Photograph from the Battle of Gettysburg, taken by Timothy H. O'Sullivan and published by Alexander Gardner. When printed in Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the War (1866), the photograph carried the caption, "Field Where General Reynolds Fell, Gettysburg, July, 1863."

Study Questions for English 339, Survey of American Literature II

See also the “hypertext syllabus.”

¶ = paragraph; cf= "compare"

Week One: Welcome to Realism (and its more extreme expression, Naturalism, which we’ll be exploring when we return to Stephen Crane and Jack London). Here’s a helpful definition of Realism. Naturalism is an intensification of realism in which the individual is often overwhelmed by powerful forces outside of his or her control. Key ideas for recognizing Realism and Naturalism include:

• Defamiliarization (term coined by the Russian Formalist critic Viktor Shklovsy; particularly present in Naturalism);

• Focus on average (middle or lower class) individuals confronting average difficulties (in Naturalism, we have average people confronting more extreme difficulties);

• First person narrative may be used, or story may use third person limited omniscience to focus on an individual;

• Characters speak in dialect (more true to life), and use grammar that is realistic and believable given their place, station, heritage, and social class.

• Narrative has a journalistic, newspaper-like quality;

• Narrative often offers flat, reportorial, declarative statements;

• Gritty, everyday realism—lack of romantic or transcendental possibilities;

• Focus on the power of external forces acting upon the individual;

• Humans subject to powerful forces outside of individual control (i.e. time, nature, the army);

• Consciousness about the extent to which fiction (beginnings, middles, ends) makes a sometimes-false order out of the chaotic disorder of lived experience;

• Careful, almost minute descriptions of material things;

• Focus on human instincts, feelings, immediacy of experience;

• A separation or gulf between body and mind (versus the romantic idea of union);

• Interest in the unpredictability of life as it is lived;

• Characters find new perspectives inspired by reactions to extreme circumstances (particularly true in Naturalist fiction);

• For characters, unfamiliar situations provoke a heightened experience of the senses;

• The narrative strives to capture elasticity of time as it is experienced and lived (sometimes agonizingly slow, other times breathlessly fast).

General Questions:

Consider this photograph, taken at Gettysburg in 1863 by Timothy H. O'Sullivan. It was later reprinted in Gardner's 1866 Photographic Sketch Book of the War, and given a title. Consider the title ("Incidents of the War: A Harvest of Death") in light of the titles of the stories we're reading this week. In the Sketch Book, a "moral" is offered: Such a picture conveys a useful moral: It shows the blank horror and reality of war, in opposition to its pageantry. Here are the dreadful details! Let them aid in preventing another such calamity falling upon the nation."

Both Ambrose Bierce and Stephen Crane (and Twain as well) began their careers as newspaper reporters. Consider the titles of the stories—“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” “An Episode of War”—in light of the above information. What is the significance of these titles? Where was “An Occurrence” first published?

* Do Bierce and/ or Crane offer us stories with morals? Why or why not?
* What is the role of women in these tales?

Click here for a now classic study of "realism" and civil war photographs. Alan Trachtenberg, "Albums of War: On Reading Civil War Photographs," Representations 9 (winter 1985): 1-32.

“Occurrence”

What is the significance of the opening sentence? When do we discover the name of the protagonist—and how does that discovery change your relationship to the story?
Where do your sympathies lie? Do they change? If so, when, and why?
The North won the war. Why would Bierce focus on a Southern protagonist?
Analyze the significance of the first full ¶ on 454.
454-456: note those instances when the character relies on feeling rather than thought.
458: locate a moment of Defamiliarization and discuss its significance.
Why the abrupt ending?

“Episode”
General Questions:
What images or situations do you associate with the Civil War, and why?
Consider Twain’s “humorous” one paragraph story, “The Wounded Solider” (409). Is it funny?

Think of some words or terms that might describe the length of this story—and consider why these words or terms might be appropriate to use in terms of the story as a whole.
Why would Crane open the story with the protagonist dividing coffee? (947).
Find a term to describe the lieutenant’s relationship to his sword after he’s wounded (947). What’s the significance of this scene?
947-948: what do you make of the impressionism here?
Analyze the importance of the simile of the lieutenant’s arm as “brittle glass” (948).
What is the importance of the terms used to describe the battle?
Does the lieutenant’s loss "matter"? (cf his words to his wife). Why or why not?

