Eakins and Remington

I've curated an Eakins-Remington exhibit on google sites. You can surf here to watch slide shows for each painter and to think about the contrasting images of masculinity that each offers.

For Wed., April 28

For Wed., don't forget to start annotating Tarzan (see previous blog post). And, for class, you'll want to read Rudyard Kipling's "The White Man's Burden," originally published for an American audience in McClure's in 1899. In addition, browse through the online edition of Liberty Poems: Inspired by the Crisis of 1898- 1900. This was a volume of poems published under the sponsorship of the American Anti-Imperialism League.

Annotating Tarzan

We're going to start annotating Tarzan. The idea behind the annotation project is to make our reading visible and, in particular, to make the contexts we use to read Tarzan explicit, public, and collaborative.

Your goal in the annotation project is to link the text of Burroughs' novel to its many intertexts, especially the intertexts that we're looking at in class. These would include: London, Donnelly, Debs/Taft/Roosevelt/Wilson, Turner, anti-imperialist poetry, Madam Butterfly, etc. Using the power of annotation, we want to create together a richer, deeper, but also broader text on top of and intertwined with Burroughs' Tarzan.

To do this, we'll use Google's Sidewiki. To use Sidewiki: first, sign into your Google account; second, download and install Google's Sidewiki into your Firefox or Chrome browser - - make sure that you make the Sidewiki panel visible by clicking on View --> Toolbars - -> Google toolbar; start annotating.

Once you've installed Sidewiki, surf over to our Tarzan page. There, you'll find the full text of the novel.

The easiest way to annotate is to highlight a piece of text. A new entry box will appear in the Sidewiki panel on the left side of the page. Give your comment a title and then add some commentary - - which can include links. You can also watch a helpful video here.

The guidelines for annotation are simple: link the Tarzan text to the various contexts that we've read either through quotation or hyperlink; explain the connection between Tarzan text and context.

You might think about a theme or set of themes or motifs that you're interested in exploring in Tarzan: devolution/evolution; class conflict and representation; the exotic; the primitive; manliness; etc. As you read through your book - - highlight or underline pieces of the Tarzan text that seem related to your theme. After you've collected some interesting moments, use Sidwiki to share your connection and ideas.

Evaluating Glogs

Evaluating Glogs

First, you all did some really great work on the glogs! A new medium for you, and slightly less new for me. I'm trying to decide whether and how to use glogs again. You can help me by answering a few questions. To answer the questions, just create a new page under our "evaluating glogs" page in the class wiki. (Be sure to include your name in the title of the page you create.)

Some questions to consider:

Did you enjoy glogging?

How easy or difficult did you find the glogster interface? (e.g. menus, manipulating page elements, editing, etc.)

What kinds of new things did glogging help you to understand about Sister Carrie? What new things? How so?

To what extent did you enjoy or not the "design" (selecting, arranging page elements) aspects of glogging?

The glogs are an opportunity, like the traditional 2 to 5 page essay, to show me what you know about the novel. Generally, how would you compare glogging to essay writing? Easier or more difficult? More or less satisfying in demonstrating to me what you understand about Sister Carrie?

If I used glogs again, what kinds of things about the assignment should I change?

Whoops . .. Turner reading for Wed.

I forgot to post this on Monday, 'though I mentioned it in class: you want to read the first chapter of F.J. Turner's The Significance of the Frontier in American History. This might have been a little confusing - - as the syllabus link takes you to the short volume of essays bearing the same title. Here are two links to the stand-alone chapter/essay to read for Wed. - - one at the U.Va. site and the other from the National Humanities Center.

The Other 9-11 (Because Jordan asked for it . . . )

My friends,

Surely this will be the last opportunity for me to address you. The Air Force has bombed the antennas of Radio Magallanes.

My words do not have bitterness but disappointment. May they be a moral punishment for those who have betrayed their oath: soldiers of Chile, titular commanders in chief, Admiral Merino, who has designated himself Commander of the Navy, and Mr. Mendoza, the despicable general who only yesterday pledged his fidelity and loyalty to the Government, and who also has appointed himself Chief of the Carabineros [paramilitary police].

Given these facts, the only thing left for me is to say to workers: I am not going to resign! Placed in a historic transition, I will pay for loyalty to the people with my life. And I say to them that I am certain that the seeds which we have planted in the good conscience of thousands and thousands of Chileans will not be shriveled forever.

They have force and will be able to dominate us, but social processes can be arrested by neither crime nor force. History is ours, and people make history.

