EN 127 Final

James and Realism (vs. Crane's Naturalism; less deterministic)

1) Crane's The Red Badge of Courage was written and published after "Daisy Miller" -Naturalism developed after realism, roughly from the 1880s through the 1930s— psychological and social forces shaped character and destiny -Crane establishes a continuity with Emersonian, Romantic idealism in his work, but the Naturalist tendencies are very fatalistic -James saw a danger in cold literalness; his work is less deterministic than Crane's -Crane wrote other works that are called "realist," so they overlap in many ways. In general: Naturalism is considered to be more pessimistic and fatalistic 2)after he left Europe at age 33, James became closely associated with realist writers in France; realism also emerged in fiction in Great Britain -Influenced by Flaubert's realism; Flaubert admitted "low" subjects into his fiction, saying that the style of the author would sanction this: -Flaubert: "there are no noble or ignoble subjects; from the standpoint of pure Art one might almost establish the axiom that there is no such thing as subject—style in itself being an absolute manner of seeing things." ---James can write about Daisy, because of the excellence of his style as a writer; this opens American literature to new portrayals of Americans who have been invisible up to this point

Hughes, "Jazzonia"

"Jazzonia" (coinage; a place? Like Babylonia? Suggests later development of music: from ragtime through swing towards bop) Oh, silver tree! Oh, shining rivers of the soul? In a Harlem cabaret Six long-headed jazzers play. A dancing girl whose eyes are bold Lifts high a dress of silken gold. Oh, singing tree! Oh, shining rivers of the soul! Were Eve's eyes I n the first garden Just a bit too bold? Was Cleopatra gorgeous In a gown of gold? Oh, shining tree! Oh, silver rivers of the soul! In a whirling cabaret Six long-headed jazzers play. 1) Harlem Cabaret is setting, as in the blues poem 2) Collective performance; players and dancer -"long-headed jazzers" is a slang term for shrewd, wise, prescient; very visual word 3)meter is less plodding and definite; uses variations on a couplet (an apostrophe with two metaphors) that describes the music: "Oh, silver tree!/Oh, shining rivers of the soul!"; "Oh, singing tree!/Oh shining rivers of the soul!"; "Oh, shining tree!/Oh, silver rivers of the soul!" -rhymes (cabaret/play; bold/gold/ bold/gold; cabaret/play) 4) Poem is much more upbeat and excited than ominous; swift movement of "whirling" suggests integration on the dance floor? -The distanced frame has disappeared, but the interpreter's perspective is present (the speaker is part of the audience watching the dancing girl) -speaker could be black or white in this poem (and in The Weary Blues) -Here: more intimate perspective—the dancer interprets the musical statement for the audience; cf. the dance and the poet. -Harlem cabaret is changed to "whirling" cabaret; merging of colors and cultures.

Hilda Doolittle and Sea Garden

"Sea Rose" -Explores women's identity: different from the conventional rose -Flower poems revise the Victorian "language of flowers" -Hardy or fragile? "Sheltered Garden" -Discovery of a new aesthetic -Escape from domestic garden; a search for a "terrible/windtortured place" World War I is evoked in "Prisoners" -H.D.'s child was stillborn in 1915 -Her marriage had disintegrated after Aldington enlisted for the army in 1916. -Her brother would die in the war, and her father would die from the shock of his death "The Shrine" -Refers to a shrine to St. Mary on the promontory on the coast of Maine -landscape recalls her American childhood and her mother's garden; shorescapes of Maine, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. -Close identification with nature allows for exploration of consciousness and especially passion -Perception of life as fleeting and ephemeral

Narrative Technique, Naturalism, and Impressionism

1) "An Episode": Cf, "Incidents"? -The difficulty of representing the war. Each "episode" is part of a larger, formally experimental narrative that can't be comprehended or represented in its entirety 2) Whose point of view? is the narrative objective or subjective? "one could see across [the stream] the red, eyelike gleam of hostile campfires" -objective? Anyone there could see it: there is scientific objectivity in the use of the pronoun "one" -subjective? Emotion (fear) tinges perception, so that objects (camp-fires) are personified and are figuratively compared to hostile eyes Are we given objective, reliable information about the war? No. -Contested truths about the war; chaotic chain of transmission and "rumor" -The "tall soldier" is given a name (Jim) as a result of his offering "food for thought" -Others "make futile bids for the popular attention"; seek status and identity -Newspapers, "illustrated weekly", gossip, fantasy shape perspective on the war Settle on the "Youthful private's" point of view -Once again, compare with Melville's "Benito Cereno": third person subjective narrative: "free and indirect discourse" 3) Naturalism - Crane believed that fiction should analyze causes and circumstances, and this is what makes him a "Naturalist." -Crane will explore determinism associated with forces in nature (including psychological forces); Henry seeks a scientific perspective on his own fear Look at the scene where Henry Fleming strives to have a more scientific perspective on himself: "He finally concluded that the only way to prove himself was to go into the blaze, and then figuratively to watch his legs to discover their merits and faults.... To gain [an answer] he must have blaze, blood, and danger, even as a chemist requires this, that, and the other." -Earlier, we saw how in the "chapel" of Nature, Henry confronts the brutality and finality of death, and flees. There is no "middle landscape" that allows him to voluntarily enter nature or civilization—here he is caught trying to escape the brutality of both the battlefield and nature. In other scene, Crane shows Henry's questioning of spiritual transcendence and the efficacy of religious rituals in the context of the battlefield. Consider the scene where the "tall" soldier, Jim Conklin dies; Henry Fleming promises to take care of him and tried to "express his loyalty" (41); but his violent death leaves him incapable of any ritual speech or action -Incapacity to mourn: "The youth desired to screech out his grief...but his tongue lay dead in the tomb of his mouth." 4) Impressionism -Crane's use of color, and his depiction of sensory "impressions" experienced by Henry, are associated with the Impressionist Movement in painting -Impressionism was associated with the rise of photography (the impression on a photographic plate). What is the new role of art in the age of photography—there's no point in trying to perfect realism, because this is being done by the photograph. Civil War photography influenced Crane in this regard as well. "It seemed to the youth that he saw everything. Every blade of the green grass was bold and clear.... His mind took a mechanical but firm impression, so that afterward everything was pictured and explained to him, save why he himself was there."

Alexandra's limitations: resistance to change and desire

1) Alexandra fights with her brothers, who insist that they own her property (now that she's improved it) when she suggests she might want to marry Carl -Oscar says Carl is "after your money." 2)Alexandra has a "blind side" -Her "personal life" is "subconscious"; she has never felt passion or romantic desire Duck symbolism -a figure for the rising generation -Duck imagery is carried throughout -Emil shoots a duck and Marie is upset -Emil and Alexandra see a duck together -"a kind of enchanted bird that did know age or change" -"she has never been in love" 3)Alexandra's ability to mentor or acknowledge the importance of youth and desire are compromised by this limitation -Marie talks about her marriage troubles, and Alexandra cuts her off -"If Alexandra had had much imagination she might have guessed what was going on in Marie's mind, and she would have seen long before what was going on in Emil's." 4)We are led to question Alexandra's judgement Her "blind faith" in Emil's success She expresses a desire to return to the womb She escapes from her pain through an "illusions from girlhood of being lifted and carried by some one very strong." She ultimately sympathizes with Frank Shabata -She blames Emil and especially Marie, not Frank for the deaths

Hybridity and Cross-Cultural Exchange? Emil and Marie's Tragic Subplot

1) Cather celebrates cross-cultural exchange and cultural adaptations as creative acts of self-fashioning and an important means of survival in New World In domestic settings, we see the preservation of immigrant traditions that are subjected to new influences -French apricots and Bohemian pastries? 2) The failure to adapt is associated with the culturally insular French Catholic community -Amedee buys a new "header" and a steam thresher; but the community as a whole is resistant to change—this is what makes him sick (overworked and tired; has appendicitis but doesn't get it checked etc.) 3)BUT: Cross-Cultural encounters, and the commingling of various immigrant traditions are associates with sexual desire, transgression, and tragedy Both Emil and Marie are portrayed acting as exotic and culturally hybridized characters Scene at the Catholic Fair where Emil and Marie kiss -Marie is portrayed as "round and brown, with rich color in her cheeks and lips" -she's dressed as a Turkish woman ("a yellow silk turban wound low over her brown curls, etc) on the night that they kiss in the French Church (the Church of Saint Agnes) during the fair Emil has returned from Mexico (he went there to see if he could work at an electrical plant, 68) and brings back a costume -He is a "strikingly exotic figure in a tall Mexican hat". Marie is Catholic; can't get divorced Emil experiences an "equivocal revelation" when he goes to a Catholic confirmation ceremony (takes the place of one of Amedee's cousins) -Cather's brother had been an acolyte in the Catholic church, even though she came from a Virginia family descended from Protestants from Northern Ireland. Here, the strictures of religion and conformity are destructive -reference to John (Jan) Huss, a Bohemian priest who was excommunicated for insubordination of the Roman Catholic Church, and burned at the stake in 1415 Graveyard scene -founded the Moravian Church (influenced Lutherism—church of Sweden); burned at the stake in 1415; excommunicated for insubordination to the authority of the Roman Catholic church (Czech Reform); excommunicated for insubordination -Free thinkers: most Bohemian immigrants were Catholic, but some espoused "free thought" (rationalist, anticlericism, deist not atheist) The tragic consequences of the affair stand as an implicit warning against such transgressions -Ivar finds Emil and Marie dead under the mulberry tree -The story of what happened was written plainly on the orchard grass, and on the white mulberries that had fallen in the night and were covered with dark stain....But the stained, slippery grass, the darkened mulberries, told only half the story. Above Marie and Emil, two white butterflies from Frank's alfalfa-field were fluttering in and out among the interlacing shadows...; and in the long grass by the fence the last wild roses of the year opened their pink hearts to die...When Ivar reached the path by the hedge, he saw Shabata's rifle lying in the way...."Mistress, mistress," he sobbed, "it has fallen! Sin and death for the young ones! God have mercy on us!" -Ivar does not see the butterflies -Cather intends for us to see the complexity and importance of their love for one another in the context of the frontier and the New World

Cather's epigraphs and the legacy of Whitman in O Pioneers!

1) Close analysis of "Prairie Spring" Free verse The frontier is coming to an end—how does generational renewal take place? This is a poem about generational transitions The poem is divided into two sentences: contrasts endings and new beginnings; the setting sun and the rising of a new generation The first half: -Setting sun cf. Oswald Spengler's Decline of the West (1918) Cather's assessment of the pioneer legacy: -stasis in the poem: "growing wheat, growing weeds" suggests a struggle against the forces of chaos/nature -Isolation: "long empty roads" Difficulty of "breaking trails in a new country" -Reluctantly "dragged into the wilderness" -Imagination of the pioneer: has to have vision and enjoy this, as opposed to its realization. the second half -Echoes of Whitman's anaphora ("Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking") -Youth is personified, abstract, unable to be described as a particular person—it is a force of nature. -The speaker reaches for figurative comparisons (like wild roses, like larks, like a star); a source of renewal and hope in the future. 2)Compare and contrast with Whitman's "Pioneers! O Pioneers!" -In his opening lines, Whitman emphasizes conquest of the land; his pioneers are active, very present in the poem, and very militaristic and violent -There are no pioneers in Cather's poem; she foregrounds the landscape as a "character" -Whitman's speaker is a dominating presence in the poem. -Cather's speaker is noticeably absent and passive; there is no self-proclaiming "I" 3)Cather's epigraph Mickiewicz: reference to Polish-Lithuanian poet and political activist; exiled when he participated in the struggle for independence from Russia in 1829; reference to wheat fields in Poland (then part of Russia); yearning and exile. "Meanwhile, bear my soul heavy with yearning's dull pain, [...] To those fields, which by various grain painted, there lie." Cather, "Nebraska: The End of the First Cycle," published in The Nation in 1923: "From east to west this plain measures something over five hundred miles; its appearance resembles the wheat lands of Russia, which fed the continent of Europe for so many years."

Du Bois on Education

1) Education replaces the political power as a form of "spiritual striving" -Education is a solitary journey where the student learns he must be himself (selfreliance and self-respect) -Education and fostering of talents and traits in order to be "in large conformity to the greater ideals of the American Republic" 2) "Of the Wings of Atlanta: -Du Bois explores the importance of the "coming universities of the South" -More hopeful and forward looking: "They of Atlanta turned resolutely toward the future" confronts the problem of materialism in the U.S.. The classroom as a place of hope beyond materialism -"not to earn meat, but to know the end and aim of that life which meat nourishes." 3) Epigraph from Whittier; homage to abolitionist movement; the white man and the black man are both freed by emancipation 4) Chapter title also confronts the problem of materialism in the U.S. -Refers to Greek myth about Atalanta, who would only marry someone who could beat her in a race until she stopped to pick up a golden apple and was "cursed" for her falling in love -greed of gold defiled the temple of love -Bourse=stock exchange -the gospel of work is "befouled" by gospel of pay -education should not be determined by material prosperity as the touchstone of all success -This is a problem spreading all over America 5) Reflections on vocational vs. liberal arts education -The function of the university is not simply to teach breadwinning or to furnish teachers for the public schools, or to be the centre of polite society; it is, above all, to be the organ of that fine adjustment between real life and growing knowledge of life, an adjustment which forms the secret of civilization. -Du Bois questions the goal of the industrial school: "Is not life more than meat, and the body ore than raiment?"