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

General Questions:

Twain began writing the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (hereafter abbreviated as Huck) in 1876: “after several stops and starts, [he] completed it in 1883” (214). The novel was first published in the U.S. in 1885. Use your timeline (15) to locate these years historically. Next, consider the place where Twain was “stuck” for three years in the writing of the manuscript (285, n6). How can you account for the block that Twain faced while writing Huck?
Consider the importance of the use of dialect(s) in the novel. What are the implications for using dialect(s) in literature? What of Huck’s own language in particular? How do you understand his use of the “N-word”? See 221 n8. What do you think of that footnote?
Why does Twain choose to narrate the novel using the first person perspective of a youth, and how does Twain’s choice of narrator contribute to the novel as a whole? Make an argument that Twain’s use the first person voice is essential.
Is Jim a fully humanized character, a caricature, or a bit of both? Analyze specific scenes and passages to make your argument. Blackface Minstrelsy was one of the most popular forms of entertainment both before and after the Civil War, as well as a personal favorite of Twain's. Use the link for more information about this form of entertainment and to asssess the extent to which minstrelsy is used in Jim's characterization.
What are the difference between a Tom Sawyer story and a Huck Finn tale? Discuss.
Twain critiques antebellum sentimentality in many instances in the novel, most acutely in chapter 17. Huck is considered a realist text. Yet are there vestiges of sentimentality that power this novel?

Specific Qs:

219-220: how does the “Notice,” the “Explanatory,” and Huck’s direct address to the reader (220) contribute to the novel as a whole? How do these framing features contribute to the novel as a whole?
What of Huck’s spelling? (i.e. “sivilize)? Or his diction (“I lit out”)?
Locate those instances in the first chapter where Twain uses point of view to highlight the differences between the perspectives and understandings of adults and children.
How does the narrative voice contribute to Twain’s parody of antebellum piety in the figure of Miss Watson?
Whom do you like better—Miss Watson or the Widow Douglas—and why?
What does it mean for Huck to be civilized? Is he uncivilized? Why or why not?
Note Huck’s superstitions. Who else in the novel has similar beliefs?
223, top: what is Tom’s idea of “fun”—and how does that idea reveal his character, as opposed to Huck’s?
What kind of stories does Jim tell? And how does this story-telling model reflect on Huck as a whole?
How does Huck understand prayer?
Does reading—particularly the boy’s stories he’s fond of—serve Tom? What is the role of Tom’s reading in Huck as a whole? Tom faults Huck for not having read Don Quixote (227). Yet can Tom be called a “Quixote,” or one who is “quixotic”? Look up these terms in a dictionary.
“I made my mark on the paper” (224): what does this tell us about Huck?
Analyze the introduction of Pap, Huck’s father.
How does Huck prepare for Pap’s eventual arrival?
231-33: what sort of parent is Pap?
How does Twain illustrate the antebellum (pre Civil War) mania for reforms, including temperance reform (i.e. abstaining from alcohol)?
Analyze Pap’s rants—and show how Twain allows us to critique Pap without offering narrative intervention (i.e. without explicitly telling the reader how s/he should interpret Pap’s words.
Huck fakes his own murder (239). How does this scene reflect on the art of the fiction-maker more generally?
Chapter 8: what is life like for Huck without adults?
Huck meets Jim on the island (244ff). In what ways could these two characters—different though they are—also be understood as foils or doubles?
How does Jim’s language (246) compare to Huck’s?
“’I owns myself’”(248): consider the significance of this passage.
Chapter 9: analyze the significance of this chapter in terms of the novel as a whole.
Consider the “fun” (251) Huck initiates, and the problem of “bad luck”
252ff: consider Huck’s cross-dressing both in terms of gender and in the context of blackface minstrelsy—one of Twain’s favorite entertainments.
What is the reward for finding Jim?
260ff: What justification does Huck use to explore the wrecked steamboat?
260: how is the word “adventure” defined—are multiple definitions possible? What of the title of the novel? See also 265.
265: How does Huck's comment about helping "rapscallions" and "dead beats" parody pre-Civil War morality?
267-68: ponder this scene, and whether or not you find it humorous. Also consider its relation to blackface minstrelsy.
What is the significance of Huck’s lie to Jim in chapter 15? Include in your analysis a discussion of the last lines of the chapter.
272-280: the novel seems self-consciously interested in popular forms of antebellum (pre Civil War) entertainment, including the boy books that Tom reads, and blackface minstrelsy. Here, another form of entertainment that comes from the Southwest—southwestern humor, and the tall tale—are featured. How do these forms of entertainment allow us reflect on the entertaining value of the novel as a whole?
281-5: in this famous and much discussed scene, Huck wrestles with his antebellum (pre Civil War) conscience. What language does Twain use—through the limited perspective of Huck’s voice—to critique antebellum notions of morality?
283: “I was stuck.” Analyze this statement by Huck in its context. Further, consider the place in the novel where Twain himself was stuck for three years (285, n6). Is there a relationship between the two?
Chapter 17-18: the feuding between the Gangerfords and the Shepherdsons. How does Twain use these chapters to critique the antebellum south?
Compare Twain’s parody of sentimental/ graveyard poetry to the popular antebellum poetry on which it was based. See generic hypertext syllabus.
Chapter 18: what does it mean to be a “gentleman” (292), part of the southern “aristocracy,” “high-toned, and well born, and rich and grand” (293)?
296ff: how does the African-American world intersect with that of the antebellum slaveholding whites?
What does the end of chapter 18 suggest about adult behaviors?
299-301: consider the idyll on the raft. What is the place of this scene in relation to the previous and following “adventures” of Huck and Jim?
302: the Duke is a “jour printer,” i.e. a journeyman printer, one who works on day jobs for pay according to different jobs (not with a salary). Who else also worked as a journeyman printer? (see generic hypertext syllabus).
305: how does Huck’s peace-keeping behavior compare to the behavior of the adults with whom he’s surrounded?
What kind of flyers are printed up by the duke and the king, and what do these flyers tell is about these characters? See page 310. Runaway image source. 310: "Then he showed us another little job he's printed and hadn't charged for, because it was for us. It had a picture of a runaway n--r, with a bundle on a stick, over his shoulder, and '$200 reward' under it. The reading was all about Jim, and just described him to a dot."
Chapter 21: create an argument that justifies the inclusion of this parody of Shakespeare in terms of the novel as a whole.
What sort of entertainments and amusements do the southern townsfolk enjoy?
Pay attention to the threat of lynching. Why might Twain include this in the novel?
While the novel is taken up with the twinning of violence and entertainment, what is Jim’s situation? (323-324). What is the significance of this scene?
How does the scene with Jim, above, serve as a foil for the following chapter (chapter 24?).
Chapter 24, ff: how do Huck’s reflections in the last paragraph of the chapter shape our understanding of Huck’s character and the dialect in which he expresses his thoughts?
Chapter 25: tears are a conventional signal of sentimental behavior. Hoe does this chapter invite us to reconsider antebellum sentimental culture?
340: how does this brief scene of the slave sale reinforce the themes of the novel as a whole?
Chapter 29: Beginning with close reading, analyze the significance of the final two paragraphs of this chapter in relation to the main themes of the novel as a whole.
Chapter 31 is typically considered the most pivotal and significant in the novel as a whole. Why would this novel be incomplete without this chapter? What does this chapter reveal about Huck’s growth? How does this chapter critique conventional antebellum morality?
At the end of chapter 31, what are the possibilities for Twain in constructing a plausible and realistic ending? How does this chapter pose particular problems for the writer at this juncture of the novel?
“It’s you, at last!—ain’t it?” (362) For whom is Huck mistaken? (chapter 32).
363: what does this brief exchange between Huck and Aunt Sally (“’Good gracious! Anybody hurt?’”) tell us about Aunt Sally and her values?
“It’s Tom Sawyer!” (365). On a larger level, it might be argued that it is at this moment—when Huck stop being Huck and starts being Tom—that the novel stops being a Huck Finn novel and starts being a Tom Sawyer story. To what extent does Huck’s shifting identity represent the shifting identity of the novel as a whole? Discuss.
Beginning with close reading, analyze the last two paragraphs of chapter 32.
What does it mean to have a “grand adventure” (366), Tom Sawyer style? How might this allow you to re-think the meaning of the word Adventures in the title of the novel?
369: Despite their sickening behavior, how does Huck feel about the demise of the king and the duke? How do you?
Chapter 34: analyze the main differences between Huck’s plan to free Jim, and Tom’s—then show how these plan reflect their respective characters.
Chapter 35: analyze Tom’s notions of southern honor (374).
Chapter 35: analyze Tom’s quixotic notions.
Are these final chapters funny? Why or why not? How do they cohere with the rest of the novel (chapters 1-31?).
Chapter 40: analyze the collision between the world of childhood (Tom) and the world of adults.
396: compare and contrast Huck’s relationship with Jim to that of Tom’s relationship with Jim.
Chapter 42: what are the consequences of Tom’s plans for Jim?
404: why does Tom go to the trouble of “freeing’ Jim when he knows Jim is already free? Think about Tom’s diction in relation to the title of the novel.
What is the key turn in the plot revealed in the last chapter, and what does it reveal about Jim’s character?
Analyze the significance of the last two sentences of the novel—and Huck’s signature—in light of the work as a whole.

