Note: I didn't realize how many of those "urban/industrial" homework answers were written late last night or early this morning. I will make a new post to comment on them (and the pastoral homework) on Thursday. Whoomp, it shall be here!
I imagine this exam to be much like last semester's final exam. I will provide a range of possible questions with the expectation that most students will choose to answer three of them at a length of roughly 500 words each (250 minimum, 750 maximum). So the total for the exam would then be roughly 1500 words (1000 minimum, 2000 maximum).
You can begin to personalize the exam by offering possible questions to add to this list; others may want to answer them as well. Some of you also expressed interest in writing a 1500 word essay to replace the entire exam. And I have already offered to replace 1/3 of the exam (i.e. one question) for taking part in the Pynchon seminar and helping to prepare some materials for the other participants.
For all questions, please remember to reference and analyze specific authors or texts. I don't always note this below, but it's a general recommendation.
GENRES
1) Make a detailed comparison between three texts that you consider to be 'pastoral' in their genre or theme. At least two should be from the American Literature course. A large part of the question is obviously to define what you mean by 'pastoral.' And of course it would be best to choose texts that present intriguing contrasts. (Note: don't answer both #1 and #2 as they're too similar.)
2) Make a detailed comparison between three texts that you consider to be 'industrial' or 'urban' in their genre or theme. A large part of the question is obviously to define what you mean by 'industrial' or 'urban.' And of course it would be best to choose texts that present intriguing contrasts. (Note: don't answer both #1 and #2 as they're too similar.)
3) Make a "lesson plan" for the missing session on American 'gothic.' Explain what themes you would emphasize, what questions you would ask, how you would connect to previous course concepts, what exercises might be helpful, etc. (My suggested texts would be Poe's "Ligeia" and "Imp of the Perverse," Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," and David Foster Wallace's "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men"... but you could substitute others. Incidentally, please e-mail me and I can help you find the Wallace stories.)
4) Write a parody, imitation, or homage in the style of one of this semester's authors. (Applied to a new topic, probably.)
CROSS-HISTORICAL COMPARISONS
5) Pick a member of a certain group we studied in the first semester, then explain what he/she would think of two later (i.e. second semester) texts written by members of that same school or group. You can write in essay form or dialogue form. The most obvious examples are African-Americans and American Indians. But you could also consider using, say, Jose Marti along with Alvarez and Anzaldua. Or you could define a geographical grouping (New York city, Boston, the southeast, the west, etc.) Or a particular social class or profession. Or writers who all respond to a similar theme, or use a similar genre. Or some other type of group. (I suppose we studied most of the women in the second semester, so in that case just pick one 19th-century woman and two 20th-century women.) The one rule here is that you probably shouldn't write about Kingston, considering we gave her so much attention already.
6) Suppose you are teaching a class similar to this one. But the scope of the class is smaller (say, one semester). And the level is a bit lower (say final year of high school, or first or second year of university). How would you organize the syllabus? What texts would you choose, and why? What theme(s) would the course have? Why?
UNEXPLORED THEMES
7) An answer about literary representations of homosexuality would work; in particular I have been wondering how such representations relate to theories of American authorship, though one could ask the same for gender in general. (Note that it would be inadequate simply point out that certain authors are homosexual, and that this somehow influenced their writing.)
8) An answer about the central role that World War II plays in American literature/culture/ideology in the post-1945 era, and the different meanings it carries for different writers. It would also be possible to pose some kind of comparison to the earlier role of the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. Or I suppose this could be a more general answer about representations of war or military themes.
9) The influence of film on 20th/21st century American literary technique... Another version of this answer would be to explore the thematic relationship between American literature and American pop culture by citing particular texts we've analyzed.
10) Develop one of the class presentations further. The easiest way to do this would be to somehow challenge or complicate the interpretations that were presented.
11) Give a close analysis reading of one of the 'forgotten authors' or forgotten texts that were assigned for homework but never found great emphasis in our class discussion.
BROAD QUESTIONS
These are all somewhat similar, so perhaps choose just one.
12) Make a defense of American style liberalism, in response to the many questions and challenges to it raised by me as well as many of the authors we've read. It would help to cite particular authors and concepts, lest your essay fall victim to over-generalization.
13) Challenge my idea of American 'empire' somehow. Perhaps you see the pre-20th century U.S. as too decentralized to be an empire. Perhaps you see the 20th/21st century U.S. as too pluralistic or diverse to be an empire.