"Of Our Spiritual Strivings"

1) Epigraph: why juxtapose poem and line of music from the spiritual, "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen"? -dignifying the spirituals as an important art form; cultural translation and mediation 2) "Double-consciousness": what does this describe? -seeing himself as American and also as white "others" see him -hyphenated American as figure with inner conflict, two selves -"gifted" with second sight 3) "Spiritual striving" (cf. Goethe): what is the goal or purpose of this? -desire to be a "co-worker in the kingdom of culture" Influenced by German philosophy and Romanticism (Goethe) who used this term "striving" to refer to the endless yearning and action that are entailed in civilization building

Helga in Chicago and New York

1) Helga leaves Naxos and travels to Chicago by train—tracing the path of the Great Migration; this recalls the escape north in slave narratives by Douglass and Jacobs as well as Du Bois's reference to the "Jim Crow" car in Souls -"cotton" reference recalls the legacy of slavery -She is in a segregated train 2) The Chicago cityscape is a new, modern setting in literature -She had been born in this city; but has no "home" in it; tries to create one -The crowd is a new social phenomenon -Contrasts "freedom" in the crowd with the "cage" in Naxos. 3)In Chicago she is mentored by and works for Mrs. Hayes-Rore, who gave lectures at conventions, to be an assistant and help her organize her speeches, etc. This initially gives Helga hope (she feels "reborn) Compare to Mrs. Miller, Mrs. Costello, or Mrs. Walker in Daisy Miller? Mrs. Hayes-Rore is "prying" and aggressive like Mrs. Costello -She wields social influence: her husband had been connected to Chicago's South Side politics. -Mrs. Hayes-Rore has an "invincible, self-reliant smile" like Mrs. Costello and Mrs. Walker, she enforces conformity -she is not original in her speeches; no living legacy of protest -Helga confesses her background, but "this is beyond definite discussion"; "race intermingling and possibly adultery...are never mentioned—and therefore they do not exist." 4) Mrs. Hayes-Rore takes her to NY; and Helga is introduced to (and lives with) Her niece, Anne Grey. She also gets her a job at an insurance company -"Terrible loneliness" of the city (READ 37) is offset by the fact that Helga has a job and a friend (Anne) (READ 40) -Reference to WWI; Anne's husband was killed in the war (Quicksand was published in 1928) -Her friendship with Anne is in part based on shared cosmopolitan taste 5)Helga's life in Harlem initially gives her a sense of direction and freedom -She has escaped the "hostile white folk" of her childhood in Chicago, as well as the "snobbish black folk" in Naxos -"the sober mad rush of white New York" seems separate and far away—she is "not a part of the monster" 6)But: Helga feels "restlessness" and "discontent", and eventually rejects Anne because Anne disapproves of racial integration -She meets Dr. Anderson, who has left Naxos; and considers whether she should marry him -She gets a letter from her Uncle Peter in Chicago, which includes a check for $5,000 as her inheritance -She feels she doesn't "belong to these dark, segregated people", and decides to use the money to visit her aunt in Copenhagen -Ultimately, she rejects Anne during a Harlem cabaret scene -Anne doesn't believe in interracial contact and dialogue (conversation about Audrey Denney, who gives integrated parties etc.) -Helga has ambivalent feelings about African American culture and jazz; she "feels no regret" as she leaves for Copenhagen on a liner: "No, she hadn't belonged there."

Alexandra's worldview (contrasted with her father): What attributes allowed Alexandra to become strong, influential representative of the rising generation?

1) Imagination and practicality -A pioneer should have "imagination" and enjoy this more than actual things -Alexandra dreams, but shifts to practical action of building a pig corral 2)Alexandra brings together tradition and modernity -She calls her father "by an old Swedish name that she used to call him when she was little." -She hums an old Swedish hymn, and Emil wonders why she "looked so happy." 3)she reads Frithjof's Saga (1825); classic of Swedish literature (draws on Scandanavian sagas and legends)—cf. Longfellow Cf. Hans Andersen: a fairy tale that refers to cross cultural exchange between Danes and Swedes "Holger Danske" -"Swiss Family Robinson," modeled on Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (by Wyss, a Swiss pastor); a popular English version published in 1879. "not the least spark of cleverness" 4) She has faith in the land -"For the first time, perhaps, since that land emerged...a human face was set toward it with love and yearning. It seemed beautiful to her, rich and strong and glorious...The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman." She believes in a natural order: "She loved to watch [the stars], to think of their vastness and distance, and of their ordered march." -She closely identifies with the land, and looks forward: "She had never known before how much the country meant to her....Under the long shaggy ridges, she felt the future stirring" 5)Non-conformity Alexandra comfortably wears a man's coat, an "ulster" -Ulster overcoat introduced in Belfast in 1867; she is transgressing conventional norms for her gender She is not afraid of new ideas (Alfalfa) -Alexandra's individuality is associated with her attachment to the soil. -She is aware that conformity can becoming suffocating; needs to know that there is a wider world outside 6) Contrasts and comparisons with other Bergson family members? Alexandra's mother Alexandra vs. Lou and Oscar: -They want to leave the land -Oscar marries Annie Lee, and their children are afraid to speak Swedish, although Annie and Oscar speak it at home

Where do we see influenced of the sentimental novel in Jacobs' Incidents?

1) Jacob's readership and the legacy of "sentimental power": the impact on white women reformers - White women wrote about the "slavery of women" to articulate their critique of sexism and gender inequality -Modesty; does not want readers to sympathize with herself, but with those who are suffering much worse than she suffered. -Addressed to northern women. -Appeal to universal experience of motherhood to combat slavery. -Focus on the mother's pain at losing her children when they are sold. Jacobs mentions acts of heroic kindness on the part of white women occur throughout this narrative -grandmother is bought at auction by white woman and friend who is appalled that she had been put up for sale -a white woman helps Jacobs by hiding her in her home so she can escape -Mrs. Bruce says she will commit an act of Civil Disobedience to protest the Fugitive Slave Act -Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin: quintessential sentimental, antislavery novel 2) What are Jacobs' main departures from the conventions of the sentimental novel? The sentimental novel presents death as an idealized, heroic goal -Miss Fanny said she wanted Jacobs to be in her grave instead of suffering as a slave; Jacobs wants to gain her freedom instead Jacobs presents Aunt Marthy (her grandmother) as an alternate model of motherhood -grandmother was freed as a child, reenslaved during the Revolutionary War; she is a storyteller. Sold to owner of a large hotel -her grandmother works hard and prospers like her father, a carpenter; she made money to support her family -aunt Marthy plays important role as a model of maternal caregiving that transcends race, and as a mother who works and sells her baked goods departs from the conventional portrayals of mothers in sentimental fiction -Jacobs's grandmother does not conform to the "ideology of separate spheres" in 19th century American society—the widespread belief, upheld in sentimental fiction, that there were biologically determined gender roles. This system of values affirmed that a woman's proper place was in the privately domestic sphere, whereas men dominated the sphere of the marketplace and paid work, politics, and law Linda Brent's sexuality and resistance undermine her standing as a sentimental heroine -This is the first threat to her standing as a sentimental heroine: She shows that she tried to fulfill a marriage plot, but fails: falls in love with a free colored carpenter, who proposes to marry her (34). Dr. Flint forbids her marriage, and she, by hating him, is put in "an atmosphere of hell" -the second threat: her decision to have children out of wedlock with Mr. Sands also violates the conventions of the sentimental novel -not compelled by a master -did this with deliberate calculation -Mr. Sands was "too eloquent" to the poor slave girl who trusted him; wanted to have a lover who "has no control over you, except that which he gains by kindness and attachment" - "There may be sophistry in all this; but the condition of a slave confuses all principles of morality, and, in fact, renders the practice of them impossible." She proposes an alternative moral code -"Pity me and pardon me, O virtuous reader! You never knew what it is to be a slave; to be entirely unprotected by law or custom; to have the laws reduce you to the condition of a chattel, entirely subject to the will of another.... I know I did wrong... Still, in looking back, calmly, on the events of my life, I feel that the slave woman ought not to be judged by the same standard as others." Jacobs refuses to be a "tragic mulatto" discarded by the white father of her children. - she becomes an outraged loving mother, who sacrifices her "purity" for "self-respect" and freedom -Jacobs revelations about sexual abuse, and her own decision to have children out of wedlock with a white man (Mr. Sands) breaks conventions of both the slave narrative and the sentimental novel. -This narrative tests the abolitionist commitments of sentimental readers, because they might be offended by the explicit references to sexuality. -The values of sentimental fiction and readers aren't adequate to assess Jacobs's experiences. -How can Jacobs try to elicit sympathy and understanding from her readers, even though she transgresses against their values of virtuous motherhood and womanhood? Jacobs resists the ideal of the "beautiful death" in sentimental fiction. However, like Douglass she also embraces the revolutionary tradition associated with Patrick Henry -"give me liberty of give me death" was her motto

Incidents, Conclusion

1) Jacobs's final departure from the slave narrative tradition -Like Douglass, Jacobs refers to experience of segregation and racism in the north -unlike Douglass, Jacobs finds strength and alleviated her pain of isolation through her children and experience of motherhood -reunion with both her children in Boston is a moment of maternal triumph and relief -she "confesses" to Ellen that Mrs. Sands is Ellen's father, but Ellen says she already knew this, and the bond between mother and daughter is strengthened 2) Jacobs resists sentimental narrative conventions up to the very end of her narrative -freedom, not marriage is her goal 3) Jacobs's work belongs in the literary tradition, including American Renaissance literature of protest we have been studying -compare with Thoreau: Jacobs endorses Mrs. Bruce's proposed act of Civil Disobedience protesting the Fugitive Slave Law -compare with Melville's Bartleby refusing payment from the lawyer. Mrs. Bruce offers to buy her for $300, but the idea is not as "pleasant" as Linda would have expected. Why? Because this affirms that she is a commodity to be bought and sold 4) in contrast to Emerson, Thoreau, and Melville, Jacobs identifies new sources of hope that sustained her in her struggle for freedom -this time: discovers faith in friendship with Mrs. Bruce -tender memories of her grandmother show the importance of cultural memory and ties of kingship

"Linda Brent and Motherhood

1) Linda Brent's decision to become a mother is part of her larger resistance to oppression; she rejects the "living death" of slavery why does she decide to have children with Mr. Sands? - Revenge against Dr. Flint; doesn't want her children to be owned by a "tyrant"; feels that her children will be better supported by Sands; less degrading to give herself than to "submit to compulsion"; no morality is possible under slavery. -still, we see her ambivalence towards the experience of motherhood 2) Linda's initial experiences of and reactions to motherhood are negative -She is rejected by her grandmother because of her becoming an unwed mother: her grandmother says she "pities" her, but does not forgive her. -Significance of birth of her first son; becoming a mother: "dark cloud" over her enjoyment. -Her child is a "badge of shame": -Her second child is a girl, and she feels even worse; the question of the last name is a source of pain to her: 3) this changes when she resists Dr. Flint one last time, and it taken to a plantation with her two children, a plantation owned by Dr. Flint's son, who is going to be married (sends children to live with grandmother) -New pride, mother's love; secret hopes; determined will. Motherhood gives her strength to resist injustice. -She is under tremendous strain: doesn't want the "spirit of motherhood" to be crushed. Cf. Douglass when he is first brought to Mr. Covey (the low point in his narrative) 4) There is an important scene where we learn her son's name, and she expresses love for her children. Her connection to children, and being with them, reconciles her with her grandmother We first learn her son's name: Benny, named after Benjamin, her brother, who escaped to the north. This positive experience of motherhood intensifies Linda's resolve to escape and free her children -asserts ultimate independence from the sentimental novelist's point of view: freedom is better than death for slaves 5)But: having children complicates her escape (contract with Douglass) --She can't escape alone, because she is doing this "more for my helpless children than for myself" -She feels guilty about leaving them. Her grandmother reminds her she can't leave her children: "Stand by your own children, and suffer with them till death. Nobody respects a mother who forsakes her children; and if you leave them, you will never have a happy moment." -She first has a plan to hide, so that Dr. Flint will want to sell her children and Mr. Sands will buy them. She prays at the graves of her parents, and her faith strengthens as a result of this experience 6) But as we shall see, her experiences of motherhood helps to alleviate the pain of her isolation: -Scene when she is still trapped in her garret, just before Ellen is sent to Brooklyn to work for Mr. Sands' cousin: -Precious moments of intimacy and community; very rare in this narrative