“Daisy Miller: A Study.” Please take a look at the portraits by John Singer Sargent on the hypertext syllabus. Sargent and James were friends; they saw themselves as similar artists, working in different mediums. James even wrote an essay on Sargent that's available on the generic hypertext syllabus. Who is this gal and where does "she" live?

General Questions:

Who killed Daisy Miller? Consider ALL of the possibilities as you craft your answer.
Must Daisy die at the end of the story? Discuss.
What sort of point-of-view does James use in this story? How does point-of-view shape and/or limit our understanding of the story?
What is the significance of the figure of the American, traveling as a tourist in the Old World, to the story as a whole?
Trace Winterbourne’s changing perceptions of Daisy throughout the text. Do they remain the same, or do they change? What is the moment of change, and why is it important?
At the time this story was published, most Americans traveled abroad using a guidebook. Do these characters have metaphorical guidebooks? What are they, and where would you locate them in the story?
What does it mean to be an American in this story?

Specific Qs:

Craft an argument that accounts for the subtitle of the story, “A Study.” Who “studies” (469) in this story?
Consider the role of the tourist. What does it mean that the main characters in this tale are all tourists?
Is Winterbourne’s name significant? Should it be significant in what is essentially a “realist” text?
Why does the story begin with the interaction between Winterbourne and Randolph? What themes or issues are raised here that carry through across the story as a whole?
472: how does Winterbourne “see” Daisy as he gazes upon her?
474: Account for the significance of Winterbourne’s thoughts here.
475-476: what gaps are revealed between Winterbourne and Daisy in their conversation? Use close reading to make your case.
Why won’t Mrs. Costello accept Daisy, and why is this significant?
Where does Daisy get her views of Mrs. Costello, and what does this reveal about Daisy?
480-83: is Mrs. Miller a good mother?
483: what is the servant’s role in the Miller family, and what does his role tell us about them?
483-86: what is the significance of the trip to the Castle of Chillon?
“’Of course a man may know everyone’” (486). What does this aside reveal about gender distinctions in the story and in the world of Mrs. Costello more generally?
489: What is the significance of the warning from Dr. Davis?
491: how is Giovanelli’s character revealed?
Is Daisy a “nice girl” (492)? See also 497.
What does it mean for a girl to “ruin” herself in this era? What did it mean if it was said that a man was “ruined”? Look this word up in the Oxford English Dictionary.
Why does Daisy ignore Mrs. Walker’s advice?
How American is Winterbourne? What does he mean when he says to Mrs. Walker, “you and I have lived too long at Geneva!” (494).
Why does Winterbourne think he should never “be afraid of Daisy Miller” (498)?
What is the significance of Mrs. Costello’s inability to remember Daisy’s last name?
Is the springtime setting appropriate? (501). Discuss.
What is the significance of the “Colosseum” setting? (503).