14) Explain the challenges of creating a national identity that is both inclusive/pluralistic and somehow unified. What about the challenge of memorializing histories of conflict between resident groups? Is such a project impossible? Is it even desirable?
15) Explain to another Taiwanese citizen what new insight your study of American literature has given you about literature/culture/politics in Taiwan. In other words, teach them how to apply what you learned. (This isn't the same as last semester's "why study it?" question. Now we assume that it's worth studying, and you need to explain more specifically how you would apply it.)
MORE TO COME!
--This is Jenny.
ReplyDelete--Letters between John Adams & Abigail Adams
--Even though they didn’t mention factories or busy city life, their liberty thesis makes me think of the connection between urban city and the possibility of realizing liberty. Abigail Adams mentioned Sparta, ancient Greece and Philip. Even though ancient Greece was an ancient civilization, her liberal spirits raise her political structure and maybe make her commercial situation better.
--And…Maybe…urban life sounds like a higher social form that deserves a higher political power?
--To be independent from England, maybe American needs some proofs that they need and deserve the independence as modern and urban communities.
Boudinot uses industrial genre in order to state the feeling of the minority of Indians. By editing the first American paper which is printed in Indian language, he encouraged Cherokee to be open to free and temperate discussion on matters of politics, religion, and so on.
ReplyDeleteThis is Winnie.
ReplyDeleteI think in Alvarez’s Yo, she unveils the industrial/urban theme mostly through the part where the social worker visits (most obviously seen in the fake image the mother tries to construct no matter by her words or by the clothes she makes her children wear). And Alvarez uses the theme to contrast with not only their past life in the Dominican Republic but the fear they face (the fear caused by their own country as well as by the U.S. government).
This is Peggy.
ReplyDeleteMargaret Fuller is using urban themes to demonstrate woman’s intellectual ability and their equal right. She used “urban idea” to oppose woman’s traditional role who lived depend on men’s provision. In her work, urban is about freedom and more equal in human right. Using the theme, Fuller showed woman’s intellect and made her argument stronger about asking for women’s equality in industrial society.
This Sydney.
ReplyDeleteCisneros uses the urban theme to reveal the social oppressions on women and minor races. She makes contrasts between the protagonist’s past and present, rural scene(the creek) and urban scene, the romantic soap opera and real life, in order to bring out the oppression.
Morrison chooses to use urban theme in The Bluest Eye so that she could give a detailed display on peoples’ different attitudes toward a black female. When compared to pastoral theme, urban theme is able to provide more possibilities in designing characters. In The Bluest Eye, there are brown woman in beautiful house who sees Pecola often but never really know her, black boys or cherished girls at Pecola’s school, the sham mystic who thinks that he has helped Pecola by giving her a false promise, and Frieda and Claudia as Pecola’s friends and so on. Through the interactions between these characters and Pecola, Morrison expresses the oppression, dilemma and values that black females are to face efficiently.
ReplyDeleteThis is Iris.
ReplyDeleteIn the first chapter of "In The Land of The Free", Far depict the scene of San Francisco’s waterfront, including tugboat and steamer which give readers the impression of urban America. In this modern society, however, something unreasonable still happen in this modern world like Hom Ming’s case. The officers take Hom Ming’s son away from his parents because the boy has no certificate. I think freedom and legislation are also the characteristic of American urban life. Ironically, the government doesn’t return their baby for a couple of month. The event Hom Ming encounter is a obvious contrast with the title of this article. On the other hand, the young lawyer tries to make a fortune by their unfortunateness instead of helping them for his sympathy. Things don’t work like we expect it should in the modern city.
This is Tracy to post her response.
ReplyDeleteIn his essay “Do Not Go Gentle,” Alexie used the urban/industrial theme to modernize his expression about Native American culture. He personified the ideological terms and set the scenes in the hospital and urban stores. In the story, I think he boldly took advantage of sex issues to plot his motif. There is a baby with coma, who was a new life, the personified new culture, yet at the same time weak and small. “It was sex that made our dying babies, and here was a huge old piece of buzzing sex I was trying to cast spells with. (2856)” In the story, the father was trying to use a vibrator to pray for their child, rather than just sang and waited passively. Sex is the movement to produce new life. And the sex toy is modernized instrument to entice sexual intercourse; in other words, it is a method to help with producing a new life. Another character I mind is Mr. Grief, another personified figure in the story. I think the author used him to symbolize the strong mainstream culture, which tried to cause despair to minority (the couple) and destroy the minor culture (the baby). Yet ironically, it was the modernized, mainstream culture overwhelmed in the urban surroundings that produced the sex toys, which later became their praying device to pray for their child.