Other departures from Douglass's slave narrative

1) More emphasis on happy childhood -Jacobs emphasizes that she has more food 2) Less emphasis on violence and physical conflict -"Sketches of Neighboring Slaveholders" -in Douglass's narrative there is more graphic violence (slaves being whipped) and overt physical conflict with the master (Mr. Covey) -Jacobs alludes to this type of violence. She describes her uncle, Benjamin, attacks his master and throws him to the ground, and then has to escape "to feel like a man." But in general the scenes of violence are less frequent and subdued 3) Mother's love requires a different attitude towards escaping north -contrast Benjamin's desire to escape (and Douglass's) with Jacob's desire to preserve family ties - When he says he's going north, Jacobs says he will "break his mother's heart" but recalls she "repented of [her] words ere they were out." -Benjamin is captured and imprisoned, but eventually escapes to Baltimore and then New York -Jacobs says he is lost to the family: "We never heard from him again." --Contrast Benjamin's escape north (never saw his family again) with an alternative model of freedom: -The grandmother (Aunt Marthy) purchases her other son, Phillip (Jacobs' uncle). -She is free and makes him free, an alternate model of resistance to traditional slave narrative. -Freedom and resistance while everyone stays at home; family ties are intact. 4) Even more than Douglass, Jacobs calls attention to the trauma of realizing the horror of enslavement -Seems to affirm the plantation family myth at first. -Shows how closely related slaves and mistresses were: "foster sisters" in the same family. -When her mother died, she lives with her mistress as if "free from care...as any freeborn white child." But this illusion is destroyed - Jacobs is unable to choose a husband, because "slaves had no right to any family ties of their own"; she eventually tells him to go north, but she still has her grandmother and brother 5) Jacobs's "double critique" of slavery and patriarchy - "The Trials of Girlhood" emphasizes loss of childhood innocence and the terrible violation of young girls -in contrast to Douglass and the traditional slave narrative, Jacobs calls attention to sexual exploitation of slave women -the "authentication" of her narrative in Lydia Maria Child's Preface focuses on this aspect of her story as well -Child emphasizes the "monstrous" features" of slavery, and assumes responsibility, insisting that they must be confronted, even by those whose "ears" are "too delicate" to listen -Compare Jacobs' use of a pseudonym and Douglass's act of renaming himself (drawing on a novel by Walter Scott). She doesn't want to be taken back to slavery, but she is also worried about the sensational content of her narrative; she carries the stigma of having been an unwed mother

"The Forethought"

1) One of two important images in this text: the "color line." The problem of the "color line" anticipated social division and polarization of races in the world today; Du Bois places this in a global context -the civil rights struggle is presented as being analogous to anti-imperialism and the dissolutions of former colonies in Asian, African, the Americas, and the South Pacific 2) The title of this work Why "Souls" -resist "sociological" tendency to be abstract and distant; "car window sociologist" Why "Folk": a people or nation within a nation 3)The veil as a metaphor for cultural mediation and translation between worlds Du Bois identifies his own identity as African American; compare with the project of writing undertaken by Douglass and Jacobs: reading text affirms the humanity of the African American author Print culture is boundary-crossing and allows for cross-racial identification Biblical allusions: -Exodus 34:33-35 -- Moses delivers the 10 Commandments and covers his face with a veil because people can't look at him; "shrouds his glory" from talking with God on Mt. Sinai -2 Corinthians 3:13 -- Moses put a veil over his face, obscuring the ultimate outcome and meaning of the 10 Commandments for the Israelites; the Veil is only lifted for people who turn to Christ Du Bois makes this metaphor into an image of cross-cultural communication

the "domestic sphere": how is it portrayed?

1) Presents a conflict of obligations/duties: Henry Fleming's mother's home represents obligations that conflict with those associated with patriotism: she looks on his patriotism with "contempt" and "she could calmly seat herself and with no apparent difficulty give him many hundreds of reasons why he was of vastly more importance on the farm than on the field of battle." -The mother represents the authority of folk wisdom and tradition: READ 4 Contrasts with Henry's reading and newspapers. -The mother also represents the tradition of the sentimental novel; the values associated with home and emotional ties to the home 2) The novel dramatizes a reconciliation of these opposed spheres - the domestic sphere vs. the public sphere of warfare, the marketplace, and politics Henry revisits the scene of his home only after he is wounded accidentally during a chaotic retreat and he is subsequently brought back to his regiment by a nameless friend. -he is like a "babe" -he thinks of his other and the spread table -Wilson, the "loud" soldier takes care of him and creates a home on the battlefront: "the cold cloth was like a tender woman's hand" -he "snuggled down into his blanket"

American life abroad: Randolph and Mrs. Miller

1) Randolph -Has an "aged expression" even though he is only 10 years old; "a voice immature and somehow not young" -He pokes his alpenstock at everything (expressing phallic aggression?); he constantly craves sugar (suggests unhappiness?) -Concerns about his teeth and mother ("said she'd slap me if any more came out"); suggests that she is not calm and in control about his development Winterbourne is attracted to Randolph's American "dialect": "Oh blazes; it's h-a-r-r-d!" (uses a long vowel sound for "a" as in hate, not hat) -James mentions this in his "Preface": "Dialect...with its...power...of attraction"; he discusses the conditions that "guard the grace..., the honor, or even the life, of dialect", affirms the difference between dialect as the "speech of the soil" and "slang," which is the speech of the newspaper -Dialect is regional; slang is an urban vernacular and is not the same as a folk dialect that takes centuries to develop -Winterbourne echoes what Randolph and Daisy say: "American men are the best"; "right over," "right down" Randolph's absent father and lack of structural education -His father is making money in upstate New York so the family can travel -Randolph has no other boys to play with; he has made the decision not to have a tutor, which shows how little guidance his parents are giving him Randolph is the one who suggests that Daisy take medicine to protect her from malaria 2) Mrs. Miller: upwardly mobile expatriate American motherhood -doesn't take good care of Randolph and make him go to bed: lack of authority? -she doesn't sleep herself; she is nervous all the time -she is focused on her illnesses; "dyspepsia" reminds her of her doctor at home, and this helps her to feel comfortable in unfamiliar surroundings -"new" wealth wearing diamonds -unsure of herself and has a "slow and wavering step"; abdicates her role as mother by wearing Daisy's clothes (READ 26); there is a role reversal; Daisy is a "self-made" girl. -"mild fatalism" -"scared obliquity"—indirectness, not to the point—not able to handle Daisy's relationships with men; refuses to be a chaperone going to the castle of Chillon -"historian" of her daughter's career? -Doesn't protect Daisy from men or disease: "Remember what Dr. Davis told you" -Doesn't consult with her husband about Daisy's relationship with Mr. Giovanelli

Dr. King's emphasis on dialogue and "interrelatedness"

1) The clergy publicly questioned King's tactics, and King's public, written response puts him in dialogue by calling them "men of genuine good will" -The letter sets the terms of their interaction as constructive and collaborative, not as oppositional -He shows how their public appeal requires his public response -He refers to his own context and situation in the Birmingham jail; this adds force to his act of writing as a nonviolent continuation of the protest movement 2)he suggests that we are all part of the same community; there are no "outsiders" and thus dialogue is crucial --"The clergy described "Outsiders coming in," but King responds by saying "I...am here because I was invited here. I am here because I have organizational ties here." One of the best known quotations from this text affirms the interdependency of everyone in the US, regardless of race: "I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds." 3)The fact that King initiates dialogue here in jail open the possibility of powerful, inspiring protest. Look at the long catalogue of facts he draws on in articulating why the protest is "timely" - in contrast to what the clergymen has said -Waiting will ultimately result in extremism and violent conflict: "when you are fighting a degenerating sense of nobodiness—then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait."

Thomas Stearns Eliot and "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

1) The epigraph A "gateway" into the poem; like erudite allusions, this epigraph creates modernist "difficulty". Modernist art is not created to be sold in the marketplace. It must be read and reread as an artifact From Dante's Inferno, Canto 27, where the poet asks a "Counsellor of Fraud," who is wrapped in a tall flame, to identify himself. Guido, having sinned with his tongue, has to speak through the tongue of flame. He replies, "If I though my reply were to someone who would ever return to the world, this flame would stop flickering. But since no one has ever returned alive from this pit, if what I hear is true, I answer you without any fear of infamy." -Raises the question of honesty and speech. -Also suffering: Prufrock is a tragic figure. He is suffering in a hell of defeated idealism; he is tortured by his desires. 2) The form This is a "dramatic monologue"; addressed to no one on stage It is written in free verse, but there's iambic pentameter in the background; withdraws from it and then it will come back -"And time for all the works and days of hands" Rhymes are "liberated": they are not completely regular, but help to give emphasis and coherence to the poem as a whole. 3) The setting -Urban and modern Society is also urban and modern: sinister; chance, brief sexual encounters -Evening sky=patient etherized on a table -Conversation is "tedious" and "insidious" Powerful imagery of alienation and loss of identity (ragged claws?)

Ernest Hemingway and Cuba

1) This is a book about Hemingway's art and career The symbolism of going "far out"? "Where are you going?" the boy asked. "Far out to come in when the wind shifts...." "Ill try to get him to work far out," the boy said. Then if you hook something truly big we can come to your aid." "He does not like to work too far out." -pride in abilities; ambition; withdrawal from the community -Originality; unafraid to do what others don't do 2)Narrative technique and point of view? --Only one clear "consciousness"—Santiago, the Cuban fisherman, when he has dreams or is alone on the boat -But at other times we are given glimpses of interiority of Manolin, the boy Is there an "objective" outside narrator? Yes: "He said Jota for J." English is "translated" from Spanish -reference to the star "Rigel" that Santiago saw but couldn't name. (In the constellation Orien, the hunter.) 3)What particular challenges does this narrative pose in terms of storytelling, or plot development? No dialogue, very little socializing, etc. among characters, no romance 4)Reticence: very short, hardly noticeable references need to be taken seriously and read for significance -We need to read actively and make connections; read and reread -For example: Santiago's name is given right away, but Manolin is not named until the end. Establishes a theme of intergenerational continuity and Manolin's coming of age? 4)Symbolism and allusion to the Bible -When Santiago is fighting with the sharks who are mutilating the marlin, there is an allusion to martyrdom (crucifixion at Calvary)

Frances Harper and "Bury Me in a Free Land"

1) Traditional form: -Quatrains—four-line stanzas -Regular meter, four stresses per line, iambic tetrameter -Rhyme scheme: AABB 2) A poem of mobilization -Subtle use of language: the stress falls on the first word "Make" in the opening stanza -A poem of mobilization, that draws on the conventions of the slave narrative and sentimental fiction to inspire protest -Is this a poem of protest and resistance? The opening stanza is a call to action, although the speaker only refers to her ability to rest peacefully in her grave The speaker is noticeably silent about her own lifetime of action and resistance -but she sharply questions the monumentality of poetry compared with the important of social action and reformation Addressing her readers as "friends," the poet confronts the question of where the slave's "homeland" is by affirming her vision and the possibility of freedom in a reformed American society: "I would sleep, dear friends, where bloated Might Can rob no man of his dearest right; My rest shall be calm in any grave Where none can call his brother a slave." the poem concludes by clearly affirming the importance of action from principle: "I ask no monument, proud and high, To arrest the gaze of the passers by; All that my yearning spirit craves Is--Bury me not in a land of slaves!

Immigrant perspectives on the Nebraska frontier?

1) We already discussed the Swedes; Emil: "a little Swede boy" -The first immigrant character we see -Establishes Emil's plot as central to the progress of the novel. -Details: clothing is odd -Dialect is shocking 2) Carl Linstrum: German -Migrated from St. Louis; father will return there (cigar factory) and Carl will go to Chicago (to be apprenticed to a German engraver). -Carl reads Hans Anderson (a Danish book) -context of German immigrants -1840-1880 largest group of immigrants after revolutions of 1848 in the German States (trying to consolidate into a nation)—most went to cities like Omaha and Chicago. -Primarily economic motivations -Many worked in skilled trades—1 in 4 were in agriculture Carl migrates to Chicago, and then goes to Alaska to try the gold-fields. Before he leaves for Alaska, he visits Alexandra after being away for 16 years. : "His back, with its high, sharp shoulders, looked like the back of an overworked German professor off on his holiday. His face was intelligent, sensitive, unhappy." -He has an "urban appearance" -he contrasts his urban existence with Alexandra's freedom vs land -individuality vs loss of identity -anomic and alienation 3) Bohemians and Mark Tovesky Central Europeans; now part of Czecheslovakia; before part of German/Austrian empire until 1918 -Many Bohemians migrated after 1848 revolution/independence movement (crumbling Austrian empire) and then Austro-Prussian war of 1866; many were confused with Austrians as immigrants -Settled mostly in cities—Chicago, Cleveland, Omaha (Marie is from Omaha) -Social, happier, better adjusted? -urban -They drink raw alcohol Runs away from convent school and marries Frank -The Shabatas bought land from Carl Lindstrum's family when they left; Marie and Alexandra (and Emil) are neighbors 4) Irish: Barney Flinn 5) Crazy Ivar, the Norwegian Represents an earlier wave of migration: religious intolerance played a role; most (like Swedes) were Lutherans; rural groups were very cohesive and isolated. -Organized migration began in 1825 to escape religious persecution; between 1825-1925, 800,000 immigrated to North America, 1/3 of Norway's population (mostly to the US). With the exception of Ireland, no single country has contributed a larger percentage of its population to the US than Norway. Norwegian graveyard -Norway creek -Ivar live in cultural isolation What positive attributes does Ivar have? -Good farming practices -Reads the bible (14) combined with oral tradition: Psalm 104 never assimilated; he is a non-conformist -Non-conformity is associated with insanity -Alexandra sympathizes with him 6) Russians -latest wave, after 1880; and again after Russian Revolution in 1917 7) French: Amedee Chevalier and Angelique -Remnants from French empire in North America (before Louisiana Purchase) -St. Louis down to New Orleans -Up in "French country"

Redefining key terms from a new perspective: "Emancipation" and "Progress"

1) What did Emancipation mean to the slaves? How does this contrast with the realities of the turn of the twentieth century? What are the challenges or obstacles faced by the "savant" (intellectual) and artist? -"Hesitant and doubtful striving"; "Double aims" (self-hatred) can drag the intellectual/leader and artist down -The shadow of "despair" and "prejudice" --"The shades of the prison house" 2) "Of the Meaning of Progress" Dubois does not present himself as a detached sociological observer -This experience forms part of his own life narrative; involved in the experience of segregation -His character portraits are full of detail; he brings out the individuality of each person: Josie attempts to be a self-made American -suggests difficulties of sending children to school progress? what does he say about this? -generational shifts in perspective; the youngest don't see how much things have improved and only experience the frustration and potential despair -Progress should be measured by more than just new buildings. There is not enough emphasis on the human costs -"How shall man measure Progress there where the dark-faced Josie lies? How many heartfuls of sorrow shall balance a bushel of wheat?... Thus sadly musing, I rode to Nashville in the Jim Crow car." -Progress shouldn't be considered in abstract terms; need for human interaction and knowledge of communities and individuals in them -Progress is a process; there's still a long way to go

Winterbourne's point of view? What do we learn about him?

