Regionalism: Brodhead & Jewett

This image is Winslow Homer's "The Berry Pickers" (1873), which depicts genteel vacationers in Maine, reflecting the dynamic Richard Brodhead describes as central to the literary regionalism of the post-Civil War era in our reading for today "The Reading of Regions."

--How does Brodhead explain why regionalist fiction--about backward or underdeveloped parts of the US--were so popular in the post-Civil War era?

--How does Brodhead explain the "elite" or wealthy interest in regionalist fiction, given that the subjects of regionalist fiction are so often poor people in these underdeveloped areas?

--Brodhead talks about a divide that emerges in this same period between "high" and "low" culture (by that he means entertainment choices, among other things), a divide that helped to establish social distinctions between the rich and poor. To what extent do you think there is still "high" and "low" culture and that it operates to distinguish between classes? In what ways do college classes, like this English class you are now taking (or others), function to teach you to make cultural distinctions (between high and low, good or bad)? Do these classes re-inforce social distinctions?

--On to Jewett: she obviously fits regionalist forms, but how does her vision of New England as a place, a region or a character-type fit with what we've seen from Whittier or Thoreau?

--What is the relation of the observer/writer/narrator to the people of Dunnet's Landing?

Thoreau, A Week, Day #4 (Thursday & Friday)

Please respond to any, but not all of the questions:

--This book is dedicated to and, in many ways, about Thoreau's dead brother John, but he is never named. How, finally, do you see this book as being "about" John and/or his death?

--What purpose does Thoreau's narration of the story of Hannah Dunston--the Puritan woman who escapes (and scalps) her Native captors--serve in his narrative?

--In "Friday," Thoreau wakes up to find himself in autumn. In this way, the trip isn't merely about a "week" (a decidedly arbitrary human unit of time), but also about the seasons, a more natural unit of time. What is he saying about the time-- human and/or natural-- here?

Thoreau, A Week, Day #3 (Wednesday)

Much of this "day" is focused upon the topic of friendship, clearly relevant to Thoreau's relationship with his brother/travel-companion but also much more broadly applicable to his relations with all people and clearly central to the development of a personal philosophy. Respond to any, but not all of these questions.

--What does Thoreau seek from his friends and what does he offer through his friendship?

--At times his vision of friendship seems remarkably intimate (perhaps more closely related to what we might now call love) and yet he also suggests that one need not even speak with the friend: how do reconcile this seeming contradiction?

--Last class, we had Poe's seemingly phobic depiction of the city as a space where one was never alone and yet never truly connected to anyone else. How does Thoreau envision the countryside as the place of friendship?

--Compare your own vision of friendship with that of Thoreau? In what ways do you envision the relation as different and to what extent do you think the different spaces of contemporary life might have affected these differences?

Arcade Fire & spatializing your home town

Hi:

This posting is not particularly relevant to 19th century American literature, but interesting in relation to our course and its focus on spaces. The band Arcade Fire has a new "video" which actually a web device that asks for your hometown and splices images of it into a video about adolescent feelings about the place you grew up. You can comment on it as well for credit on the blog.

http://thewildernessdowntown.com/

Edgar Allan Poe, "The Man of the Crowd"

Questions to consider:

--What makes the "man of the crowd" so disturbing, so evil, to the narrator?

--What are some of the things that characterize the city here?

--What kind of space is the city here?

--How would you compare it to the spaces or places of New England that we have studied so far?

Here's a link to the text:

etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=PoeCrow.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=1&division=div1

Saddleback & Sublime

Here's the image from the German painter Casper David Friedrich that I mentioned in conjunction with Thoreau's description of his experience on Saddleback Mountain. This is seen as a classic example of a romantic sublime image. But is it really similar to Thoreau's depiction?

Thoreau, A Week, Day #2

Please feel free to respond to one, but not all of these questions--or post your questions or interests.

Thoreau seems obsessed with the place of Native Americans and what could be called their "absent presence" in the places he travels through. What do they symbolize for him and what does he seem to say about their absence?

Compare Thoreau's comments on the Sabbath and Christianity on "Sunday," with his discussion of Hinduism in "Monday."

Discuss the significance of Thoreau's experience on Saddleback Mountain, particularly his view of the landscape in the morning. Try to consider it in relation to the discussion of landscape from Mitchell.

Thoreau's encounter with Mr. Rice is, like the experience on Saddleback, not part of the trip, but somehow reflective or meaningful of the region. What does Rice and his manner tell us about New England and its people?