This presentation covers what I consider to be some of the major points presented in Skin by Dorothy Allison

1. Reality of Literature
By Ryn Baird
4/11/2018

2. 1.Why do we write literature
2.What do we get from
literature
3.What is the truth of
literature

3. Literature
Dorothy Allison talks about everything as literature. Novels, poetry, and smut. Her
open interpretation of literature allows for readers to acknowledge the many ways
that literature affects its readers. Different stories have different purposes.

4. Intersectionality
The way multiple social categories (such as sex, class, and race) come together to
compound and complicate social and political issues.

5. How do These Relate?
Allison is trying to convince the reader that literature can open the door for
intersectionality. That the way we perceive and relate to characters is fundamental
to how we perceive and relate to others. Approaching political and social issues
from a variety of perspectives allows for a more complete viewing of the big
picture. Exploring literature, both fiction and nonfiction works, can make us aware
of different viewpoints.

6. Reaction to literature
In the chapter “Not as a Stranger,” Allison talks about how much she connected to
the titular book (78). Literature’s power comes from a sense of relation between
the reader and the author. To know all the emotions that the author is trying to
portray is to be fully connected with that character. The way people connect is
directly correlated to how they receive a book. For an example, did you like
Catcher in the Rye? Could you relate to Holden Caulfield?

7. Truth in Literature
Allison believes in literature because of the way people receive it and interact with
it. She says literature tells the painful truths of human injustice. Allison related to
Not as a Stranger because is showed the struggles of poverty. For those who have
not experience poverty she hopes it can be a window into a way of navigating the
world. People who are not poor rarely think about being poor. This window allows
for a multifaceted look at the world.

8. Purpose for Allison
Allison has her own similar reasons for writing. She writes because she wants to
tell her truth (177). She sees it as “a moral act, a courageous act, an act that would
encourage other such acts.” Writing to change the world in anyway was her goal.
Even if it just encourages other writers. She’s right to say that writing one’s truth is
powerful. Truth is powerful, even if it’s not The Truth.

9. Purpose for others
Allison assembles her conviction for writing for her past, all her time spent reading
and writing feminist literature. When she goes to have her book published by a
mainstream publishing company, she worries about losing her own integrity (176).
She’s surprised to find other people just as convicted. I think that everyone who’s
interacted with writing knows how powerful it is. This idea of truth is just as
pervasive in her new environment.

10. Survival
Allison also writes as her own way to survive, to process the world around her. It’s
her own from of therapy. She knows writing has power, and sometimes that power
is used for herself. She mentions the years of journal entries she wrote under her
abusive father (53). This was her way of living on and being herself as the world
around her crumbled.

11. Recap
People write to survive, and they write to tell the truth. They write to change what
they cannot change themselves.
Literature offers us a home, an escape, and a new way of life. It offers the truth as
seen by another inside a life that is not our own.
Truth here is not universal, but subjective. A puzzle piece of the universal truth that
we’re all trying to piece together. The truth is found in people, and people can be
found in literature.

12. Allison, Dorothy. Skin: Talking About Sex, Class & Literature. Pandora, 1995.