1) What is Winterbourne's life like? -Freedom? "He was at liberty to wander about" -He can "guarantee" his respectability by introducing her to his aunt; Cf. "Of course a man may know everyone. Men are welcome to the privilege" -He is "studying": what does this imply? Not much direction? Lacks direction? "He was devoted to a lady...older than himself"; not looking for marriage 2) What is Winterbourne's relationship with his aunt like? -imbibed at Geneva the idea that one must be irreproachable in all such forms; attentive to his aunt. -he finds her NY world "oppressive" -He is trying to draw on her influence for social security; he is in her orbit and she is "pleased" with him Mrs Costello: -always had a headache; doesn't go outside because she's "exclusive" -her son avoids her; always focused on social power -doesn't know what her granddaughters are really like; out of touch

Modernity and Confinement

1) When Alexandra visits Frank in prison, we see the encroachment of modernity -Frank is referred to as "1037" (dehumanizing conditions) -Clock time, office work -Frank's suffering and imprisonment -She is horrified by the "institution" of the prison Misquotes a poem from childhood: Byron's "The Prisoner of Chillon": And the whole world would henceforth be A wider prison unto me No child, no sire, no kind had I No partner in my misery. -This poem is alluded to in Daisy Miller; Bonnivard was a 15th century Geneva patriot who was put in prison for resisting the Duke of Savoy who tried to take over Geneva during the Reformation concluding scene: -telegram from Carl -"disgust of life"

"Of the Training of Black Men": education and integration

1) emphasizes how global culture arises from slavery and cross-cultural contact. We need to become global citizens, and our education helps us do this -"Hence arises a new human unity, pulling the ends of the earth nearer, and all men, black, yellow, and white." Epigraph: translation of Omar Khayam (12th century Persian poet) by Edward Fitzgerald, a 19th century British poet -Broadening the scope of individual consciousness 2) Education will help do away with prejudice -Color-prejudice can be "met in but one way,--by the breadth and broadening of human reason, by catholicity of taste and culture.... But what training for the profitable living together of black men and white?" -Education will help solve problems of race contact and cooperation 3) Elaborates the importance of colleges and universities (vs. "common schools") to train teachers and leaders (the "Talented Tenth") -Du Bois has been criticized for being elicit -Resists emphasis on technical/vocational training that excludes higher learning, because this is associated with the withdrawal of demands for civil rights 4)education protects democracy against "demagogues" -Leaving people ignorant will endanger democracy because they will be led by untrained demagogues

Winterbourne's changing attitudes towards Daisy

1) his initial reaction -Winterbourne is confused by her "manner" -He is critical of her lack of "form" (10)—this suggests both that in writing or artistic endeavor, as in social communication, some knowledge of tradition and convention can be helpful, both as an enabler of self-expression, and as a means of self-protection and survival -He wonders if she knows that she is being seductive, or if she knows what she is doing -He is perplexed by her, and wants to find a "formula" for her -later: he is "baffled" by her 2) he is driven to judgement, which destroys his capacity to perceive the poetic force of Daisy's personality; her complexity as a work of art -He wonders if she is "childish and shallow" or "defiant and conscious" -she is a "black little blot" -Does Winterbourne reject and judge Daisy at the end of the novella? What are his motives for doing so? 3) Winterbourne realizes that Daisy doesn't "fit" into a formula -Does he acknowledge the mystery and poetic force of her character? -"She would have appreciated one's esteem." -"I've lived too long in foreign parts." strange ominous image: "he stood staring at the raw protuberance among the April daisies

The Importance of Literacy in Jacob's maturation as a writer

1) literacy early on in the narrative is not emphasized 2) Jacob's literacy even aids Flint's exploitation of her 3) But, as we shall see, it is essential In Jacob's narrative, the Fugitive Slave Law makes escape to the north a tenuous form of freedom -the north is morally complicit -reference to Nat Turner's 1831 insurrection in Virginia, and mob violence against innocent African Americans -country is increasingly divided over slavery Instead of escaping to the North, Jacobs inhabits a "Loophole of Retreat" where she writes letter to make Dr. Flint, her master, think she is in the North -literacy is linker to freedom

Narrative technique and selection of details

1) movement from "objective" to "subjective" narrator: -Contrast "guidebook objectivity" and Winterbourne's subjective perspective ("I" and then Winterbourne) -Questioning of absolute truths recorded in narrative point of view -"free and indirect discourse" as device of modernism 2) references to history and social change in Europe and America -contrast: "grand hotel" with flags flying; 100 balconies - associated with uniformity and nationalism/modernity vs. "pension of an "elder day"; more uniqueness and "awkwardness" -history and social change is inscribed in narrator's opening account of the built environment in Vevey, Switzerland -The flags hint at the rise of nation-states in Europe: emerged as a result of nationalist revolts during the 19th century. A lot of warfare during this period 1789—French Revolution 1848—Nationalist revolts in Hungary, Italy, and Germany 1861—Italy consolidated and unified into a single nation-state 1871—Germany consolidated and unified into a single nation-state 3) popular culture references -"stylish" young girls -"rattle of dance-music in the morning hours, a sound of high-pitched voices at all times": women are out and about. Question of women's freedom is raised here 4) psychologically significant character details? -Winterbourne's cigarette; reference to addiction

Conclusions O Pioneers!

1)Alexandra and Carl marry at the end but they have no passion or children -Carl has a shady business partner? -They will give the land to Oscar and Lou's children 2)Cather refuses to give us certain answers. Points out the possibilities and limits of both innovation.hybridization and traditionalism -"I think when friends marry, they are safe. We don't suffer like—those young ones." 3)The land remains a positive ideal, but the questions of inheritance and ownership remains unsolved -"We come and go, but the land is always here. And the people who love it and understand it are the people who own it—for a little while." 4) Will there be a new cycle? Cather, "Nebraska: The End of the First Cycle," published in The Nation in 1923: "In Nebraska, as in so many other States, we must face the fact that the splendid story of the pioneers is finished, and that no new story worthy to take its place has yet begun. The generation that subdued the wild land and broke up the virgin prairie is passing, but it is still there, a group of rugged figures in the background which inspire respect, compel admiration. With these old men and women, the attainment of material prosperity was a moral victory, because it was wrung from hard conditions." Carl suggests that this will happen: "And now the old story has begun to write itself over there...Isn't it queer: there are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before; like the larks in this country, that have been singing the same five notes over for thousands of years."

Conclusion: Irony or Optimism? both interpretations are valid

1)Crane reminds us that no one "wins" a Civil War. There is a confrontation with the Confederate forces, and in the moment of triumph, the suffering of the Confederate captives is forgotten by Henry: the victors are "holding [the flag] with vanity" -There is hope in the rising generation: a young boy talks with his captors, whereas the older veterans are bitter and angry. But we are also told that the boy might not be thinking of the "narrowed future" or "starvations and brutalities" that he will face in the future. 2)Crane highlights the achievement of Henry's maturation under difficult circumstances -Henry is praised for being a standard-bearer and inspiring men -he becomes an acute observer, full of self-confidence and tranquility -Henry recalls his former mistakes - especially his abandonment of the "tattered soldier", but concludes that he must put his past "sin at a distance" There is at least the possibility of an Emersonian transformation: "So it came to pass that as he trudged from the place of blood and wrath his soul changed....The procession of weary soldiers became a bedraggled train, despondent and muttering....Yet the youth smiled, for he saw that the world was a world for him." Crane recalls Emerson's Nature: "Know then, that the world exists for you." The text establishes a worldview and style accommodating new and incomprehensible experiences of the twentieth century, while maintaining continuity with tradition

Daisy's Dangerous situation

1)Daisy's conflict with Winterbourne centers on "flirting"; cultural misunderstanding puts her in danger, not just with regard to social ostracism but contracting malaria 2)What does Mr. Giovanelli want? Her money; "matrimony and dollars" -he put her in harm's way because he knew he couldn't marry her 3)Daisy rejects conventions and "history"; she is tragically ignorant of how powerfully history shapes social norms and manners -Chillon was a prison for political activists such as the monk Bonnivard, a 15th century historian and Geneva patriot who resisted the Duke of Savoy who wanted to take over Geneva. This was during the Protestant Reformation, and Bonnivard converted to Protestantism after he was released from prison -Nationalism and resistance to invasion -Non-conformity put in historical context 4) The Colosseum is historically associated with martyrdom -Daisy's grave is in the Protestant cemetery, "by an angle of the wall of imperial Rome", which visually recalls the opening reference to the "Swiss pension of an elder day" that has an "awkward summer-house in the angle of the garden." -Hints at the rise of standardization and conformity associated with the "newest fashion" of the "grand hotel"—the potential for deadening conformity and dictatorial power associated with the first half of the 20th century and modernity -The stakes of Daisy's rebellion are high; the tragedy is that she does not have any interest in learning about history in ways that might protect her in the absence of her mother's guidance

The "quicksand" of desire and local culture

1)Helga experiences a sexual awakening, where desire is a source of mortification for her, because Dr. Anderson implicitly rejects her through his "trivial apology" -She is no longer interested in material things -she calls her discovery of sexual desire a "mental" quagmire": quicksand? 2)Helga realizes she is searching for more than material things; she discovers a church and has a conversion experience, and discovers a "mysterious calm" -She marries Reverend Pleasant Green, and moves to a tiny Alabama town -She thinks she has found security and happiness at last, but she lacks the autonomy that will allow her to follow through on her "young joy and zest for the uplifting of her fellow men" 3)Her marriage and bearing and rearing of children This is her most devastating decision about where to find a "home"—she can't escape and remake herself after this. After moving from Naxos to "white" Chicago, to "black" Harlem, to Copenhagen to Harlem to Alabama and the Black South again, she comes up against a dead end She loses her interest in things "The children used her up" -Her vulnerability to desire, and to getting pregnant meant that other life plans are impossible: -"So there was no time for the pursuit of beauty, or for the uplifting of other harassed and teeming women, or for the instruction of their neglected children."

Dr. King draws directly on the American literary tradition of Thoreau and Emerson, as well as history and the bible

1)His "direct action", nonviolent campaign was most clearly influenced by Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience"; like Thoreau, he draws distinction between just and unjust laws and foregrounds the appeal to conscience "Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court's decision of 1954 [in Brown v. Board of Education] outlawing segregation in the public schools, it may seem paradoxical of us consciously to break laws.... The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust.... One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.... An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law." "One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law." Cites numerous authorities, including the philosopher Martin Buber who argues that segregation relegates human beings to the status of things, but doesn't mention Thoreau in this letter King did mention Thoreau in "Pilgrimage to Nonviolence," collected in Stride Toward Freedom which was published in 1958—"I remembered how, as a college student, I had been moved when I first read [Thoreau's Civil Disobedience]. I became convinced that what we were preparing to do in Montgomery was related to what Thoreau had expressed."

