Venus Hottentot Analysis

The name “Venus” typically brings to mind the Roman goddess of love and adoration. Ironically, in regards to the poem “The Venus Hottentot”, by Elizabeth Alexander, and the play “Venus” by Suzan-Lori Parks, the use of the name is more like a cruel joke. The experiences of Sarah Baartman do not evoke thoughts of adoration, but of exploitation and abuse. Both authors portray Baartman as a victim, yet the poem illustrates it through much more emotion and heaviness. The play, on the other hand, has a different perspective and is lacking in emotion. Also, it would seem that the author is almost channeling the spirit of Sarah. The bitterness she feels is very apparent, as is the disgust she feels for Cuvier. The two works, although over the same …show more content…
The imagery and the dark details that compose the poem are very crucial to recognizing the despair portrayed by the author herself. In the play, there is emotion shown by the author about the subject is more detached and isn’t as clear-cut. With both of the authors from the play and the poem being black female authors it definitely shows how Baartman’s unascertained story impacted each one. It is quite obvious that Alexander, the author of the poem was affected negatively from Venus’ experience. Alexander uses describing words such as unexpected, black, and rotting to explain different things throughout the poem. Just with those three words, you can tell that the feelings towards the situation are distasteful. Also, in the poem there is no humor at all. While this situation is absolutely nothing to scoff at, most of Baartman’s story is pretty much unknown, so a little bit of humor is acceptable. In the play you understand that Parks took the absurd situation as a time to educate, with mixing some humor into the facts to create an actual storyline fit for a play. It’s really a significant difference that justifies the two works by just comparing the little details put together by each