Workers of my country: I want to thank you for the loyalty that you always had, the confidence that you deposited in a man who was only an interpreter of great yearnings for justice, who gave his word that he would respect the Constitution and the law and did just that. At this definitive moment, the last moment when I can address you, I wish you to take advantage of the lesson: foreign capital, imperialism, together with the reaction, created the climate in which the Armed Forces broke their tradition, the tradition taught by General Schneider and reaffirmed by Commander Araya, victims of the same social sector who today are hoping, with foreign assistance, to re-conquer the power to continue defending their profits and their privileges.

I address you, above all, the modest woman of our land, the campesina who believed in us, the mother who knew our concern for children. I address professionals of Chile, patriotic professionals who continued working against the sedition that was supported by professional associations, classist associations that also defended the advantages of capitalist society. I address the youth, those who sang and gave us their joy and their spirit of struggle. I address the man of Chile, the worker, the farmer, the intellectual, those who will be persecuted, because in our country fascism has been already present for many hours -- in terrorist attacks, blowing up the bridges, cutting the railroad tracks, destroying the oil and gas pipelines, in the face of the silence of those who had the obligation to act. They were committed. History will judge them.

Surely Radio Magallanes will be silenced, and the calm metal instrument of my voice will no longer reach you. It does not matter. You will continue hearing it. I will always be next to you. At least my memory will be that of a man of dignity who was loyal to his country.
The people must defend themselves, but they must not sacrifice themselves. The people must not let themselves be destroyed or riddled with bullets, but they cannot be humiliated either.

Workers of my country, I have faith in Chile and its destiny. Other men will overcome this dark and bitter moment when treason seeks to prevail. Go forward knowing that, sooner rather than later, the great avenues will open again and free men will walk through them to construct a better society.

Long live Chile! Long live the people! Long live the workers!

These are my last words, and I am certain that my sacrifice will not be in vain, I am certain that, at the very least, it will be a moral lesson that will punish felony, cowardice, and treason.

Santiago de Chile, 11 September 1973

For Friday, April 16

From Ignatius Donnelly's dystopic novel, Caesar's Column (1890), you'll want to read the following chapters: Chapter 1, Chapter 30 -34.

For Wed., April 14

Leon Trotsky - - writing in 1937 - - on London's The Iron Heel (1907): "However, it is not a question of Jack London's pessimism, but of his passionate effort to shake those who are lulled by routine, to force them to open their eyes and to see what is and what approaches. The artist is audaciously utilizing the methods of hyperbole. He is bringing the tendencies rooted in capitalism: of oppression, cruelty, bestiality, betrayal, to their extreme expression."

For Wed., read the following chapters of London's socialist sci-fi novel: Chapter 3, "Jackson's Arm," Chapter 13, "The General Strike," Chapter 22, "The Chicago Commune," Chapter 23, "The People of the Abyss."

Housekeeping

Don't forget:

1) For Monday, we'll finish discussing Sister Carrie.

2) Your first draft of your Sister Carrie glog is due on Wed., April 14. Once you've finished your first draft, you'll need to create a wiki page and embed your glog in that wiki page. I have provided detailed instructions on how to do this on our wiki.

Gloggin'

Friday, April 9

Don't forget for Friday:

1) We'll meet in H403 - -the computer lab.

2) Create an account on Glogster - - and give it a spin before class.

Sister Carrie, Wiki, Glogster

You should be finishing up Dreiser's novel by now. And, you definitely want to have read to the final scene by Friday, April 9.

Don't forget to stay up-to-date with our wiki assignments!

Before our class on Friday, take a look at Glogster. This is an online multimedia poster tool - - a platform where you can gather and organize all kinds of video, images, text, and links. Create a Glogster account and play around with it.

News

1) Don't forget, for Friday, March 19, you'll want to get up to at least Chapter 18 in Sister Carrie.

2) You should have received an invite to our Sister Carrie wiki at your sfsu.edu email. Even if you already have a google account, you'll have to register for the wiki with the sfsu.edu email. Once you've registered, you can check out the assignment on "Domestic Ideals" and create your own wiki page. Follow the instructions on the wiki. If you have major problems or encounter significant obstacles, email me (hanley@bway.net) immediately. We'll discuss Victorian domestic ideals in relation to Sister Carrie on Wed.

Sister Carrie

For Monday, March 15, you'll want to read the first 8 chapters of Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser. (Also, don't forget to bring in your "Henry Adams" experiment in third-person narration.)

