From Obsession to Witness

Simple Passion

Follows the narrator’s movement from being absorbed in passion to offering an account that can be read by others.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

The Passionate Witness The Passionate Witness from "Simple Passion". The Passionate Witness Observing Herself Even while consumed by desire, the narrator notices her habits and reactions.

The Passionate Witness from "Simple Passion". The Passionate Witness Observing Herself Even while consumed by desire, the narrator notices her habits and reactions.

The Passionate Witness Observing Herself Even while consumed by desire, the narrator notices her habits and reactions. She records details rather than standing outside the experience. Knowledge Through Exposure Her actions reveal how passion alters ordinary judgment and priorities. Self-observation begins inside, not after, the emotional crisis.

Writing After Departure Writing After Departure from "Simple Passion". Writing After Departure First Sentence The narrator begins with the account of waiting for a man.

Writing After Departure from "Simple Passion". Writing After Departure First Sentence The narrator begins with the account of waiting for a man.

Writing After Departure First Sentence The narrator begins with the account of waiting for a man. She cannot connect particular pages to the surrounding world’s events. Time’s Division Living in passion and writing about it produce different experiences of time. The act of composition creates distance without ending grief.

The World Interrupts The World Interrupts from "Simple Passion". The World Interrupts A Wider Emergency The narrator refuses to pretend that her text exists outside history.

The World Interrupts from "Simple Passion". The World Interrupts A Wider Emergency The narrator refuses to pretend that her text exists outside history.

The World Interrupts A Wider Emergency The narrator refuses to pretend that her text exists outside history. The conflict involving Iraq and the Western coalition has become immediate. Shared Anxiety, Different Stakes Public uncertainty recalls the shape of private waiting but not its imaginative freedom. The narrator acknowledges a world that cannot be reduced to her passion.

The Reader’s Approach The Reader’s Approach from "Simple Passion". The Reader’s Approach Shame at Exposure The narrator feels astonishment and something like shame before the finished pages.

The Reader’s Approach from "Simple Passion". The Reader’s Approach Shame at Exposure The narrator feels astonishment and something like shame before the finished pages.

The Reader’s Approach Shame at Exposure The narrator feels astonishment and something like shame before the finished pages. These feelings were absent when she lived and first wrote the passion. Innocence Ending Once typed, private words become public characters. The change makes authorship an encounter with other people’s judgment.

The Offering The Offering from "Simple Passion". The Offering Not a Portrait The narrator insists that she has not written a book about A or simply about herself.

The Offering from "Simple Passion". The Offering Not a Portrait The narrator insists that she has not written a book about A or simply about herself.

The Offering Not a Portrait The narrator insists that she has not written a book about A or simply about herself. She has translated the impact of his existence on her life. Shared Possibility The account is bequeathed to readers as an offering. A singular affair becomes a way to approach the range of human feeling.

during the affair

about two months after A leaves

February 1991

after the manuscript is complete

at the close of the book