Presentations

Heather is linking Regionalism, Transcendentalism, and Realism to talk about how Fuller links each of the other texts back to her own text and ideas. The growth in the women show what Fuller is trying to convey in her text.

Kristi is talking about how the influences of their foil leads the main characters to stray from the constraints of society of their times.

Meredith is linking local color and Transcendentalism. She is using the American Scholar as her cornerstone. She is going to be talking about man thinking, and what man thinking shouldn’t be. She’s also going to talk about the authors and how they relate to their texts.

Michael is going to use the Gothic and Dark Romanticism. He will talk about their reactions to different societies. He’s going to compare these genres to their predecessors. He’s going to talk about how these texts would have been written if these genres would never have existed. His sources discuss how different elements changed from one to the other. He is going to give some historical background on each genre as a whole. He’s going to try to shorten it down a bit.

Jenel is linking Transcendentalism using Emerson’s circles, and The Transcendentalist, with Dark Romanticism. She’s talking about how they are creating new ideas and challenging new ideas. She is using Fuller in her argument to show how a person can break those barriers. Dark Romanticism is man looking inside of himself and is the opposite of Transcendentalism.

Deb is talking about the Civil War Era and linking together texts like Chesnut, Whitman, and My Contraband. She is saying that the war shaped the writing and the topics of these texts.

Caitlin is talking about the British and American societies and connecting local color with regionalism. She’s going to use Hardy, James, Fuller, and Freeman to discuss feminism and naturalism.

Sara is linking together The Gothic, Naturalism, and Realist texts to talk about how each text has elements of each other within the different groups. She is going to use Zola as her cornerstone and talk about the experiment in Brown’s text as well as in Dorian Grey.

Norris and Hardy

In Norris’ text “The Responsibility of the Novelist” she talks about how the novel is the great expression of modern life. He says that each for of art has its turn at reflecting and expressing its contemporaneous thought. Norris writes “Time was when the world looked to the architects of the castles and great cathedrals to truly reflect and embody its ideals. And the architects—serious, earnest men—produced such “expressions of contemporaneous thought”…”

First of all as a side note, I don’t remember it being on the fact sheet, but Thomas Hardy was an architect! Maybe it’s completely unrelated, or maybe that’s why Hardy was able to express his ideas so well through his writing! He was a “serious, earnest man” that “produced such expressions of contemporaneous thought” like Norris was talking about.

Secondly, in Hardy’s text, right from the beginning we get the about average, decent guy who doesn’t get the girl. He is described as “a young man of sound judgment, easy motions, proper dress, and general good character”. This would be an every day, “average” man that one could meet even in these days. The problem is that most women don’t like this kind of man. The same goes for Bathsheba. She didn’t want this guy either. I think in this instance Norris would agree with the theory that Hardy has in the novel because he is making his point by expressing his characters to be more realistic to modern people. Women are hard to please, and we want either what we can’t have or what isn’t good for us. Hardy is right on the money here. We have a million options, but none that are good enough for us. For Hardy, he is expressing his art through his novel. His thoughts are clearly portrayed throughout the text.Just thought I would throw this picture in there. :-)

Longer Proposal and Tentative Works Cited

For my research paper I decided to connect Regionalism and Transcendentalism. When thinking about the paper I was trying to think of something that four different texts had in common and the one that stood out to me the most was women. So, I narrowed down four texts and thought about what could be a common theme. What I came up with was the fact that each of these texts demonstrates the importance of getting rid of the old idea that women have to conform to what society expects of them and accepting the change of the new idea that they don’t have to allow that. At this point in the 19th century American women want to move forward in life and be treated equally, but they face difficulties along the way because of the oppression of men.

In my essay I am going to use four texts. In Freeman’s short story “The Revolt of a Mother” I’m going to talk about how the wife wanted to have a new house and the husband wouldn’t listen to her. She decided to move into the barn to prove her point, and when the husband came home he realized what he had done was wrong and then yielded to her desires. In Jewett’s short story “A White Heron” the little girl first thinks that she wants to find this bird because not only did she want the money that the man had to offer her, but she wanted to do what he said and impress him. She later realizes that she doesn’t have to do it, and she figures out what is more important to her. Impressing the man and getting the money wasn’t the most important thing. In Dickinson’s poem “I Felt a Funeral in my Brain” she discusses how oppressive old ideas are, and she accepts the change of new ones. In Fuller’s text “The Great Debate” she talks about how it’s the Anti-Slave party that pleads for women. This demonstrates the idea of changing the old into something new. Fuller advocated for change to move forward and that is shown throughout the text.