For Monday, March 8

I've got a new, edited version of the Randolph Bourne essay, "The Life of Irony," that we'll discuss tomorrow. You should see it in the window below. Click on the "Menu" arrow to download the essay. If that doesn't work, try this link.

Updates

For Wed., read Chapter 1 and Chapter 14 from Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folk. Links to the Du Bois reading are on the syllabus - - they are hot and fresh! We'll also discuss Chestnut's "Goophered Grapevine" on Wed.

Also, nota bene: I have moved the due date of the second essay to Monday, March 8. This will preserve our "writing day" and give you an opportunity to consult with me about the essay.

Important Updates

1. Don't forget: we will not meet in H 111 tomorrow, but instead in H 202 at 12:10 for a lecture by Thomas Bender!

2. Syllabus change: pesky furlough days and the Bender lecture have forced us to make some syllabus changes. For Monday, March 1, we'll be reading Charles Waddell Chestnut's shorty story, "The Goophered Grapevine" (in the Heath anthology).

Essay the Second

Your second out-of-class essay will focus on American women writers of the latter 19th century. Due date: Friday, March 5. The overarching question is this: how have the stories by our five writers (Freeman, Gilman, Spofford, Alcott, Jewett) equipped us to make sense of Kate Chopin's "Desiree's Baby" as an example of 19th century feminine fiction?

To answer this question, consider the following heuristic:

1) first, think about the common themes and formal devices that we've encountered in our reading of 19th century women writers. Themes might include: figures of the female artist; imprisonment or containment; male vs. female "traits" (e.g. ideologies of gender); "loopholes"; the role of narrators. (There are other possibilities - - but these should provide a good starting point.)

2) second, read Chopin's story carefully.

3) third, think about what common themes or formal devices you can find in Chopin's narrative.

4) fourth, think about how Chopin both re-uses these and re-shapes them - - both taking up familiar themes and devices and bending or tweaking them to her own purposes (e.g. comparison and contrast).

5) fifth, decide which theme or device seems most helpful in making sense of Chopin's story.

6) finally, write a two page, typed essay that explains how Chopin belongs to our group of writers based on her use of a common or familiar theme or formal device!

Questions? Ask me in class, or stop by my office.

Essay #1

Now that we've finished up our discussion of Whitman and Davis, let's pause for a bit and reflect on where we stand. Your goal in this essay is to sum up the state of certain basic American values as we plunge into the vortex of American post-Civil War literature and culture. To do this assignment you will need to:

1) choose from one of our four themes (the self, democracy, nature, poet/poem (or author/reader);

2) explain how each of our writers (Whitman and Davis) describes this theme - - what are their favorite images for the theme? what central qualities or meanings to they attach to this theme? what central problems or conflicts do they find within this theme? compare and contrast these versions of American selfhood, nature, democracy, or author/reader relations.

Use quotation to support and illustrate your discussion. Do cite the page or line number for your quotations; don't worry about a works cited or bibliographic page.

Your essay should be no more than two, double-spaced, typed pages. Be sure to check for typographical, punctuation, spelling, and grammatical errors.

Your first essay is due at the beginning of class on Wed., February 10.

Don't forget: we won't meet in class this Friday. Instead, I'll be in my office (HUM 553) and available to talk about your essay, ideas, etc. Good luck!

Korl Woman vs. Greek Slave

Here's an image of Hiram Powers' "Greek Slave" - - an extremely celebrated mid-19th century American sculpture. Compare Powers' "classical" aesthetic of the beautiful to Hugh Wolfe's grotesque realism of the sublime.

Life in the Iron Mills

For Monday, read Rebecca Harding Davis's Life in the Iron-Mills (1861). The full text is available here. But, for Monday, you only have to read the excerpted text that I've published online here. (Remember: all of our online texts can be accessed via the link to our syllabus in the upper right-hand corner of the motherblog.)

"Who goes there! hankering, gross, mystical, nude? "

For Wed., you'll want to read Whitman's "Song of Myself." Read up to the end of page 33 in the online version on the syllabus. That is, up until the lines: "The suicide sprawls on the bloody floor of the bedroom. /It is so . . . . I witnessed the corpse . . . . there the pistol had fallen."

If we're going to use Whitman to establish certain perennial themes in 19th-century American literature, let's pay attention to several motifs he establishes right away in "Song of Myself," including: nature, the body, the self, and most importantly, the relationship between poet and reader. Enjoy!

Welcome to American Lit, 1865 - 1914

Welcome to the motherblog. Here you'll find information on assignments, projects, readings, interesting diversions, and the syllabus. Bookmark this site. (I suggest using delicious.) Check in often.