Emily Dickinson

General Qs:

Dickinson did not assign titles to her poems. Choosing one poem as an example, discuss the ways in which the lack of a formal title contributes to your experience of the poem as a reader.
One common theme in many of Dickinson’s poem is pain. What sort of diction does Dickinson use to discuss pain? Choose a poem and analyze it in terms of how Dickinson articulates a poetics of pain in her poetry.
Dickinson’s use of punctuation is eccentric. Choose a poem and analyze the effects of Dickinson’s eccentric use of punctuation.
Is Dickinson’s poetry rebellious? Why or why not?
Consider the theme of coming of age in any one of the following poems: 199, 732, 1072.
Who or what is the speaker in Dickinson’s poetry? Are her speakers gendered? Mature? Childlike? Choose a poem or two and analyze that work in terms of voice.
Dickinson knew how to write using formal poetic conventions, including rhyme schemes, but chose to use free verse, and often eschewed rhyme in favor of off rhyme or no rhyme at all. Analyze the effect of Dickinson’s use of off rhyme or her abandonment of rhyme in any poem of your choosing.
What is the effect of the Dickinson’s eccentric use of capitalization in her poetry?
Dickinson’s poems rarely have conventional punctuation in the final line. What is the effect of ending a poem with a dash? Why does Dickinson do this so frequently?
Compare and contrast the persona that Dickinson creates in her letters to Thomas Wentworth Higginson with Higginson’s perceptions of Dickinson in his letter to his wife.
Compare and the contrast the writing styles and the themes in Dickinson’s letters to Higginson with her those found in her poetry. What are the similarities between her poems and her letters? Dickinson often included poems in letters to her friends.
Using both her poems and her letters, craft an argument about Dickinson’s relationship to the question of publishing (see especially 709). She published about eleven poems in her lifetime, many in minor papers, yet she wrote to Thomas Wentworth Higginson for advice, when Higginson edited the most prestigious literary magazine of the day, the Atlantic Monthly. How do you account for these contradictory impulses?

Specific Qs (numbers refer to the POEMS):

67: What are the themes of this poem? How do the eccentric rhyme schemes in this poem contribute to its overall theme(s)?
199: In this very short poem, there are three words in quotation marks (often called scare quotes). What is the effect of putting words into scare quotes in this poem?
199: compare and contrast the use of the world “Eclipse” in this poem with Dickinson’s use of the same word in her letter to Higginson (208).
199: what does this poem suggest about growing up female in Dickinson’s era?
241: What is likeable about “Agony”? Do you agree with the speaker?
249: Is the speaker of this poem male, female, or ungendered?
280: What has died in this poem? Is something being mourned? Explain.
303: What does this poem suggest about female maturity? How does the expectation of rhyme (first stanza) and the frustration of that expectation (second stanza) contribute to the theme(s) of the poem? Consider that this poem was originally written for Dickinson’s dear friend and later sister in law, Susan Gilbert Dickinson.
341: What are the most compelling words and images in this poem, and how do these words and images contribute to the poem’s meaning?
435: compare this poem to Dickinson’s letter to Higginson—“I am in danger—Sir—“ (209). Is this a dangerous poem? Is Dickinson a dangerous poet?
465: What is the relationship between a fly and the themes of the poem?
510: How does the period at the end of the first line of the poem contribute to its overall themes? How do you understand the period at the end of the first line in relation to the dash that punctuates the end of the poem’s last line?
536: what is the tone of this poem, and how do the use of dashes contribute to its tone?
650: Is pain personified in this poem?
709: what does this poem suggest about publishing?
732: compare and contrast the imagery in this poem with that of 249.
1072: This poem ends with a question. What are the key questions that drive this poem?
1545: How does the use of the dash in this poem contribute to its overall themes?
1642: Is this a poem about faith? Why or why not?

Realism, Naturalism, and the "New Woman."

Kate Chopin, The Awakening. Consider the "Gibson Girl," one of the first mass-marketed images of female desirability, that appeared in the era in which The Awakening was published. These were images drawn by the artist Charles Dana Gibson. This ideal of female beauty was dependent upon tightly laced corsets. Here are some images of the actress Camille Clifford, who was known as a "Gibson Girl" (one of her onstage songs, sung in the London theatre of 1905 and 1906, was "Why Do They Call Me a Gibson Girl?").

General Qs.