Anderson, Douglas. “Presence and Place in Emily Dickinson’s Poetry.” The New England Quarterly 57.2 (1984): 205-224. JSTOR. Web. 15 Apr. 2010.

In this essay Douglas talks about Dickinson’s use of presence and place. He discusses several ideas about her uses of them, and how she meant for them to come across. He finds, however, that many lines are ambiguous and are then left for many different interpretations.

Cole, Phyllis. “Stanton, Fuller, and the Grammar of Romanticisim.” The New England Quarterly 73.4 (2000): 533-559. JSTOR. Web. 15 Apr. 2010.

Cole discusses in her text, the grammar of romanticism, which is defined to be an ideology and expressive mode affirming sensibility and self-awareness. She talks about the expectation of imminent change.

Gardner, Kate. “The Subversion of Genre in the Short Stories of Mary Wilkins Freeman.” The New England Quarterly 65.3 (1992): 447-468. JSTOR. Web. 15 Apr. 2010.

Gardner talks about the characters in which Freeman uses in her texts. She describes the typical females in the stories and talks about how the assertion of self against overwhelming odds gives us heroism.

Monteiro, George. “Traditional Ideas in Dickinson’s ‘I Felt a Funeral in My Brain’.” Modern Language Notes 75.8 (1960): 656-663. JSTOR. Web. 15 Apr. 2010.

Monteiro analyzes Dickinson’s poem “I felt a Funeral in My Brain”, and talks about how it is something more than merely a poem about a funeral. He says that the funeral is a metaphor, and involves more than Dickinson’s ability to identify her change in emotions.

Pratt, Anne. “Women and Nature in Modern Fiction.” Contemporary Literature 13.4 (1972): 476-490. JSTOR. Web. 15 Apr. 2010.

In Pratt’s text she talks about women, and the quest for self. She says that there is a large difference between the naturistic epiphanies of men and women. She discusses the girl’s view over the boy’s view.

Proposal for Final Project

Dickinson: A funeral in my brain & A certain slant of light
Jewett: A White Heron
Freeman: Revolt of a Mother
Fuller: The Great Debate
New American Literature & Regionalism & Transcendentalism

Key points from texts:
Freeman: Wife moving into barn to prove her point
Jewett: Girl protecting the bird’s hiding place
Dickinson: “Internal difference / where the meanings are”
Fuller: Advocating for women's rights (women just as smart as men)

Each of these authors use different genres like Regionalism, New American Literature, and American Transcendentalism to emphasize the fact that women are moving towards getting more rights versus other genres like The Gothic which doesn't have this focus.

The focus on women's rights are generated by the time line that these genres are written in, as time moves forward women are realizing how oppressed they are and the desire to have more rights increases.

Dickinson, Freeman, Fuller, and Jewett
Each of these authors discuss in their texts the importance and meaning of individuality and sacrificing for what they think is right because of how hard it was to be a woman in their time. They do not fit into the common expectations of women because of their outspoken ideas like moving into the barn, not giving up the heron, figuring out internal meanings, and literally advocating for women’s rights. These women paved the way for women nowadays; if it weren’t for them stepping out of their comfort zone we wouldn’t be as progressed as we are today.

Daisy Miller. P.S. There's a movie! (That's super old).

The author who wrote “Editor’s Easy Chair” talks about how Daisy Miller “represents a young American woman…and describes the unconscious manner in which she devastates the accepted usages of society, doing, with perfect innocence and pure maidenhood, what in Europe is done only by women who are not innocent. She is one of the young women who amaze European society and give a strange reputation to American girls” (Harper 780).