This is Rea and her mini response.
ReplyDeleteIn her poem “Daddy,” Plath uses the industrial theme as scenery to describe the distance between the speaker and the father. Chuffing off by an engine like a Jew, the speaker is despised by the machine and the machine driver. The father is a serious man with “neat mustache”, but the speaker has “gypsy ancestress.” They are different, like Germans and Jews (perhaps during the WWII).
This is Teresa.
ReplyDeleteCullen used the urban themes to discusses and indicate the self-identity of African American. In the poetry “Heritage”, he keeps asking himself what is Africa to him. This is a question that Cullen wants to ask all the African American. According to “With my mouth thus, in my heart do I play a double part”, Cullen points out that every Africa American thinks himself or herself as “an American” but other white people treats them as “nigger”. For example, in poetry “Incident”, the little Cullen thinks he is as big as Baltimorean (imply that they are the same). However, Cullen smiles at Baltimorean, but Baltimorean pokes out his tongue said “nigger”. Little Cullen learned from this “incident” that he has a nick name “nigger” in other white men’s eyes that’s all he remembers.
This is Natalie.
ReplyDeleteIn Crane's "The Blue Hotel", he does not use urban/industrial theme; instead, he uses suburb/pastoral theme in order to reveal the ridecule stereotype that the 'urban people (the Swede)' makes toward the 'wild' west Nebraska. The Swede seems convinced that everyone in the west wants to kill me, even though the fact is that everyone try to treat him well as a guest. Ironically, after Swede gets drunk, he starts to behave boastful. He hit Johnny, the son of the hotel owner, and goes to a bar while having a fight with a gambler. He is killed by the gambler at the end, and the hotel owner and other lodgers think that they have to take the responsibility for his death. At the end of the story it is clear to tell the irony that who is more 'barbaric' and who is more 'civilized'.
This is Qian Yu.
ReplyDeleteIn The Snow Man, Stevens uses pastoral to demonstrate the idea of empty.
In this poem, Stevens creates a scene with almost no life. Stevens describes the chilly winter day, ice, and snow to express the empty of life. He also repeats the word, “nothing”, to show the hopeless.
I think Stevens is an antisocialism. The ideas of none, hopeless, nothing, and empty repeated again and again in The Snow Man. All the pastoral setting manifest the idea of empty in this poem.
This is Joy.
ReplyDeleteLowell sees Boston as the miniature of the nation. In 1960s when the poem was published, Boston underwent gradual industrialization. For the poet, he was disturbed by the changes of the city, and he divided the city of Boston into two parts: the industrialized urban (the “Sahara of snow”) and the unindustrialized south (the “Aquarium.”)
Lowell was pessimistic about development. He considered the industrialization as a process to de-humanize. As the actual development processed, the walls between people were built: humans were turned “fish and reptile,” the cold-blooded animals. The freedom and autonomy were deprived as the caged animals and frightened fish. However, while the sympathy grew less, people are oddly closer with lack of privacy. The cropping up of “mush and grass” could be seen as a counterexample to Whitman’s grass: the possibility to include people into one has failed. People are nearly impossible to connect with one another and with the nature.
Although the deprival of the bounding with the nature is clear, Lowell did not clearly illustrate that the nature to him represents a lost spirit, which might be different from other poets with the pastoral passion. It is indeed true that something, to Lowell in the industrial process, was missing. He mentions that the “bubbles” are tingled. What were the bubbles? One explanation was that they represented the American Dream—people have big chance to success. However, there was gap between expectations and the reality. In the city, the notion of a “perfect life” was sure to be challenged.
Also, the description of “the heart of Boston” as parking lots and the existence of “underworld garage,” which were lifeless, gigantic and empty, indicated not only that things could be counted (ex. big is good) but also that the spirit (if there is one) has been lost. The traditional values were torn down, and be replaced. Industrial process introduces Boston into a generation of trades and pop culture: everything(even a notion, or the spirit mentioned before) was turned into products to sell. And the pop culture constructed by commercials and television refers to rapidness, shallowness and forgetfulness.
The perspectives on the opposite part, “Old South Boston Aquarium” was to some extent twisted by the poet. “Old South” usually refers to imperialism and conventional-thinking, which Lowell did not contradict. However, it is a place protected from industrialization at the time. While Colonel Shaw tended to fight the theoretical “evilness” of discrimination and slavery in the south, he and his soldiers—many of whom had been the oppressed were actually facing the unseen evilness of industrialization. Colonel Shaw and many African American soldiers seemed dedicating to the war of earning acknowledgement. However, the irony lay on the fact that they were brutally killed and thrown, too on that the “spirit” they fought for became a product in the pop culture, praised and then forgotten.