Chopin’s original title for the novel was A Solitary Soul. Make an argument for why this title might also be an appropriate one for the novel. Consider as well a speech by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, entitled "Solitude of Self," delivered before the Judiciary Committee of the US Congress on 1 January 1892, called “Stanton’s classic argument for why women need to be enfranchised.” To read this speech, go to the Votes for Women site from the library of congress; type in "solitude of self" or "solitary soul" (without quotation marks) into the Search Full Text box. Compare and contrast some of the themes and imagery that Stanton uses in her speech with similar motifs in Chopin’s novel.
Is “Mr. Pontellier the best husband in the world” (638)? Is he a bad husband? Does he deserve to be treated as Edna treats him? Use specific quotes to craft an answer to these questions.
Write an essay that considers Madame Ratignolle as a foil for Edna.
To what extent is Mademoiselle Reisz a foil for Edna?
There are many scenes in which food—the desire for it, the pleasure of consuming it—plays a particular role, particularly with regard to Edna. Choose a few of these scenes, and analyze their significance in relation to the novel as a whole.
Must Edna die? Or, to phrase the same question differently, who killed Edna Pontellier?

Specific Qs.

The novel opens with the voice and words of a caged parrot. Beginning with a consideration of the parrot, analyze the symbolism of the opening scene.
How does Mr. Pontellier’s reaction to his wife in the first chapter (634) foreshadow the conflict that will arise within their marriage?
Chapter Three: analyze the conflict between Edna and her husband, Léonce. Is the conflict between them thoroughly personal and intimate, or is their conflict both personal and social, shaped in some ways by conventions that exist outside the sphere of the personal? Use specific quotes to shape your argument.
Analyze the significance of the description of the “mother-woman” in chapter four (638-639). What sort of imagery is used? What conventions are challenged with the assertion that all women are not mother-women?
Chapter Six is the second shortest chapter of the novel, yet it is packed with meaning. The heart of this chapter is the narration of internal subjective experience, as opposed to the narration of external action. Discuss the significance of this short chapter in relation to the novel as a whole.
Chapter Seven: what is the significance of the paragraph beginning “The two seated themselves…” (644)?
646ff: Edna’s previous romantic history is revealed. What do these paragraphs tell us about Edna’s character?
Chapter Nine: What is the significance of Edna’s reaction to the music of Mademoiselle Reisz? Analyze the final pages of this chapter in relation to the novel as a whole.
Discuss both the literal and the symbolic importance of Edna’s learning to swim, and the vision she has while swimming (654).
Chapter Eleven: Analyze the complexities of the give and take between husband and wife in this chapter.
657ff: what is the significance of Edna’s getaway with Robert? Do Edna and Robert love each other, or does the getaway have greater meaning for Edna? Discuss.
Edna gets sleepy, naps, eats, and returns to Grand Isle. Make an argument for the significance of this seemingly insignificant chapter. What is at stake in the events narrated here?
End of chapter fifteen: analyze the parting of Robert and Edna (667-8). What is your response to their relationship, such as it is? How do Edna’s feelings cohere with her past experiences? What is the importance of the last sentence of the chapter?
Chapter Sixteen: what does swimming symbolize for Edna in the beginning and at the end of this chapter?
How do Edna and Madame Ratignolle differ in their exchange on 669-670? How does this exchange foreshadow some of the problems Edna will later face in the novel?
Chapter Seventeen: what is the significance of the meal shared by the Pontelliers in this chapter?
Chapter Seventeen: what symbolism is at play in Edna’s tantrum at the end of this chapter? Edna later reflects on her behavior as “very childish” (677). Do you agree?
676ff: Edna is starting to produce what she calls her “work” (676). What conflicts rise to the surface in her marriage when she starts to work?
Chapters 20 and 21: why does Edna seek out Mademoiselle Reisz? Can this woman be of help to Edna?
Chapter 22: How do male characters understand Edna’s changing identity?
685ff: Is Edna’s father a good parent?
689ff: Why is so much narrative devoted to the description of Edna’s dinner? What author does she read after dinner—and why is that particular choice significant?
692ff: what is it that is “awakening” in Edna’s relationship with Arobin? Why does she fail to be “wholly awakened” from the “glamour” of Arobin’s gestures? Is this scene the culmination of Edna’s awakening, or is there more to it by the time we reach the end of the novel?
Chapter 26: what is the significance of Edna’s move? Use close reading of specifi passages in this chapter to make your case.
Analyze the significance of the metaphor of “wings” (698), and link this to similar metaphors and/ or symbols throughout the novel.
Chapter 28 is very short; is it significant?
699: what is the nickname for Edna’s new house?
What is the significance of Edna’s 29^th birthday party?
How does Edna’s husband respond to her move? How do the stakes of Edna’s move differ for husband and wife?
What do we discover at the end of chapter 35 (714)?
Chapter 36: what has Edna learned about herself, if anything? Has she changed?
Does Edna love Robert?
722, bottom: compare this refrain to one on p 643.
Consider Edna's stripped-down figure at the end of the novel; compare this with bathing suits of her era.
What are the most significant symbolic elements brought to bear on the final pages of the novel?