Winterbourne is the stereotypical European and when he notices that Daisy Miller is attractive he says "American girls are the best girls”. All he can think about is how pretty she is. He is blind to anything else except for her beauty.
He is not familiar with how American act and so he is confused by her yet charmed at the same time. James writes that “Poor Winterbourne was amused, perplexed, and decidedly charmed”. He couldn’t decide if she was just a pretty girl from the states “Or was she also a designing, an audacious, an unscrupulous young person”.

Through Winterbourne James paints the picture of Europeans having no instinct or reason to be able to help them decipher whether American women. Winterbourne decides that “Miss Daisy Miller looked extremely innocent” but some people had told him that they weren’t. He finally decides that Daisy Miller is “a pretty American flirt”.
Although Winterbourne is unfamiliar with Americans he compares Daisy to the relationships that he has had with European women whom were “coquettes” and were dangerous and terrible women. He says that Daisy is unsophisticated and a flirt and see where this takes him.

Daisy on the other hand doesn’t seem to notice that she is acting any different than the other girls. When Winterbourne suggest that someone stays with her younger brother so that they both can go see the monuments she naively says that Winterbourne himself can stay with him. The fact that Daisy Miller is not a coquette like some other European women astonishes and amazes Winterbourne, the classic European man. He doesn’t quite know what to do with her and he can’t figure her out.

Jewett's A White Heron

During my fact sheet I talked about how “A White Heron” could be looked at through a “coming of age” lens. At the end of my fact sheet I gave part of the text that I felt showed this, so I wanted to talk about it more here.

“There was the huge tree asleep yet in the paling moonlight, and small and hopeful Sylvia began with utmost bravery to mount to the top of it”

I think that the huge tree symbolizes life in general and Sylvia’s braveness to mount to the top of it shows her growing up and facing what life has to throw at her.

“with tingling, eager blood coursing the channels of her whole frame, with her bare feet and fingers, that pinched and held like bird's claws to the monstrous ladder reaching up, up, almost to the sky itself.”

This line describes the sexuality that this young girl is feeling at this age.
“First she must mount the white oak tree that grew alongside, where she was almost lost among the dark branches and the green leaves heavy and wet with dew; a bird fluttered off its nest, and a red squirrel ran to and fro and scolded pettishly at the harmless housebreaker.”

Getting lost among the branches shows how hard life is and how difficult it is to grow up. Sometimes it’s not easy to find our way. We don’t know exactly what we’re doing or which way is the right way to go and sometimes we will get lost. This paints the perfect picture to describe this.

“Sylvia felt her way easily. She had often climbed there, and knew that higher still one of the oak's upper branches chafed against the pine trunk, just where its lower boughs were set close together.”

This shows that coming into adulthood doesn’t have to always be hard. It can come easily in some areas and in some instances. For Sylvia, she had often climbed this area, so this particular road in her life wasn’t going to be too rough.

“There, when she made the dangerous pass from one tree to the other, the great enterprise would really begin.”

The change from familiar to unfamiliar is the toughest part. Once could say that this might be the leaving the nest part. Sylvia realizes the dangers of change and how much of an adventure life really would be from now on once she passed from one tree to the next.

Photographs

In Natalie Houston’s text "Reading the Victorian Souvenir: Sonnets and Photographs of the Crimean War", she talks about how photographs of this time look staged because they would have to pause for a few moments to take the picture. People had never seen war photographs before, and so they thought these pictures were amazing and awes-inspiring.

However, in reality, real and stage pictures of this group often times portray relaxation. She talks about how these photographs downplay the labor of war because it presents the times in which people were relaxing and not the busy stressful side of things.

Houston says that “By focusing on the officers and portraying them in this stylized manner, the real hardships faced by the troops are minimized”. This is true because instead of showing the action of what’s truly going on the viewer is painted a different picture. The picture that is painted here is one that’s saying everything is effortless and undemanding.




In this photograph that I found we are shown these things. There is a man hanging out on the back of a wagon. Nothing is really happening in the photograph besides this. We don’t get a war scene in the background or any other action, making it seem like nothing important is going on. Of course, war is more than nothing important, but these pictures don’t show this.

