Elliptical

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2002

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Background

Literary Context

One of Mullen’s literary influences is Oulipo, which stands for Ouvoir de Litterature Potentielle, or Workshop for Potential Literature. Started in 1960 in France by poet Raymond Queneau and mathematician Francois Le Lionnais, Oulipo consists of writers and math thinkers, mostly men, though several women have joined later, interested in systematic ways of writing. Queneau was a former Surrealist, not quite able to embrace the idea of writing through subconscious means. Because he was intrigued by mathematics, he started to see the importance of numbers in writing, such as the number of chapters in a book. He also wrote multiple sonnets with lines that he could rearrange to create new sonnets. As a result, in Oulipo, mathematical games provided writing challenges and inspiration. For example, French poet and Oulipo member Jean Lescure took the idea from math sequencing, now called n+7 in English (s+7 in French), which has authors replacing nouns in a piece of writing with the seventh entries following each one in the dictionary. Out of this movement also came notable works, including Georges Perec’s A Void, which does not contain the letter “e.” Even Dada visual artist Marcel Duchamp, known for his urinal readymade art piece, was intrigued by the group’s work and joined as a member. Mullen speaks of her intrigue of the group’s focus on language play in interviews, and the result can be seen in “Elliptical” by the way she focuses on certain parts of speech and a very broad theme, leaving the details up to the audience as a literary puzzle to solve.

Authorial Context

Given Mullen’s southern upbringing but her parents’ northern upbringing, she was sandwiched among “Standard American English,” “Black Southern English,” and Spanish. She said in a 1997 interview, featured in the “Further Literary Resources” section of this guide, “There is coercion, there is force involved in making people conform to a particular way of speaking, writing, and so forth.” She was able to speak the English of her parents and what her educators taught in the classroom, but she did not fit in with the Black children in her community in Fort Worth who did not feel she was Black enough. She quickly recognized the value of codeswitching, i.e., of how to talk to friends versus police officers. It was in college that Mullen fully discovered the different ways of being and expressing her Black identity. She believes Blackness and being educated are connected, not polar opposites. The idea of multiple languages and dialects of English and how English connects to her background and sense of belonging influences her writing. In “Elliptical,” she writes in a formal manner, which would appease her teachers, employees, and editors, particularly those adhering to the Standard American English that was created by educated elite white men primarily from East Coast universities. Yet, the ends of the sentences the readers can fill with any type of English they want in order to create the meanings that best suit their needs and interests.