The Frontier Legacy: from "The Wild Land" to "Neighboring Fields"

1)How is the frontier represented? 1883 ("thirty years ago," published in 1913) Narrative perspective: John Bergson's point of view? -impermanence; haphazard organization of buildings -wild, untamable land -no "human landmarks" 2)changes in American culture and new technologies? "elevator" vs, telegraph (2, no quotation marks) -Railroad needed grain elevators: upright wooden structures into which conveyor belts lifted the grain, and from which chutes carried it to freight cars "drummer" "chromo studies" and "Kate Greenaway" -Kate Greenaway: English children's book illustrator, used "chromoxylography" to illustrate her books (woodblock printing) -"chromolithography": chemical process burned into zinc plates; used to make cheap reproductions of artworks; patented in 1837; considered to be in bad taste—mass production; considered "inauthentic" ("magic lantern" vs. lantern, 7) -Magic lantern: forerunner of movies; mechanical slides used to make image move (handoperated pulley wheel) vs. lantern? -The lantern is carried over as a symbol of hope; Alexandra's aura 3) Characters' ability to adapt to new technologies -the silo, which Alexandra introduced; "Well, the only way we can find out is to try" -Ivar mentions the new tub at Lou's house; Mrs. Lee (a neighbor, Lou's mother in law) doesn't like it -Carl and technology: it creates dissatisfaction. He likes woodengraving (as opposed to painting); no creativity in new technologies 4)"neighboring fields" How does the frontier change over the course of 16 years? -Fertility; technology; order -Labor is easy, telephone wires, windmills

Du Bois on education and the "sorrow songs"

1)One more point about Du Bois's reflections on education: this results in "higher individualism 2) "The Sorrow Songs" A. Affirms the cultural significance of the spirituals as American art -they are the sole American music -Thomas Wentworth Higginson hastened to tell of these songs; the Fisk Jubilee Singers sang the songs so deeply into the world's heart that it can never wholly forget them again. Their tour was intended to raise money for Fisk University, which was in dire financial straits after being founded in 1866; toured Europe in 1873 and raised money to build the school's first permanent building. -Higginson (Dickinson's mentor, transcribed spirituals into musical annotation): "Never it seems to me, since man first lived and suffered was his infinite longing for peace uttered more plaintively." B. What do these songs mean: "Siftings of centuries"; "exile" Hybridity and poetry: Three steps in the development of slave songs -African -Afro-American -A "blending of Negro music with the music heard in the foster land. The result is still distinctively Negro and the method of blending original, but the elements are both Negro and Caucasian songs of White America have also been influenced by slave songs The words "when cleared of evident dross,...conceal much poetry" "There are eloquent omissions and silences" regarding the thoughts of the slaves and their relations one with another: "Mother and child are sung, but seldom father"

the frontier worldview: John Bergson

1)Swedish immigration history -over half the Scandinavians who migrated between 1820 and 1920 were Swedes -the volume of immigration peaked in the 1880s -by 1900 most came from towns and cities -some came for religious freedom (Janssonists fled the Lutheran Church in Sweden) -settled in the Midwest; many went to Chicago, Wisconsin, and Nebraska 2)What is the story of John Bergson's migration? What are we told about their experiences as immigrants? -John Bergson and his wife had migrated from Chicago to Nebraska (Hamilton) He did not know how to farm -"handwerkers" (craftsmen) -His father was a shipbuilder 3)John Bergson's worldview -Depressing and disheartening inability to control or make a mark on the landscape -exhaustion His death is central to time frame of "The Wild Land" -Suggests the beginning of a new generational cycle, hinted at in "Prairie Spring"

Conclusion: endurance, fiction and intergenerational continuity

1)at the end of the narrative, Santiago is tested by failure, and forced to face his own limitations as well as his achievement -He is tested by failure when the marlin is "ruined" by the sharks -"I shouldn't have gone out so far, fish," he said. "Neither for you nor for me. I'm sorry, fish." 2)But is Santiago "beaten" at the end? No. Enduring (vs. prevailing) and sacrifice as presented as integral to his heroism -"A man can be destroyed but not defeated." "And what beat you, he thought. 'Nothing,' he said aloud. 'I went out too far.'" -Suggests the importance of ambition and choice; refuses to see himself as being beaten or defeated. emphasis is on what a man endures as an essential value -"I will show him what a man can do and what a man endures." 3)Hemingway hints that he is mortally wounded -"He was stiff and sore now and his wounds...hurt with the cold of the night"; "The old man could hardly breathe now and he felt a strange taste in his mouth. It was coppery and sweet and he was afraid of it for a moment." 4)still, there is a life-affirming reference to fiction and intergenerational continuity Santiago's relationship with Manolin is very important in this novella -Throughout the narrative we know that Manolin loves him, was taught to fish by him, and wants to serve him. (wants to give him a blanket etc.) -Manolin is associated with Santiago's wife's picture and memory Crucially, we are told that Santiago has taught Manolin the art of "fiction": -What is the purpose of this? Maintain dignity. Compare conversation at the end, when Santiago may have been fatally wounded Manolin has learned from Santiago, and will honor him in memory, even though he is not known outside his small fishing community -He is named when he comes of age

Helga's search to affirm her individuality

1)global commodities used to express "personal taste" creates an oasis of individuality. She is "cosmopolitan" -Helga resists "assimilationist" cultural agenda at the school. Good taste means fearful conformity to "white standards for dress code 2)Nature is a setting for freedom in contrast to cities; this is in the tradition of Emerson and Thoreau 3)But Helga also lacks purpose in her life, and is not happy in her nonconformity -"She could neither conform nor be happy in her nonconformity" -she feels an "urge for service"; but also feels anger and a "lacerated pride" (20) as a result of her background and lack of family connections. -Helga's materialism. which is a repeated problem for Helga 4) The negative effects of inner conflict/ambivalence (cf. "double-consciousness") She visits her Uncle Peter and his new wife tells her not to visit anymore. This is a traumatic scene. But she sympathizes with her: "She saw herself for an obscene sore in all their lives, at all costs to be hidden." -Internalized racism—seeing oneself through the eyes of the other (Du Bois)? Helga's inner conflict and irrational, self-destructive behavior can be explained as a result of her "double-consciousness": --"Unreason" and hatred makes her rebel and decide to leave Naxos --She breaks off her engagement with James Vayle, committing "social suicide" -She is full of "half-terrified apprehension" -She does not know what she wants -She acts on impulse; there is no clear plan or goal: Her thoughts "scurried here and there like trapped rats" -She is driven by a sense of not belonging: "I don't belong here"

Incidents and the slave narrative tradition: contrasts with Douglass? Harriet Jacobs

A memoir of captivity that charted a journey from slavery to freedom and Christian redemption. Designed to inspire the abolitionist movement. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is the most famous (1845) Like Douglass, there are "allegorical" names - names that represent character traits -Dr. Flint (hardness); Mrs. Sands (shifting sands) although the narrative charts a path from slavery to freedom, it is much more episodic and fragmented: "Incidents" in the life

The individual (nature) vs. community (society)

A. What does nature mean to Santiago? 1) Personification of nature; the sea as a woman 2)A place of alien beauty -But: Santiago has a place in it and has learned about it; nature is a place where he does what "he was born for" 3)He has a close identification with the marlin -The marlin is beautiful -I wish I was the fish -The fish is a "beautiful brother"; he must kill or be killed by him 4)Nature as a place of cruelty and survival of the fittest -birds are delicate in cruel ocean; other birds are heavy and strong -Portuguese man-of-war 5)Santiago experiences society in nature -no man is alone on the sea -friends B. Society of the fishermen and Santiago's attitude toward it? 1) Competitive fishing economy; Santiago is labeled "unlucky" because he hasn't caught enough fish after 40 days. His patched his sail looks like a "flag of permanent defeat" 2) Cuban fishing community confronted by technological change -He is not angry when the fishermen make fun of him: achieve transcendence and peace? -Shark factory has an unnatural, bad smell; it is the economic institution that has changed the lifestyle and relationships in this small community. -Many younger fishermen are using motorboats whereas Santiago uses a sail and rows; the new generation has a different relationship to the sea: they spoke of the sea as a father, instead of a mother; "as a contestant or a place or even an enemy." sharks as symbols -Modern society shows a lack of love and identification with the sea and its creatures: sea turtles 3) Tourism industry -Larger world that doesn't know about Santiago's world; Invisibility of Santiago's heroism, achievement, and wisdom.

Jean Toomer

After college, and after WWI, he met Waldo Frank, a writer and critic who would become his mentor, and was introduced into his literary circle. This was an era of terrible racial turmoil in the US: a lot of labor strikes and race riots in major cities across the country. Living in the South, he began to love the African American folk and cultural legacy, and draw on it for inspiration and substance in his own work. How is this poem different in its rendering of African American history, culture, and experience? Compare to both Hughes and McKay; brings together literary techniques and regional and folk culture? Reapers: Black reapers with the sound of steel on stones Are sharpening scythes. I see them place the hones In their hip-pockets as a thing that's done, And start their silent swinging, one by one. Black horses drive a mower through the weeds, And there, a field rat, startled, squealing bleeds. His belly close to ground. I see the blade, Blood-stained, continue cutting weeds and shade. -Iambic pentameter couplets; like the first "octave" of a sonnet. -Pause within the line (caesura) makes the speech more natural sounding -Hone is a whetstone used to sharpen a blade --Imagery of technology and violence; bleeding rat; compare with The Weary Blues; Black reapers—ambiguous symbol? -Mechanical, part of machinery of capitalism? -Associated with death? -Suppressed anger; legacy of slavery and Reconstruction? Is this a poem of resistance and protest? November Cotton Flower: Boll-weevil's coming, and the winter's cold, Made cotton-stalks look rusty, seasons old, And cotton, scarce as any southern snow, Was vanishing; the branch, so pinched and slow, Failed in its function as the autumn rake; Drouth fighting soil had caused the soil to take A ll water from the streams; dead birds were found In wells a hundred feet below the ground— Such was the season when the flower bloomed. Old folks were startled, and it soon assumed Significance. Superstition saw Something it had never seen before: Brown eyes that loved without a trace of fear, Beauty so sudden for that time of year. --Images of drought, failure, and scarcity parallel and contribute to the oppression of African Americans. -The pastoral beauty of nature is drawn into history -The poem reads like a Shakespearean sonnet: three quatrains that develop a certain theme: boll-weevil destroys crops; cold weather; desolation of the soil (no cotton, can't be used even as a rake); a season of death (dead birds). But here: the flower appears in the third quatrain; the superstitious reaction to something new and unexpected: a flower blooming in November. -This anticipates the couplet (implicitly comments on the tendency to expect the expected): Brown eyes that loved without a trace of fear, Beauty so sudden for that time of year. Suggests that love is a mode of resistance and resilience during hard times

Friendship, Action, Transformation, and Self-Discovery: the Individual in Community

An important theme in this novel is the discovery of self, which, when joined with the energies of a community, enables the individual to understand "forces" that shape his or her destiny Henry seeks self-transformation and "salvation" in battle, where he has to prove that he is "a man of traditional courage", but notice that this requires a "badge." A badge is a socially visible, constructed identity of the individual brought into community -"He wished that he, too, had a wound, a red badge of courage" -Considers his flight from the battle a "sore badge of his own dishonor." What is important to notice is the importance of friendship in this process. Henry first asserts the desire for the badge of courage when he witnesses the death of his friend, Jim Conklin. -He is transformed by a series of rites and revelations 1) The scene involving the death of Jim Conklin (tall soldier) is one of them This is a rite leading to new insight and self-knowledge Henry learns to give up his self-interest and selflessly identify with his comrades This is the first reference to Henry's "friendship" Jim Conklin -Christian symbolism: "taking infinite care to not arouse the passion of his wounds: -Jim confesses his fear to Henry, who tries to help him -references to Christian ritual of communion 2) Henry violates the bonds of friendship when he abandons the tattered soldier, and this experience transforms him as well Henry commits an act of terrible cruelty when, after his flight from battle, a "tattered soldier" asks him about his wound, and he abandons him when he is dying, and "wandering about helplessly in the field." -He does this to escape "the ghost of shame", but the memory of his "cruelty" continues to haunt him until the very end of the narrative. 3) Henry learns the value of friendship when he is aided by a nameless, cheerful friend who takes him back to his regiment -Henry is accidentally wounded when a man from the scattered union infantry hits him on the head with his rifle -He meets another soldier, a stranger with a "cheery voice" who nurses him: the man "questioned the youth and assisted him with the replies like one manipulating the mind of a child." -he returns Henry to his regiment -here again, we witness the importance of friendship on the battlefront (the man is referred to as "departed friend" 4)Wilson, who was once again called the "loud" soldier, is an important friend who brings Henry into community -Henry is nursed back to health by Wilson, the formerly "loud" soldier who is also called his "friend." -Wilson is a role model, insofar as he has been transformed and matured as a result of his experiences in the war. He becomes a peacemaker -Henry also shows his transformation and maturity when he decides not to remind Wilson that he gave him a packet of letters and confessed his fears early on in the battle 5) Friendship and courage Henry and his friend Wilson overhear the generals as they decide to send the regiment, whom they describe as "mule-drivers" (75, 76) into a dangerous battle that they are not likely to win. Together, they realize that the enlisted men have been referred to by the officer as an insignificant "broom" to sweep the woods with -The use of a domestic metaphor; suggests the impossibility of "honor" and "glory" in the public sphere Crane and Wilson keep their shared knowledge as "an ironical secret": this is situational irony, when truth contradicts an expected outcome; also known as the "irony of events." -"The youth, turning, shot a quick, inquiring glance at his friend. The latter returned to him the same manner of look. They were the only ones who possessed an inner knowledge. 'Mule drivers—hell' t' pay—don't believe many will get back.' It was an ironical secret. Still, they saw no hesitation in each other's faces, and they nodded a mute and unprotesting assent when a shaggy man near them said in a meek voice: 'We'll git swallowed." -They know that they are in danger, and feel courage and inspiration in the fact that they are experiencing this together Crane offers a new vision of modern warfare that, given the possibility of friendship on the battlefield, does not exclude the possibility of patriotism -The scenes of war are jointly perceived by the two friends: "When their eyes first encountered him....The youth went with his friend, feeling a desire to throw his heated body into a stream...They saw mixed masses slowly getting into regular form... The youth and his companion saw a jangling general, etc. The youth and his friend exchanged glances of astonishment." Henry carries the flag forward while Wilson seizes the Confederate flag -Henry feels love for the flag, regardless of these complexities, and becomes the bearer of this emblem, with his friend. -They both risk their lives for a larger cause; they are willing to sacrifice for each other. Are they competing? Yes. -does this undermine their friendship? not necessarily, when we realize that each man is trying to risk his own life for the sake of the other's survival

Conclusion

At the end of the narrative, "the luster of religion had vanished" for Helga; the "protective wall of artificial faith" is beaten down; she rejects "The white man's God" (READ 121); "this fatuous belief in the white man's God" Allusion to a story by Anatole France, "The Procurator of Judea" -Pontius Pilate (who is Roman) is talking with a friend, saying at one point that the Jews were an unclean race and that he doesn't believe in miscegenation -The Jews demanded that Pilate execute Jesus (one of their heretics), and he ultimately lost his job because the Jews complained that he was too easy on Jesus, so he lets Jesus die to avoid his own political demise. -In this story, an aged Pontius Pilate is looking back over his life, talking with his friend, Laelius Lamia, and when asked if he remembers Jesus of Nazareth, the man he condemned to death, he says "I cannot call him to mind." -The suggestion here is the "all Jews look alike"—he didn't see who Jesus was because of his race. Helga falls asleep at the line "Africa and Asia have already enriched us with a considerable number of gods" -This line suggests that Christianity is not a cultural phenomenon created entirely by "white men." Helga's intelligence and learning give her strength -"She was determined to get herself out of this bog into which she had strayed." -She hates her husband and everyone around her, but decides that she can't leave her children (because their "cry" is essentially representing her own tragic sense of abandonment by her own mother) -But this is a dark tale, and highlights the dangerous paradoxes (catch 22) that Helga is caught up in.