Levi's and Whitman

When I watched the Levi ad’s I would have never guessed that it was Walt Whitman’s voice. It’s interesting to me that there are people who would recognize a dead man’s voice. The ad’s are kind of entertaining. I can see how they relate with what Walt Whitman is saying in his poetry, but again I would never have noticed that unless someone pointed it out to me.

McCracken says that advertising has taken the job of what Whitman thought was the poets, he says, “Whitman redefines the poet’s relationship to the reader in much the same way that early advertisers invented a relation between consumers and products. . . . What gave advertising such a strong position in antebellum culture is that it began to define its audience as subjects who occupied a unique position in regard to it. People were no longer pedestrians or readers; they were spectators, consumers, witnesses, and bodies in need of healing.”

If you think of it in the way that McCracken describes it then I would say that Levi’s campaign is celebrating Walt Whitman’s project. What they’re advertising is the self and America and being an individual and respecting and appreciating nature, which is what is portrayed in Whitman’s text as well as the Levi’s ads.

Levi’s wants their country to absorb them just like Whitman says that the poet should be absorbed by his country. Through this campaign they are able to do this.
Whitman’s texts and Levi’s jeans’ promises both guarantee “self-fulfillment, independence, and the kind of charismatic individuality that will make us the center of every crowd”. Although I think that this is a stretch and a matter of personal opinion on both parts I think that it works. They are celebrating Whitman because they are using his ideas to enhance not only their business and their profits but individualism and having pride in being an American as well.

I think that McCracken’s idea of advertisers playing the cultural roles that poets played in earlier eras is interesting to think about. I don’t know if I necessarily agree with that statement completely, but they do play a huge role on influencing people and persuading them to make a decision one way or the other.

Spirits

Asher B. Durand's "Spirits"

In John Ruskin’s text Modern Painters he discusses the ideas of beauty. He says that “Any material object which can give us pleasure in the simple contemplation of its outward qualities…I call in some way…beautiful” (22). In Asher B. Durand’s painting “Spirits” one can definitely see the beauty in it. There are many things happening in this picture, at first glance it’s impossible to take in everything that the painting has to offer. Taking a closer look, one can see all of the detail and precision that was put into the artwork.

Ruskin also says that “Why we receive pleasure from some forms and colors, and not from others, is no more to be asked or answered than why we like sugar and dislike wormwood” (22). Ruskin is right. We can only wonder why we like sugar more than wormwood and we can only wonder why we like certain colors and firms more than others. For example, even though this painting is colored solely in natural colors like brown and green, one can still see the beauty in it because of the forms and what the picture is portraying.

Another idea that Ruskin discusses is the idea of God and nature, he writes, “We may, indeed, perceive, as far as we are acquainted with His nature that we have been so constructed as, when in a healthy and cultivated state of mind, to derive pleasure from whatever things are illustrative of that nature” (22). This painting is a perfect example of what he is talking about in this text because the painting clearly shows many aspects of nature. It shows the stream with rocks placed in it, it shows the sky, the hillside, and many other pieces of natures. Similarly to what Ruskin is saying in his text, it is only natural to see beauty in nature and in this piece of artwork.

Dark Romanticism and Hawthorne

In Hawthorne’s short story “The Minister’s Black Veil: A parable”, there are several instances in the text were we can see “Dark Romanticism”. One instance in particular is on page 879, Hawthorne writes, “there rolled a cloud into the sunshine”. The context of which this is written is to emphasize what the veil is doing. It is causing sorrow for the minister and it provokes fear and curiosity in everyone who looks at it. Hawthorne uses Dark Romanticism in his text to emphasize the horror he tries to cause for the reader. He uses to dark and dreary aspects of nature in order to help him do this.

Another instance where Hawthorne uses Dark Romanticism in his text is a few lines down. He writes, “Even the lawless wind, it was believed, respected his dreadful secret, and never blew aside the veil” (879). Saying that the wind is lawless provides the reader with an image of something wild. We can picture leaves blowing around and trees swaying under the invisible power of the wind. He uses this line to describe just how consistent the minister is in never betraying his secret of why he can never unveil his face. Hawthorne uses Dark Romanticism again in order to emphasize the point he is trying to make. Even the power of nature, the lawless wind, cannot break the minister and reveal his secret.

