 of the magazine.  Her work was selected from among more than 350 submissions considered for publication.

Martinez is a Cuban-American poet and a Brontë scholar. Her poetry awards include an honorable mention in AWP’s Writer’s Chronicle and a Pushcart Prize nomination. The Jane and Bertha in Me, to be published in 2016, revamps Charlotte Brontë’s Gothic heroine and the poems revive Brontë’s infamous madwoman and explore the challenges associated with mental and physical illness. Martinez has a genetic neurological disorder, chronic daily headaches.

The award-winning Kaleidoscope magazine is published by United Disability Services in Akron, Ohio.  A pioneer in the publication of disability literature and fine arts, the magazine expresses the experiences of disability from the perspective of individuals, families, friends, caregivers, and healthcare professionals.  The material chosen for Kaleidoscope challenges and overcomes stereotypical, patronizing and sentimental attitudes about disability.  The publication is now available at no cost online by visiting www.KaleidoscopeOnline.org.

United Disability Services has been meeting the social, vocational, community living, low vision, recreational, educational and transportation needs of people with disabilities for more than 65 years.  For more information visit www.udsakron.org.