This is Tady.
ReplyDeleteIn all Hughes' poems, the urban scene seems to be viewed as not very important. I guess it is because the author studied and lived in the city. However, in "Visitors to the Black Belt", I think he used the images of "railroad tracks" and "Harlem" to tell the "outsider" or the readers about who he is. Like mentioned in his other poems, he is proud of being an American. The urban scenes seem to be used as evidences that he has lived in the USA and is a part of the country.
Benjamin Franklin used the urban theme to emphasize the American value and way of life and to express his ideas towards life from a civic, scientific and urban aspect.
ReplyDeleteThis is Zoe to say a few words for Harte.
ReplyDeleteIn Harte's story, "The Luck of Roaring Camp", more of the Nature were described. There were describtion of the landscape of the location of the camp, the Nature as the mother to breed baby Luck, and of which became the destroyer of everything in the latter part of the story. The industrial part of this camp was merely mentioned but the gathering of worksman in the camp were fully shown in each characteristics. The interaction of assembled man as well as in a gathered group of industrial party was significant. The way they gathered together was in an industrial result but layed out in rural valley with beautiful sceenery along with the risen care of father-love within the small society. The conflict between industry and Nature did not come to nice result as Nature destroyed the whole camp. And Luck/hope gone. Industrial artefact is proved unable to beat Nature.
Herman Melville used industrial theme to critically analyze the America, which he believed is over industrialized. And in the paragraph in Harper's magazine, he used this theme to depict the huge difference between labors who are unevenly mistreated and profit-seeking people belong to upper class.
ReplyDeleteAs I read through Hurston's "Colored Me," there was a gaining sense of transcendentalism in her words, in her sentenced, or to be straight-wards, in Herself "Zora." Even when she was discriminated for her color, she expresses excitement toward an urban setting just as much as her childhood environment in Orange County. For her, the boundary between pastoral and industrial are not so obvious; it's rather a joy to lead an urbanized life for her.
ReplyDeleteDiscrimination exists in skin color, but it doesn't exist in industrialism or civilization for Hurston. In fact, she credits the Black for American civilization. Again and again, she uses jungle or country metaphors to emphasize her ecstasy in urbanization. For instance, while listening to jazz music, which is a symbol for urbanization, in the nightclub, she is emotionally "wild" and thoroughly attached while the white sitting beside could only listen calmly. I think this is a evidence for her that the Black can enjoy industrialization or urbanization more than the White could.
She also uses sounds that are not vocabulary like "yeeeeooww!" or "whoop" in her ecstasies, which leads me to categorize her as a Thoreau type figure who finds hope and expectations toward civilization.
Chaplin uses industrial theme to reflect and make fun of the modern life in the urban. By those exaggerating performance and setting, make people rethink about their life and job. Under the industrial structure, people work like machine, and feel like a machine, and in his performance, it shows that if under this frame, and a person who does feel like a human instead of robot, this person must be insane, or have some kind of problem, and will cause trouble to others. Moreover, through the industrial theme, Chaplin also reflects the distance between the rich and the poor, who are inevitably formed in the industrial society. There is injustice in the society, and under the background, people are still fighting hard for living, and it’s ironic that in order to live, people lose the quality of life.
ReplyDeleteHi this is Ting. Sorry for the late post.
ReplyDeleteBrooks uses urban theme as a metaphor of the relationship between black/female identity and American ideology. Urbanization is not always cultured or fascinating. It is more like a disillusion in Brooks' opinion. In urban society people still needs to face things that are unpleasant, ex. garbage, smell, dull daily life, etc. If American optimism is like an urban society, people have some imagination of it, then minority groups are like those garbage and smell. They may be included in American society, but actually they are left neglected and rotten.
[Adams] - I think Jenny is exactly right that Adams, and other writers of the 1770s-1780s see the city as a place to develop liberty. How and why does this attitude change in later decades?
ReplyDelete[Boudinot] - If I am understanding Clara correctly, she is saying that the newspaper itself is a machine-made product and that it creates a (virtual) urban community, so it tends to go together with the promotion of liberal ideas. This makes me wonder if there is a kind of contradiction in the writing of American pastoralists - as Melville shows in "Tartarus of Maids," even the paper they write on is industrially manufactured, and the experiences of isolation they describe solicit a mass urban reading audience.