Larsen's epigraph and the influence of Langston Hughes and Henry James

Chapter 1-3 are set in "Naxos" (saxon), in all-black college in Tennessee (Fisk University) where Helga Crane teaches 1)Langston Hughes's epigraph is from "Cross": how does this apply to Helga Crane's life story? -Helga Crane is the daughter of a white, Danish immigrant mother and a black Danish West Indian father: she is a "despised mulatto" -She was born in a Chicago slum, and her father deserted her mother, who was a white immigrant, and they were not married -She is engaged to James Vayle a member of the African American elite community, but she is a "pretty, solitary girl with no family connections" (6); her class and immigrant identity threaten her status 2)This recalls Henry James's Daisy Miller -This Southern community is as minutely hierarchical as New York and Expatriate society in Henry James's novella 3) Suggests Helga's complexity as a modern antiheroine -"Intersectionality" how interconnected social categorizations result in overlapping, interdependent systems of discrimination -For Helga, discrimination based on race, gender, class, and her immigrant status are all relevant -Larsen adds to Helga's predicament of being bi-racial, emphasized in "Cross." 4)Helga has been traumatized by her mother's remarriage to a white man who had his own children -Explores the psychological scarring of being mixed-race during this era

Santiago and Globalized American Culture

Connections to US culture are established by global media such as newspapers, radio, telephone, and airplanes to Miami Santiago's immersion in globalized American culture signals the importance of baseball to the fishermen: Championship, heroes who have come to their island. -Manolin compares Santiago to the managers; includes his own greatness as a fisherman. -Baseball is a source of heroic inspiration and faith to continue Santiago's "faith" is distinct from institutionalized religion -His sea-color eyes are "cheerful and undefeated" -Asserts "faith" which is different from saying that he is "religious" -Baseball involves faith. "I must think...Because it is all I have left. That and baseball." -He says prayers mechanically and automatically

War and Modernity in The Red Badge of Courage

Crane was a journalist. The scenes of battle have a lot of realistic details, and are intended to convey war as an experience associated with modern life and industrialization. There is a photographic "impression" of realistic facts, but Henry cannot comprehend why he is fighting in the first place Before the Civil War, soldiers carried muskets that held one bullet at a time; new repeating rifles that could also shoot much further. Submarines and the railroad were also used. The mob or crowd is a modern social phenomenon studied by sociologists at the turn of the 20th century -emphasis on lack of free will and conformity -the war is an indication of a society in the throes of industrialization War has changed; they don't fight like duelists, instead the veterans were "digging at the ground like terriers." the "assembly line" that would emerge as factory mass production by Ford motor company in the 20th century Hierarchy and distanced leadership that dehumanizes and uses veterans as things. -The general looks "harassed" like "a business man whose market is swinging up and down" -Compare later on, when the officer spoke of the regiment as if he referred "to a broom" to sweep the woods with Crane recalls Whitman's use of catalogues, or lists: a description of the wounded -War as an "immense and terrible machine" producing corpses; "torn" bodies

Stephen Crane and The Red badge of Courage

Crane was born after the Civil War ended; he drew on written accounts of the war to develop his narrative. The novel is based on the battle of Chancellorsville fought in 1863 1) but war is represented as part of a larger experience of modern life in this work the period between the Civil War and WWI saw vast, rapid change. Wartime needs to created millionaires and a manufacturing aristocracy -northern industrial interests were given power; cities emerged and grew and needed to be comprehended in literature -there was a growing body of scientific knowledge, and an interest in Darwinian explanations of the world 2) in the late 19th century, the agrarian lifestyle Henry Fleming leaves behind was no longer representative of Americans' experience -what is the meaning of Emersonian individualism and his rendering of the experience of solitude nature in a world that is cruel and mechanical -there's an idealistic impulse in Fleming's point of view that shows continuity with Emerson: ~closeness to nature; nature is like a mother ~He can't return to this world of "home" but want to -Henry's flight is justified as a rebellion from mechanical conformity But Emerson's Romantic Nature is critiqued and revised: chapel scene -he runs away from the corpse, seeking society (and, implicitly, the battlefield) Crane leaves open the possibility, but not the certainty, of Emersonian optimism. We see this when Henry reflects on his flaws (his abandonment of the tattered soldier; his flight early on in the battle), but ultimately affirms his own manhood. Is this self-delusion?

"The Weary Blues" is the title poem of The Weary Blues, published in 1926

Droning a drowsy syncopated tune, Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon, I heard a Negro play. Down on Lenox Avenue the other night By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light He did a lazy sway. . . . He did a lazy sway. . . . To the tune o' those Weary Blues. 1) Describes modern, urban setting: Lenox Avenue in Harlem (gas lights first used in an American city, Baltimore, in 1816; associated with longer working hours in factories most cities used gasified coal) 2)Syncopation is an important rhythmic element of the blues and jazz. It is associated with voice, musical individuality; disrupts expectations by tying over a note into next measure 3) speaker is observing and the poetry "frames" the blues player and the blues lyric itself; the poem creates a distanced perspective on the blues singer and the music. The language of the speaker incorporates the Blues lyric, but is distinguished from it— "vernacular modernism" which draws on folk sources as part of a modern idiom. "With his ebony hands on each ivory key He made that poor piano moan with melody ... Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool. Sweet Blues! Coming from a black man's soul. O Blues! In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan— "Ain't got nobody in all this world, Ain't got nobody but ma self. I's gwine to quit ma frownin' And put ma troubles on the shelf." 4) The music is associated with technology of the piano, slavery and imperialism; he is playing for money in the entertainment industry: "Sad raggy tune" -Ragtime emerged in the late 1890s (Scott Joplin), moved from St. Louis to Chicago and then NY—formed the basis for vaudeville shows; jazz is an amalgam of blues, jazz, and vaudeville). Ragtime is associated with the piano and performances in clubs; so the fact that this blues player is playing a piano shows he is playing commercially -Pianos are made of ivory; associated with imperialism and ivory trade -The poem refers to the "Blues," and thus also recalls the migration of black musicians north along the Mississippi river by boat or train. Blues lyrics are secular, in contrast to spirituals or gospel music; first played on guitar and harmonica by migrants (not a piano) 5) What is the implied perspective on the blues and its history we get in this poem? The music of the blues communicated history; the language of the blues may not be fully comprehended by outsiders in the audience Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor. He played a few chords then he sang some more— ... And far into the night he crooned that tune. The stars went out and so did the moon. The singer stopped playing and went to bed While the Weary Blues echoed through his head. He slept like a rock or a man that's dead. -conclusion: "He slept like a rock or a man that's dead" (simile)? -Despair suggested by the blues? Death wish? -Ominous, incommunicable meanings of the music; contrast with Hughes as a poet who is bringing the blues to a wider audience.

Naxos: Larsen's critique of "assimilation" and conformity in educational institutions. Echoes of Du Bois?

Du Bois in The Souls of Black Folk warns against the influence of materialism in understanding success in Atlanta University He insists that a liberal arts education fosters a "higher individualism" and self-knowledge; resists the idea that African Americans should stay in their places as agricultural laborers He affirms the importance of African American folk culture and music; he resists conformity and assimilation Du Bois is mentioned on page 35: Mrs. Hayes-Rore, who took phrases from Frederick Douglass and "seasoned" her speeches with a "peppery dash of Du Bois" 1)"Naxos"? It is an anagram for "Saxon" -A white minister is giving a speech. -The school conforms to Southern segregationist values that affirm the existing racial hierarchy. -Blacks should be educated but remain "hewers of wood" 2) Naxos, like Fisk, was established after Emancipation to help the cause of "uplift"; but does this institution realize the ideals laid out by Du Bois in Souls? "It had grown into a machine" -Assimilation and conformity to white culture is destructive. -No innovation or individualisms. Education destroys the children's "charm and distinctiveness" -The "policy of uplift" involved hypocrisies and cruelties -The food is terrible "monotonous distasteful breakfast" --Later she calls it a "cruel educational machine" 3)Suggests conformity, militarism, dehumanization

Martin Luther King Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail": Contexts

During this time King was incarcerated for leading civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham. King read this when he was in jail King had received a court injunction forbidding demonstrations, and he knew that to march would weaken the support of the federal government, and his own father said he shouldn't go on the demonstration. But as King recalled, it was a "faith act." In retrospect, this text played an important role in transforming the interracial politics of the situation, initiating dialogue and negotiation that would result in progress for civil rights, and changing social attitudes towards integration in the US.

Claude McKay and the protest sonnet, "If We Must Die"

Early poetry drew on Jamaican dialect; Jekyll had him published: Songs of Jamaica and Constab Ballads, 1912. It was composed in reaction to race riots during the "Red Scare" or "Red Summer" of 1919 If we must die, let it not be like hogs Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot, While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, Making their mock at our accursèd lot. If we must die, O let us nobly die, So that our precious blood may not be shed In vain; then even the monsters we defy Shall be constrained to honor us though dead! O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe! Though far outnumbered let us show us brave, And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow! What though before us lies the open grave? Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack, Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back! It is a Shakespearean sonnet; 14 lines, rhymed iambic pentameter; ABABCDCDEFEFGG How does this dignify the victims of violence during the race riots? -elevated diction -emphasized nobility of resistance and manhood, despite racism -is this explicitly a poem about racial violence? No; "kinsmen" could be all humanity

Race Relations in Comparative Perspective: US vs. Denmark

Europeans were fascinated by her racial difference; it is perceived as exotic ("primitivism"); her aunt and uncle are aesthetically appropriating her to advance their social status. Larsen shows in detail that race relations are different in Denmark: Helga is free to identify with her white mother abroad; she can be "different" here. -On board the transatlantic steamer Helga is invited to dine with a Danish purser (financial officer) -Helga's white American family reacted very differently to Helga than the Dahls did: her Uncle Peter Nilssen's wife shut her out and her Uncle disowned her, whereas her Aunt Katrina and her Uncle Poul are welcoming: her "new uncle" is "gracious" and "anxious to air his faulty English." -Although the Danes had former colonies in the Caribbean (St. Thomas, St. John, St. Croix) that were sold to the US in 1917, people are not used to seeing Blacks in Copenhagen -She is told by an old woman that she is not Black -Recall Daisy Miller: her aunt doesn't want her to walk, but she says "I have to walk, or I'll get fat" -The Dahls arrange a racially mixed marriage to advance their social standing—from the "merely fashionable set" to "the artistic one"; they live on a street that is middle class, Maria Kirkeplads, are wealthy but need to enter a more elite social group represented by Axel Olsen -Her aunt is openly materialistic about marriage, and does not think that miscegenation is wrong: "With a detachment that amazed herself she asked if Aunt Katrina didn't think, really, that miscegenation was wrong, in fact as well as principle. 'Don't,' was her aunt's reply, "be a fool too, Helga. We don't think of those things here. Not in connection with individuals, at least.' Helga confronts her own resistance to interracial marriage, because it brings "trouble" to the children," like herself. -Katrina says that her mother remarried, and that her husband didn't want to keep Helga (72); Helga thinks this is a "partial truth" Katrina says "if you have any brains at all they came from your father"

Transatlantic double-consciousness and "superiority"? Not a solution.