Another instance that can be found in the text is when he writes, “As years wore on, shedding their snows above his sable veil…” (880). Hawthorne is using Dark Romanticism and the use of nature and the dark aspects of it to enhance his parable. All through the story the author causes the reader to be anxious. The reader expects something drastic to happen and by speaking of the negative aspects of nature it enhances the anticipation for the reader.

NATURE, CIRCLES, & THINKERS

Nature centres into balls,
And her proud ephemerals,
Fast to surface and outside,
Scan the profile of the sphere;
Knew they what that signified,
A new genesis were here.

I think that epigraphs are interesting just because I always thought that the title kind of explained itself once you read the rest of the text. But, I guess not. Next time I write a poem, I’m going to write an epigraph to elucidate or justify the title of my poem. :-) Just kidding, or am I.

Anyhow, Emerson’s epigraph is especially interesting because I think that it basically sums up what is meant by the title of his work and pretty much the main point of his text. Emerson’s epigraph elucidates and justifies the title of the text for many reasons.

Take the first line for example. Emerson writes that “nature centres into balls” in his epigraph which parallels nature to circles. He’s saying that nature will always circle itself back around. It takes care of itself, and does not need man to help it.

I didn’t know what “ephemerals” meant, so I looked it up and it means either: “Lasting for a markedly brief time” OR “Living or lasting only for a day, as certain plants or insects do”

If this is the meaning that Emerson was going for then I think that he meant that nature can replenish herself daily through these “circles”. He’s saying that certain plants and other things in nature and otherwise can live or last for only a day, but through these “proud ephemerals” nature has its own way of surviving and replenishing itself.

Emerson talks about the profile of the sphere and that “they” knew what that signified and that the new genesis were here. He again elucidates the title of his work “Circles” because of what is implied. He says that there is a new genesis which means a new beginning. There is a start of everything and after something dies something begins again which essentially is a CIRCLE! :-)

As a side note, the quote I liked the best from this work is “The key to every man is his thought”. It’s interesting to note that through this time frame of literature and I’m sure in other places as well some of these authors are huge on influencing others to be “thinkers”. They think that being a “thinker” is going to make a person more successful. Being a liberal arts student I would have to agree! :-)

NATURE.

Dorothy Wordsworth’s poem “Floating Island” is a good example of Romanticism for several different reasons. The entire poem is filled with references of nature. In the first stanza it talks about the different elements including the “sky, earth, river”. The poem discusses the fact that “Sunshine and storm, whirlwind and breeze / All in one duteous task agree”, this emphasizes the “awe when experiencing the sublimity of nature” because sunshine and storm, and whirlwind and breeze or opposites and great aspects of nature.

The second stanza uses more imagination because it talks about “how no one knew / But all might see it float, obedient to the wind.” This provides the reader with something to think about and the image that one comes up with is left to the imagination. What exactly is “a slip of earth”? Maybe some dust? Or something else? It’s really left up to the reader to decide that.

Stanza three shows a devotion to nature because it so well describes the mossy shore and how the birds use this area for their pastime. The poem says “Might see it” because not everyone can. Again it’s left up to the imagination. Possibly only a nature lover would recognize and appreciate this beauty.

The fourth stanza talks about living plants and insects and about how they live and die. This shows the awe when experiencing the sublimity of nature because normally we don’t think about insects and plants having life and eventually dying because they are not humans. This poem sheds some light onto this and shows us the experiences that take place every day.

The Fifth stanza talks about how nature may refuse to give anymore. This provides a sort of terror because without nature we would be nothing. Humans cannot survive without the oxygen we get from trees or without the food that we need from which nature provides. It’s a scary thought to think that one day nature might “cease to give”.

The end of the poem is thought provoking because it leaves the reader thinking about nature and about what could possibly happen. “Without an object, hope, or fear” implies that without nature we would have nothing, no hope, no fear, just nothing.