Stephen Crane, “The Open Boat” (1897); Jack London, “To Build a Fire” (1902).

General Qs:

What are the features of these stories that enable us to consider them in the Naturalist tradition?
Here is a poem by Stephen Crane:

A man said to the universe:

“Sir, I exist!”

“However,” replied the universe,

“The fact has not created in me

A sense of obligation.” --from War is Kind, section 21 (1899).

This poem posits that nature or “the universe” is indifferent to the experiences, desires and needs of individual humans. Write an essay that compares and contrasts this poem to EITHER “The Open Boat” OR “To Build a Fire.”

3. In naturalist works, characters are often simultaneously individuals and representatives of various types. Analyze the characters in either “The Open Boat” or “To Build a Fire” in light of the types they represent.

4. How does the relationship between humans and nature in these works differ from the romanticism and transcendentalism of the past?

Specific Qs, Stephen Crane, “The Open Boat”

1. What is the significance of the setting of the tale?

2. How many characters are named? What is the effect of not naming certain characters?

3. 903, 904: what is the perspective of the men in the boat?

4. 905-6: what is the symbolic significance of the gulls who stare at the men?

5. 907: what is the “subtle brotherhood” that develops, and why is it important?

6. 908: The beginning of what will be a refrain in the story” “if I am going to be drowned…” (908). Trace the other appearances of this refrain in the story, and discuss its significance.

7. 914-917: how is the relationship of humans to nature represented through diction and imagery in these pages?

Specific Qs, Jack London, “To Build a Fire”

1. What is the significance of the setting in this story?

2. The man has watches and thermometers. What do these devices symbolize? Do they ultimately benefit the man?

3. How is the character of the man explicated throughout the story? Do you sympathize with the man and his plight? Why or why not? Find specific passages to support your argument.

4. London highlights several differences between the man and his dog. How are these differences represented? Further, what passages in the story allow us to understand these figures as types?

5. Who is more apt to survive in this story, and why?

6. In Greek mythology, fire-making was considered the province of the Gods, until the skill to make fire was stolen by Prometheus. How might this story be understood in mythological terms? Consider the sentence beginning “Somewhere he had once seen a winged Mercury…” (986).

7. What is the effect of ending the story from the dog’s point of view?

Gertrude Simmons Bonnin/ Zitkala Sa: “Impressions,” “School Days,” “Indian Teacher.”

Images of Zitkala-Sa from Dr. C. Lavender, CUNY
Brief biography of Zitkala-Sa, and another.
Zitkala-Sa attended the Carlisle School; she taught there briefly.
Related essay: "Naming the Indians," Frank Terry, March 1897.
Images from Indian Boarding Schools of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and related site from UVA.

General Qs.

1. Consider the relationship between literacy and citizenship in these tales. What is gained through literacy, and what is lost?

2. What is the effect of the use of perspective in these autobiographical tales? At what points does Sa shift between adult perspective and the perspective of a child?

3. Sa’s mother teaches her (1010). Traces the language of teaching in the early chapters of Sa’s life. How does the teaching she receives from her mother compare with the teaching styles at the school?

4. Sa often uses idioms that stand out in the text (“iron horse,” “palefaces”, both 1019). Analyze her use of these idioms and others in terms of the tension in her autobiography between conventionality and rebelliousness.

5. How does Sa’s diction and imagery contribute to the overall tension in the work between civilization and its native alternatives? What diction and images does Sa use to describe civilization? How do these terms compare those used to describe her girlhood?

6. Consider the imagery of apples in terms of western notions of the Fall. Does Sa fall? If so, can her fall be considered a “fortunate fall,” or is it something else?