Helga hears a spiritual in Dvorák's New World Symphony, and wants to return to the US: "For the first time, Helga Crane felt sympathy rather than contempt and hatred for her father, who so often and so angrily she had blamed for his desertion of her mother.... She understood..his facile surrender to the irresistible ties of race." Ultimately, Helga returns to the US, and to "appease" her loneliness, she identifies an allegiance to African Americans: "These were her people" She articulates her own version of double-consciousness: "the division of her life into two parts in two lands, into physical freedom in Europe and spiritual freedom in America." -BUT: "pitying superiority" over African Americans? "Contempt" for patriotic Black Americans? "Insecurity?" This is clearly not a solution Anne rejects her for living with "Nordics" and "lynchers"; we see that there are "opposing...political and social factions" within the Black community in Harlem She meets James Vayle at a party, and he offers a eugenicist argument for opposing interracial marriage

Transatlantic Expatriation: Denmark and the "reconstruction" of Helga's identity

Helga's restlessness and dissatisfaction arise again; then her Uncle Peter sends her $5000 as her inheritance; he tells her to visit her aunt in Copenhagen Here we see Henry James's influence; but what does transatlantic crossing mean in this context? How is it different? -refers to tourists who rush to Europe. -How is Helga similar to Daisy Miller and how is she different? 1)Compare Helga's transatlantic crossing to Daisy Miller's: -The crossing signifies a new freedom, "that blessed sense of belonging to herself alone and not to a race" -Unlike Daisy, Helga's European sojourn brings back memories of childhood -"A new life" 2)European "Exoticism" and "Primitivism" -Visiting her Aunt Katrina in Denmark (as suggested to her by her Uncle Peter), Helga envisions a perfect life with "no Negroes, no problems, no prejudice" But how is Helga perceived in Denmark? How is her identity "constructed" by the gazes of others? -She is perceived as "exotic"; there is an attraction to her that is associated with aesthetic "primitivism"—this attitude towards Blackness was prevalent in Europe during the 1920s. She "enjoyed her prominence" -But the European women say she doesn't "count" because she is "savage" and "exotic." Again, she is desired as an exotic, and this gives Helga a sense of power; she is "incited" to perform and rebel Axel Olsen wants to paint her portrait 3)ultimately, however, Helga is trapped by commodification (including self-commodification) -We saw that Helga is trapped in global capitalist culture: "Things. Things. Things." -She is objectified as a commodity: Aunt Katrina is using her to "advance the social fortunes of the Dahls of Copenhagen" -Helga feels like a "new and strange species of pet dog being proudly exhibited" 4)Why does she turn down Axel Olsen? -he propositions her before proposing marriage -she doesn't like his portrait of her. He has constructed another identify for her.

Why does Helga turn down Axel Olsen and leave for the US?

Her aunt warns her to "stop wasting your time," meaning her time; they would be stuck with Helga as an expense if she didn't get married -The vaudeville act she watches at the Circus makes her feels shame and becomes aware of her inner conflict; she is not taken seriously by Europeans, even though they "admired" her difference: "She knew that into her plan for her life had thrust itself a supensive conflict in which were fused doubts, rebellion, expediency, and urgent longings." He propositions her (asking her to be his mistress) before proposing marriage -"She had been, she told herself, insulted." -This makes her turn down his proposal -"Now you have your reward. Now I offer you marriage" -"Thanks," she answered. Thanks, awfully." -She says "I don't at all care to be owned. Even by you." Her feelings are more complex than this -She fears that he would eventually become ashamed of her and hate her and "all dark people." -"My mother did that." -This discloses an important truth about her mother that we didn't hear about before; was she remarried to a white man? She doesn't like his portrait of her; how she has been "constructed" by his gaze as "some disgusting sensual creature with her features."

Poem by Dickinson explored the situation, not just of men at war, but of woman left at home

It feels a shame to be Alive - When Men so brave - are dead - One envies the Distinguished Dust - Permitted - such a Head - [...] Are we that wait - sufficient worth - That such Enormous Pearl As life - dissolved be -for Us - In Battle's horrid Bowl? It may be - a Renown to live - I think the Men who die - Those unsustained - Saviors - Present Divinity - -focus is on the speaker's feeling that she is not worth dying for -notice that she uses objects associated with the home to describe the battle: a bowl -she honors the dead in the concluding stanza: life may bring us distinction and fame or "renown" -but she pays tribute to those who died "unsustained," on the battlefield - not physically supported. It also means to undergo suffering and to resist giving up during a time of trial -"unsustained" also looks like "unstained"; she says that these men are martyrs who represent divinity

Jacobs's "loophole of retreat"

Linda decides to try to escape when the Flints want to bring her children to the plantation she is working at to be "broke in" she is first taken to a small room in the house of a white woman who is friends with her grandmother, a "safe retreat" -eventually she is moved to an attic garret in her grandmother's house, the "loophole of retreat" -stays there for 7 years 1) why does Jacobs call this a "loophole"? what is a loophole? -ambiguity in the law which she can use to circumvent the values and expectations associated with both the slave narrative and sentimental fiction 2) positive associations with the loophole? -Reconciles obligation to stay with her children and to seek their freedom: -Compare the loophole with Thoreau's imprisonment in Civil Disobedience: containment in a prison is freedom in an unjust society; he is locked out of society and made free by his own choice. Thoreau is trying to get "out" of society; Jacobs wants access to the freedom and benefits of a society that excludes her. --Is "free" and still with her children: Jacobs discovers a "gimlet," a tool she uses to bore holes in the wall to see her children. Discovery of society; a form of entry into society which conceals her body so she is not enslaved. -Allusion to Robinson Crusoe? Meets Friday, a Carib indian, on a deserted island off the coast of Venezuela where he is trapped for 28 years. Crusoe is involved in the slave trade; his intercultural dialogue with Friday transforms him. Jacobs's writing also brings her readers into a transformative dialogue; they "see" through the lens of her writing how much her children mean to her 3) negative association with the loophole? -A symbolic death: Like a coffin. Mr. Sands has married and told his wife that Linda was dead. -Loses her humanity: can't stand erect , can't speak: --Dreary, uncertain, monotonous life: -Seven years of suffering 4) the loophole is a place where Jacobs reveals her growing skill and maturity as a writer -reference to present time of writing her narrative (cf. Douglass, pen in gash of his foot as a child). But here: there are still mysteries as to why slavery exists, "which is to this day not so clear to my soul" -She competes with Dr. Flint in "cunning" by writing false letters. Dr. Flint is searching for her in the north. Compare with Douglass: attainment of literacy is a crucial part of the slave narrative genre; literacy is linked to freedom

Willa Cather

O Pioneers! Turned to local subject matter; ended her "apprenticeship"; she was influenced by Sarah Orne Jewett (a writer to whom she dedicated her novel) to find her own voice and be true to her frontier materials: she should "find her own quiet centre of life and write from that." Years later, Cather reflected on the transition to O Pioneers! as follows:

Langston Hughes and The Weary Blues

Racially mixed ancestry: African, Scottish, Irish, Jewish, French, English, and Native American Got involved in the Harlem Renaissance

The question of "sin" in the natural order

Santiago says he is "sorry" to have killed the marlin -He reflects on his own "treachery" as well as the marlin's "choice" to go out "to find him beyond all people" -He also refers to his "trickery" 1)Is it a sin to kill the marlin? Why did Santiago kill the marlin? The text affirms Santiago's pride, purpose, and identity -killed him out of pride -Santiago's purpose ("that which I was born for,") is part of the natural order -Thus: the struggle against the marlin is part of a natural order; Santiago is part of this order 2)The historical "sin" of slavery is in the background -Penance for slavery? "I have killed this fish which is my brother and now I must do the slave work." -Subtle reference to slavery and the trade winds -Contrast reference to sports competition—the arm-wrestling match with an AfroCuban from Cienfuegos; fair play on a level playing field 3) The historical "sin" of World War is also in the background. Fighting with the sharks raises questions of war as violation of this natural order Mutilation (103) and destruction of the marlin's beauty (114) are associated with violation but also with martyrdom -"alive with death in him" (Christic symbolism)? -saint's eye

Incidents and the tradition in sentimental fiction

Sentimental novels were an important genre in 19th century America; they were written for white, middle-class women who were active in reform movements Jane Tomkins: "sentimental power": the "cultural work" of sentimental fiction is to reach women through the power of "sympathy"---and these women, in turn, would educate their children and persuade their husbands to reform society as a whole Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin is the best known; widely influential Appeals to emotional response and sympathy for the plight of slaves would unite readers into a collective reform movement The emphasis on the sacredness of motherhood and the influence of the domestic sphere on life outside the home (e.g., shaping virtuous citizens; influence of wives behind the scenes) helped readers to transcend racial barriers

Nella Larsen and Quicksand

She became alienated from her family, lived briefly in Copenhagen, Denmark, with her mother's relatives, and returned to the US in 1912. -Gives you a sense of what the racial politics of the era were like. -Tremendous pressure to pass as white. -Immigrant identity was further complicated by race.

Daisy as the "new" woman, the "self-made" American: a modern "antiheroine"

She is a complex character, with strengths and limitations - "antiheroine" as a device of modernism Aware of social snubs; shows a "gay indifference" to them; affirms individuality as a defense against social hierarchy other characteristic 1)originality, "native grace: 2) cultural openness towards Italians of all classes; "kindness" and friendship in contrast with Mrs. Costello and Mrs. Walker -critical of "deadly" and "dreadfully" "poky" society -More interested in people than art; a positive life-affirming trait; she is democratic 3) ignorant? Uncivilized? Unaware? No -sees that she's being excluded by Mrs. Costello -Daisy sees she is being snubbed by Mrs. Walker; what her mother does not see 4) the scene with Mrs. Walker and her carriage reveals Daisy's insistence on freedom -insists on freedom; aware of her mother's negligence -"my mother never walked ten steps in her life," "if I didn't walk I'd expire" -Legacy of Protestant Reformation, Puritanism, and the American Revolution ("little Protestant cemetery," -doesn't want a man to "dictate" what she does: this is an important word that suggests the importance of individuality and resistance to dictatorial tendencies (and, ultimately, the rise of totalitarianism)

Walt Whitman "Leaves of Grass" (1855)

The first edition was typeset and printed at Whitman's own expense, and placed on sale on July 4th, 155. Very few copies were sold In 1855 Whitman sent a copy of Leaves of Grass to Emerson, and when Emerson wrote back a complimentary letter he used it, much to Emerson's dismay, as a blurb for the second edition: -"I find incomparable things said incomparably well, as they must be. I find the courage of treatment, which so delights us, and which large perception only can inspire. I greet you at the beginning of a great career, which yet must have had a long foreground somewhere for such a start." Whitman's Leaves of Grass went through 9 editions. Each edition had new poems, reorganized into cluster groupings -The 1855 edition had 12 poems in it, but by 1881, the final arrangement of the book had grown to include 293 poems, and the final "deathbed" (1891-92) edition had 383 poems in it.

Whitman's elegy for Lincoln: "When Lilacs Last by the Dooryard Bloom'd"

The poem is an "elegy" for Lincoln that also mourns and commemorates the fallen soldiers in the Civil War written after Lincoln's assassination In the opening movement of this elegy, Whitman depicts the procession carrying Lincoln's coffin through American cities to Springfield, Illinois, where he was buried. The speaker breaks a sprig of lilac and places it on a coffin, and in this ritual gesture nature's cycle of renewal is contrasted with the death and losses of the war and Lincoln's death. two new techniques: -Anaphora and the use of "parallel syntax" -- The repetition of the first word in successive lines (O and With) -Whitman is using syntax as a stylistic device his poem cohere symbolism: the lilac Whitman understood the importance of not forgetting what happened during the War, and constantly affirmed the need for a public, collective ritual act of commemoration in a wartime elegy -In war, death is mechanical, sudden, and shocking. Here, by contrast, the lilacs in bloom are a perpetual reminder and commemoration of the beloved -The passage shows us how the lilac, the star, and the speaker's thought of his beloved become a symbolic "trinity" that affirms his faith in the nation's future -It's interesting, as well, that the lilac is a "local" American flower that achieves symbolic universality. It becomes part of a ritual that "bridges" the inner world of the poet-speaker and the public square, which we talked about at the beginning of this lecture. Here, the public square is not a place for protest; it is a place for reconciliation and mourning -the fact that the lilac is blooming in a "dooryard" is also significant because this is a frontierism, meaning a yard in the front of a house

T.S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

The speaker of the poem should no be identified with the poet: this is related to what Eliot called the principle of "impersonality" in modernist poetry -Great works do not express the personal emotions of the poet -The poet is a vessel or medium through which tradition is channeled; he surrenders himself to tradition -The epigraph creates a barrier between the reader and the poem, while at the same time it suggests total honesty and freedom of expression (no self-censorship in light of the marketplace). 2)What do we know about Prufrock? Speaker and situation -Prufrock is visiting a roomful of women (a "salon") where there is a lot of pretentious art talk. -Compare Prufrock to Bartleby? Tragic flaw: he is incapable of action -He is afraid to risk revealing his emotions—he cannot disclose his inner life. Why? He is afraid of being ridiculed; terrible self-consciousness when confronted by society—suggests the exposure of social media. -Prufrock is oppressed by "eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase" —that question and mock his emotional life -Violence and cruelty in social life 3)Modernity and the crisis in gender relations -Conflict between genders is a "tedious argument of insidious intent" (boring and evil) -There is an impasse in communication between genders -Prufrock experiences a conflict between thought and feeling; he has a fear and horror of emotions 4)Biblical allusions also implicitly point to a crisis of faith; can't meet the expectations set by tradition: this is also a characteristic of modernism -"there will be time" (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8) -the head of John the Baptist was brought to Salome (Matthew 14:6-11) -I am Lazarus, come from the dead (raised by Jesus from the dead, John 11.1-44) 5) The ending Chooses to be "almost, at times, the Fool" in the play of his life; -Full of "high sentence" meaning fancy expressions; but obtuse means stupid -I am not Prince Hamlet (i.e., doesn't decide to take action) Ends in reverie and fantasy of escape, followed by intimations of drowning He identifies with those who would ridicule him, and in so doing alienates himself from his own inner life. Compare with Du Bois's double-consciousness? Emotional release is impossible; it involves the prospect of death by drowning the poem is a liberating act of self-expression; art as a means of creating value; Eliot seeks to impose order and significance on the chaotic panorama of contemporary history.