Huntly and the woods

On page 94 the first paragraph talks about how he reached the mouth of the cave. He had forgotten to bring a lamp or a torch. This brings fear to the reader because this man is about to enter the cave with no acceptable lighting. He may or may not run into obstacles that he cannot see because of the lack of light. There might be animals or other dangerous objects that would hinder his path and that could have been avoided if he was able to see them. Even though the reader cannot see exactly what the mouth of this cave looked like because the author does not give it a good description; we can imagine it because of the sensation that is produced from the text. The text talks about how using a lamp or something else to give light would be a more cautious thing to do, but he doesn’t let that stop him. He goes ahead and enters the cave bringing the reader even more fear because of the unknown. Someone more oriented toward the picturesque might have described the cave in full detail giving the reader an inch by inch description of exactly what everything looked like. This might have taken away from the interpreted sensation that we get from not fully knowing what the scene looked like and only being able to draw on the text that we do have and the character’s reaction to it. Being able to interpret this scene in our own way produces more fear because of the lack of knowledge. If it were written by an author more oriented with picturesque it would have possibly produced a different kind of fear.

On page 122 in the fourth paragraph it talks about how the bridge that he wanted to use had been destroyed. He thought about how he could repair it, but he knew that he would not have enough strength to get a fallen tree to mend it. Not only did he have to now think about another path to which he might be able to take but he was exhausted as well. For the reader this brings upon feelings of fear for the character because we think that this exhaustion is going to hinder him from going further down his journey and also may ultimately be detrimental to his life. He is tired and so he probably wasn’t thinking with a clear head. In this passage in particular Brown definitely succeeds in making the wilderness a threat for the reader. Because we don’t know exactly what the different paths look like we can only interpret the fear that Huntly has to feel because of not knowing which path to take. The only path that he recognizes is out of the question and he is forced to go a different way in which he has never been. The text produces the sensation of his exhaustion by setting us up for what has just happened. He has been on this long journey through the woods and not only is he tired and disoriented but now he has to figure out what he is going to do next when clearly he not able to think straight. If another author who was oriented in picturesque had written this passage we would have clearly been able to see each possible way that Huntly could have gone therefore losing the interpretation that we as the reader have to make about Huntly and his state of mind and the difficulty of choosing the correct path. Without knowing exactly how the woods look we are able to imagine things we would have been unable to otherwise.

Terror vs Horror

There are MANY different movies to choose from, but for my example I decided to use one that I have recently seen. Orphan is a perfect example of terror, because the entire time the viewer is feeling dreadful and anticipating what the little orphan girl is going to do next. In one scene in particular there is a little girl whom the orphan (Esther) doesn’t get along with. The little girl is walking up through a jungle gym type thing at the park and the eerie music sets the tone that something bad is about to happen. The viewer is forced to be anxious and waits for what we know that Esther is going to do. Sure enough, Esther pushes the girl off the jungle gym, and the little girl breaks one of her bones.



In another instance one of the nuns from the orphanage that Esther came from came down to talk to the parents. As she leaves we see Esther forcing her little sister Max to come along with her up the road. Esther tricks Max into helping her with her scheme. We know something bad is about to happen, and the dread and the anxiety gets out hearts racing. Then of course Esther pushes Max out into the road and the nun swerves off and wrecks. Esther then kills her and forces Max to help drag her off the road. The anticipation that comes before both of these horrible actions makes this movie a movie of terror and not horror.



The Saw movies on the other hand are completely different because of the blood and goriness from the beginning. The viewer is repulsed after seeing time after time limbs getting cut off and bodies being torn apart. One scene in particular has a man who has a chain cuffed to his ankle and he figures that the only way he is going to be able to escape and save his life is if he saws his own leg off. The viewer is appalled and shocked to see that he does indeed saw off his leg! Another instance is when this guy (pictures below) finds that his entire head is trapped in some kind of giant claw and his eye is gauged out! There is no denying that all of these Saw films would fit nicely into the horror category.

Introduction number 2!

Hi everyone! This is my second intro post so everything is pretty much the same!

My name is Amy Hatch, and this is my second semester at WSU Tri-Cities. I'm an English major, and I love it! I work at the IHOP in Kennewick, and I am usually busy ALL THE TIME with work and school.

Uhhh...yep that's pretty much it! :-)