[Alvarez] - According to Winnie, the urban space in Alvarez is associated with fear or paranoia. Why? Is it just because of the closeness of other people, or of some kind of supervision?
[Fuller] - I agree with Peggy that Fuller finds more potential for transcendental self-reliance in urban spaces than, say, Emerson and Thoreau. Why? Does gender difference play a role?
[Cisneros] - Sydney makes rural vs. urban parallel to romantic vs. real, but am I wrong to think that the creek myth and the telenovelas also play a role in creating a "real" sisterhood of women?
[Morrison] - I am interested in Sherry's statement that an urban setting creates more possibility for characterization. I think Jane Austen would agree! Many critics have wondered why American writing often has a setting (pastoral or maybe fantastic in some way - like science fiction) in which characters tend to be more abstract than socially detailed. How do other authors from our course map onto this distinction?
[Far] - Does far give any alternative to the urban as a setting for deceit and corruption?
ReplyDelete[Alexie] - I can't add much to Tracy's answer! I do wonder about this contradiction in which the urban creates both the problem and the solution at the same time.
[Plath] - What does it mean for Plath to say she has a gypsy ancestress? "Gypsy" in European culture is a certain ethnic group who are often marginalized in cities. Is she just saying she's different or marginalized, or is there some further association with the nomadic or mysterious (and non-mechanical) quality ascribed to gypsies?
[Cullen] - Teresa notes that Cullen is shifting the ground for African-American identity from Africa to the American city. But as the other poem shows, cities are also places of segregation and discrimination. So what will allow this identity to thrive in a city?
[Crane] - To tell you the truth, I have never read "Blue Hotel." I meant Hart Crane, not Stephen Crane! Sorry for the confusion.
[Stevens] - Qian Yu's answer about "emptiness" made me wonder about pastoral spaces in other writers... are they empty or full? Full of what? I'm also still wondering how Stevens represents urban settings, as in "High-Toned Christian Woman" or "Emperor of Ice Cream."
ReplyDelete[Lowell] - Joy should feel free to proofread this and use it in one of her exam answers. Wow!
[Hughes] - Tady makes a point about 'outsiders' that may help us answer the Cullen question. Cities actually have other cities inside of them, in other words cities are spaces where subcultures can thrive. It would be interesting to compare Cullen, Hughes, and Hurston in their description of the African-American subculture within the city and the way it relates to those outsiders.
[Franklin] - I asked this same question in the pastoral section... if the city is a place where political and scientific "juntos" can be created to improve American life, why is it that the generation after Franklin/Paine/Hamilton began to reject this idea?
[Harte] - I was referring to Harte's "Plain Language from Truthful James (The Heathen Chinee)." I'm not sure I'd consider the roaring camp an industrial setting, but it leads me to wonder... doesn't it seem like Harte has a somewhat pessimistic view of human nature that doesn't seem to be all that dependent on setting?
[Melville] - one of the strange things about the "Paradise/Tartarus" story is that Melville is actually distorting the conditions of the factory somewhat. As far as I understand it, the job was quite difficult, but it gave the women a lot of economic autonomy. Do we regard Melville as an anti-feminist, or is the point he's making more symbolic?
ReplyDelete[Hurston] - I'm wondering how seriously we should take Hurston when she describes the ecstatic conversion from urban to pastoral setting that takes place by means of the jazz music. I'm of two minds... partly I think she means it and partly I think she's ridiculing white perceptions of black 'primitiveness.'
[Chaplin] - Is there a pastoral alternative shown in "Modern Times"? Or a way to make the urban space more equitable?
[Brooks] - Certainly there is a dirtiness or rottenness to this setting in the way that Ting describes, yet doesn't it also seem full of life?
Hi this is Crystal
ReplyDeleteGinsberg uses industrial genre in order to point out the drawbacks and oppression existing in the American society. In the second part of Howl, Ginsberg manipulates the figure of Moloch as the incarnation of the industrial civilization. The malevolent character of Moloch seems to not only destroy the good human nature but provoke fears and doubts in their minds. In Ginsberg’s perspective, the social illness is caused by the mechanism, intellectual conformity, government bureaucracy and materialism. In this work, Ginsberg also illustrates the desperate feeling of escaping away from the social confinement. For instance, the technique of parataxis and the run-on sentences applied in Howl serve as a revolution to the dominant poetic convention. It appears to be a way how Ginsberg tries to break the social manacle. Besides, the same-sex love expressed by Ginsberg in the work is another way to challenge the social tradition as well.