Dickinson and the Civil War

The war intensified the searching, religious doubt in her poetry, and made her question the nineteenth-century American faith in "progress" as inherently good. "They dropped like Flakes - They dropped like stars - Like Petals from a Rose - When suddenly across the June A Wind with fingers - goes They perished in the seamless Grass - No eye could find the place - But God can summon every face On his Repealless - List." -Meter: the "hymn stanza" -Dickinson is working with the four-line hymn stanza as her basic unit of versificationl iambic "tetrameter" alternating with iambic "trimeter" the opening stanza is a hymn stanza with its first line broken in two, suggesting that the war precipitated a crisis of faith: In Dickinson's words, "Heaven is so cold!" -imperfect rhyme or "slant rhyme" and repeated patterns of sounds within lines rejecting the certainty of belief evoked by the hymn stanza's regularity and perfect end-rhymes, Dickinson creates a more open, tentative and searching form for her poetry: Flakes/stars/rose; grass/list -The death of the soldiers on the battlefield is compared to cycles in nature: dropping like flakes, stars, and petals -But rather than being a consoling reminder of seasonal predictability and renewal, this is a frightening image. Nature is a nightmarish "wind with fingers" that "goes" mechanically the speaker is shocked by death that comes so suddenly, as a seeming violation of the moral and natural order -Will the heroism of the soldiers be recognized and commemorated? They have all but disappeared in the "seamless" grass—a domestic metaphor that suggests invisible labor that is lost to history. The speaker is a woman, and thus another innovation here is that Dickinson portrays the experience of wives, daughters, and mothers during the war -No "eye" can see where they have fallen—a pun that hides Dickinson's speaker (as an "I"), and also hints at the "eye" of God. Is God's list of fallen war heroes truly without repeal, unable to be cancelled or annulled? The imperfect rhymes in the concluding stanza (Grass/place/face/list) suggest a tentative conclusion. --Dickinson's lack of ringing certitude in her final line dramatizes her refusal to take sides in the Civil War, at a time when newspapers in the North were depicting the war as a holy war against the South --Insofar as she focuses on grief and pain as universal experiences, her poetry affirms a healing ethic of reconciliation.

The burden of transatlantic double-consciousness

Ultimately, Helga returns to the US, and to "appease" her loneliness, she identifies an allegiance to African Americans as "her" people She articulates her own version of double-consciousness: -Physical freedom in Europe; spiritual freedom in America with African Americans. -BUT: "Superiority" over African Americans? "Insecurity?" -This is not a solution.

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois and The Souls of Black Folk

W.E.B. Du Bois is considered one of the "fathers" of the Harlem Renaissance The Souls of Black Folk helped to inspire Hughes and other writers who would emerge during the Renaissance Mother descended from Dutch and African ancestors, small black community who became freedmen, in Great Barrington, and her family had owned land in the state for many years Tom Burghardt, a slave born in Africa, had won his freedom through service as a soldier in the American Revolution Alfred Du Bois, his father, was from Haiti, and was of French Huguenot and African descent; his parents separated when Du Bois was 2, and he was very close to his mother, who had a stroke when he was young and was unable to work Helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

Whitman's "The Wound Dresser": The Poetics of Reconciliation

Whitman restores his faith in American and the American people through his experiences working as a nurse or "wound-dresser" in Washington see effects of experience of a wound-dresser in poem "An old man bending I come among new faces, Years looking backward resuming in answer to children, [...] (Arous'd and angry, I'd thought to beat the alarum, and urge relentless war, But soon my fingers fail'd me, my face droop'd and I resign'd myself, To sit by the wounded and soothe them, or silently watch the dead;) Years hence of these scenes, of these furious passions, these chances, Of unsurpass'd heroes, (was one side so brave? the other was equally brave;) Now be witness again -This poem starkly contrasts with the poem of mobilization we read earlier: details about the wounded is also an innovation in the poetry -Realism in his description of the wounded: influenced by Civil War photography— the Civil War was the first war where graphic images were circulated to the public. "Catalogues" or lists that are infinitely expansive -Here, Whitman's poem emphasizes the importance of "answering" to the children that gather around the speaker; he is thinking about their future. His speaker recalls how he turned away from his anger, to sit with the wounded and soothe them -This is a poem of reconciliation that bears witness to the heroism of both sides in the conflict. In a letter to Emerson, Whitman wrote: "I find the best expression of American character I have ever seen or conceived...here in the ranks of sick and dying young men." He praised the ability of these men to meet "the approach of death...with steady composure."

Whitman's "Beat! Beat! Drums!: Meter and Mobilization

Whitman's initial reaction to the war, and dread of secession, led him to compose and publish a poem of mobilization, "Beat! Beat! Drums!," which was published in Harper's Weekly and the New York Leader in September, 1861 The "envelope" of the stanza—made up of the opening and closing lines--is written in a regular meter, and imposes a martial rhythm. The form of the poem dramatizes a relationship between mobilization and meter The poem is a call to arms; the speaker tells us to "mind not" the weeping of children or mothers who will lose their sons BEAT! BEAT! DRUMS! BLOW! BUGLES! BLOW! Make no parley—stop for no expostulation; Mind not the timid—mind not the weeper or prayer; Mind not the old man beseeching the young man; Let not the child's voice be heard, nor the mother's entreaties; Make even the trestles to shake the dead, where they lie awaiting the hearses, So STRONG you THUMP, o TERrible DRUMS—so LOUD you BUgles BLOW -The sound of the drums and bugles drown out all the other voices that fear violence and yearn for peace: the speaker even tells us to "make no parley," in other words, that there is no way to negotiate or settle this dispute -The music shakes the "trestles" or wooden supports for coffins, an image that has even apocalyptic associations. Whitman's style: Free verse -free verse: Whitman doesn't use end-rhymes or a fixed meter -In the 1855 preface, he writes "The poetic quality is not marshaled in rhyme.... The rhyme and uniformity of perfect poems show the free growth of metrical laws and bud from them as unerringly and loosely as lilacs or roses on a bush." -anaphora: repetition of the first worn in a series of lines; uses "expansive syntax" as a stylistic device

Conclusions

Who or what is being implicitly criticized in this novella? Mrs. Miller's lack of knowledge and experience regarding the norms of courtship and transition from girlhood to womanhood? The lack of support from adults, and especially adult women in the novel? The absence of her father and the dysfunctionality of the family unit? Her suffering is dignified and historicized by references to Christian martyrdom in the Colosseum in Rome -suggests the impact of secularization and social martyrdom/scapegoating (or "shaming) in the modern world Daisy's fatalistic; acute, unbiased remarks and observations warrant close attention -she becomes reckless as a result of her ordeal -"they don't care a straw what I do" -doesn't care if she gets malaria Daisy's isolation from her community is tragic; James suggests the importance of intergenerational communication and guidance

The Harlem Renaissance

a cultural and artistic movement centered on Harlem after WWI, at its height in the 1920s (the "jazz age"), and began to fade around the time of the stock market crash of 1929, but is considered by many people to have extended into the 1930s During the Reconstruction period, Jim Crow segregation and racial violence in the South led to the Great Migration of African Americans to cities in the North (New York, Chicago, Philadelphia) The convergence of migrants and educated middle class African Americans in cosmopolitan centers like NYC led to a flourishing of the arts There was a growing awareness of the importance of African American "folk" and urban culture to American culture as a whole

Benefits and Costs of Education in "Of the Coming of John"

only work of fiction here -John Jones leaves his home in Altamaha Georgia to attend school at the Wells Institute in Johnstown, New York -This is considered dangerous by the "white folk," but his family and friends are proud of him, and looks forward to his returning home as a teacher 1) John initially has a hard time adjusting, but gradually flourishes as a student -seriousness -Slow pace of learning, but he "walked steadily" through difficulties where others gave up -New dignity crept into his walk; new thoughtfulness glowing in his eyes -New consciousness of the Veil and discrimination and segregation—this makes him "unhappy," but we're later told he is glad he studied He becomes open to an unfamiliar world around him, and drifts into an opera house where a production of Wagner's "Lohengrin" is playing -Sitting in the theater hearing music, John wants to go home to Altamaha He also coincidentally meets his playmate, John, who is the son of a judge in his home town 2) the story explores how John's openness to education and world culture makes it difficult for him to return home -He is feeling exiled, and his neighbors at home no longer understand him: " Where was his smile and hearty handgrasp?" -He sees him home with new eyes: the "Jim Crow car," the "dingy" station "A painful hush seized that crowded mass. Little had they understood of what he said, for he spoke an unknown tongue." -He doesn't have language to reach his people and communication his vision of a better future. Ultimately, John is fired for teaching because he refers to the French Revolution (150), and doesn't want to teach his students to be servants and laborers In the end, his sister is raped and John is lynched for killing the white man (the other John now home from Princeton) who accosted her 3) Du Bois does not succumb to despair, despite this dark ending to John's story: For Du Bois: the exiled intellectual must have a sense of purpose: "If he but had some master work, some life-service, hard—aye, bitter hard, but without the cringing and sickening servility, without the cruel hurt that hardened his heart and soul." -Without this, life for the emerging African American intellectual can be a tragedy, without faith and hope Liberal arts education helped Du Bois "move across" the color line and "dwell above the Veil" -Higher education results in "higher individualism" and transcendence of the color line

Poem by Dickinson that explores how meaningful victory is to the defeated; see also how experimental her style is

the description of defeat and wartime 'Tis populous with Bone and stain - And Men too straight to stoop again - And Piles of solid Moan - And Chips of Blank - in Boyish Eyes And scraps of Prayer - And Death's surprise, Stamped visible -in stone - Dickinson became more reclusive during Civil War, but this was also the period when she wrote the most poetry, so critics are no longer so quick to diagnose her reclusion as pathological

Expatriate American Society: Mrs. Costello and Mrs. Walker

the percentage of Americans traveling overseas to Europe (by steamship) doubled between 1860 and 1900 it was expensive to travel; there was a prospering tourism industry by the 1870s and 1880s This touring was regarded as a marker of upper-class status; acquiring culture through a "Grand Tour" of Europe Associated with American artists who had to travel in order to see great works of art to learn from; this was lacking in the U.S. The landscape of Europe was seen as a repository of history and culture (vs. the US frontier) This was a time of rising immigration to the US from Europe, and the contrast between these immigrants and the wealthier expatriates/tourists is highlighted in other stories by James, including "The Patagonia." What do we learn about expatriate American society through the characters of Mrs. Costello and Mrs. Walker? -They are not Europeans; they are worried about their social position and what "observant Europeans" will think of them if they associate with Daisy 1) Mrs. Costello -She is racist; calls Giovanelli a barber's block 2) Mrs. Walker: the American expatriate and Europhile -placed her children at a school in Geneva -critical of Mrs. Miller -tries to "adopt" Daisy and protect her -But: she rejects Daisy and tells Winterbourne to do so; she is the force of cruelty and conformity in the novella: -Right after this we learn how she studies European society and "collects" specimens—suggests a defensive distancing from other people; no real relationships (in contrast with Daisy); she is studying to acquire cultural capital from the Europeans; she is a "pilgrim" who worships high European culture not people (again, in contrast to Daisy)

James's "Preface"

tortured prose -- long sentences and complex syntax --- anticipates the modernist "stream of consciousness style" 1)how the "novella" came to be written and rejected by publishers He was critical of how the story of a young woman in Rome was related by a friend, because it was told to illustrate a "familiar moral"; this lacked "salience," or particular importance Why didn't the editor like the book? -James gave the ms to a friend, who said the editor would have thought that it was "an outrage on American girlhood." -It was a nouvelle (long short story)—not really a novel, not a short story -James loved this novella and called it his "bantling" or orphan why was it retitles "a study" for publication? -"A study" suggests that it is unfinished, "flat," something better to come -Democratic impulse in representing someone named "Daisy Miller" ("object scant and superficially vulgar") -Before now: only elite subjects were appropriate for commemoration in artworks -This shows James's interest in "realism" 2) some comments about James's heroine, Daisy Miller James's interest in the "self-made" girl -no family connections: "working out thus on her own lines her social salvation" -rescuing her family after she learns to swim in the society James does not want us to judge Daisy Miller as a character or a social type: -his story is written "to no degree whatever in critical but, quite inordinately and extravagantly, in poetical terms". A woman friend complained that he represents Daisy in a way that made "judgment quite impossible." 3) James is concerned that he can't write about America (and NY) because the society is too dominated by wealth -NY "down town" society is "impenetrable" so he can only hang around the margins -he is "banished" from the "true pasture" and can only refer to Albany (uptown) -James says that 19/20ths of NY society, organized by the "money-passion," are "closed" to him -he uses his "scant material" about America economically and to great effort