"He Do the Police in Different Voices"

MODERNISM in American Literature, ca. 1912-1945: click here and here for various scholarly definitions.

The next major section of our course will focus on Modernism in American Literature. I will expect you to be able to identify major American modernist authors studied in this course, including both poets and writers of prose. You will also need to be able to identify and understand the concept of Imagism. Please use our generic hypertext syllabus for links, images, and information that will help you with your readings during this next section of the course.

LISTEN to T.S. Eliot read The Waste Land. This link is also available on our hypertext syllabus, where you'll find a very useful hypertext edition of The Waste Land, and more!

Eliot originally planned to call the poem "He Do the Police in Different Voices"--a quote from a novel by Dickens. This working title highlights the multivocal texture of the poem--a quality of modernist works.

Final Exam: You will need 5 books:

Norton C Norton D Norton E The Sound and the Fury The Bluest Eye

KEY TERMS:

Realism 1865-1910

* Gritty, Journalistic style;
* Few happy endings;
* Sense of verisimilitude; attention to fine detail
* Use of colloquial speech, dialects. middle diction--language as it is spoken;
* Characters tend to be average individuals;
* Author is detached from the narrative;
* Writers we've read: Twain, James, Chopin

Naturalism 1880-1910 (Darwin's Origin of Species 1859)

* Intensification of Realism; A subset Realism
* Key Themes of Naturalism: Humans against Nature;
* Manipulation of time to mimic the human experience;
* Characters are not only individuals, but more often representative types--nameless, named by their occupations only;
* Moments of defamiliarization:
* Bierce, Crane, London, Chopin (to an extent)

New Woman (1865-1920: women get the vote on a national scale in 1920)

* Dickinson, Chopin, James "Daisy Miller";
* Challenges traditional female role;
* Tension between a female free spirit and forces that wish to contain her;
* More of a focus on the individual as compared with realism and naturalism, though the individual may also be a type;
* Female protagonists have a tendency to die at the end of the work.

The Color Line ("The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line"--W.E.B. DuBois)

* Booker T. Washington, "separate but equal"; W.E.B. DuBois, "double consciousness"; Zitkala-Sa (forced assimilation); Zora Neale Hurston ("How it Feels to be Colored Me"); Faulkner, Ellison, Morrison

Modernism 1912-1945 (WWI, The Great Depression, WWII)

* Rough transitions or even no transitions; radical juxtaposition;
* Very little exposition or explication; Authorial voice may be wholly absent;
* Characters may be un-emotional; lack of authorial judgments on characters' actions (Anderson, etc.).
* Theme of an emotional void (Eliot, Fitzgerald, Hemingway); characters may seem two-dimensional, grotesques.
* A lack of resolution when we reach endings;
* Use of multiple points of view, radical shifts in time, influenced by the development of the moving image;
* Fragmentation as a style; pastiche, collage, allusion, quotation (Eliot, Faulkner);
* stream-of-consciousness
* Narrator shows rather tells; lots of interpretative freedom; meanings aren't fixed.

Imagism (a subset Modernist Poetry)

* "Make it New" (Pound);
* Clarity of expression by use of distinct visual images; painterly;
* Imagist Manifesto (see above link);
* William Carlos Williams, Ezra Pound; Hurston to an extent--she's writing in prose, imagism is generally considered a poetic style.

Postmodernism (for the purposes this course: 1945-1970: The Atomic Age)

* stream-of-consciousness reflects a broader, collective consciousness:
* consumer culture; mass media;
* bitter, cynical, angry, jaded tone;
* challenging those conventions that are supposed to provide fulfillment or meaning; no prescribed meaning;
* Use of the absurd; importance of symbolism.

Confessional Poetry: A brief definition from the Academy of American Poets. (A subset of postmodernism that pertains to poetry).

* Intimate, confrontational, jarring; all sorts of diction from the highest to the lowest became acceptable in poetry;
* poem as a protest piece;
* The poet may include intimate details from his or her own life experience (rebellion against T.S. Eliot's idea that the poet should be utterly separate from the poem).
* Ginsberg, Plath, Rich to an extent.

Feminism/ Woman's Voice

* challenging the status quo;
* Plath, Rich
* desire to reshape literary history to include the woman's voice.