Stories, Scandals, and Skyscrapers
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Mike's Notes |
BGS 392 -- Seminar in Humanities (online) |
Week 4 -- Young Woman in the Big City
This Week at a Glance
Using the Digital Dropbox to Turn in Your Reflection Paper
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Template: [Lastname] [Assignment].doc
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Notes for Reflection and Discussion
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Our readings for this week evoke a classic theme in Chicago literature of the late 19th and early 20th century -- that of the young person, often a teenaged girl or woman in her 20s, coming to the Big City for the first time and experiencing the hustle, confusion, grime, and graft of the proud industrial giant of America. A prototypical example of this body of literature is Theodore Dreiser's long yet absorbing novel, Sister Carrie (1900), an excerpt of which is our 1st reading of the week. Dreiser's work is part of an American (and Chicagoan) literary tradition called naturalism, a kind of realistic approach to fiction which proceeds from the assumptions that (1) human beings are conditioned and shaped by their environment, and (2) they can be analyzed and characterized in a more or less objection fashion by the novelist. Naturalist writers like Dreiser were influenced by key scientific and social ideas of the times, including Darwinian theories of natural selection and Freud's psychoanalytic theories and methods. For more on naturalism, see this excellent web source, Naturalism in American Literature, by Prof. Donna Campbell at Gonzaga Univ. |
 Willa Cather |
 Hamlin Garland |
 Edna Ferber |
The selections by our other authors for this week pick up on this same theme and spin it out in different ways; like Dreiser's passage, they all are fragments of much longer works. We will explore the similarities and differences among these writers' treatments of this narrative motif in the Discussion Board. I chose these selections from our anthology for several reasons:
Canonical vs. non-canonical writers -- Throughout this semester we'll be reading works by well-known authors (e.g., Carl Sandberg and Studs Terkel), but also taking time to explore poems, stories, and nonfiction by lesser-known writers of various backgrounds. I believe it's instructive and fun to read not only work that's an established and frequently studied part of the American literary tradition (sometimes called the "canon" of American literature) but also that work that's not as readily recognized as canonical, or which may have been altogether ignored or unappreciated. Dreiser and Cather are part of the American canon, and thus familiarity with their writings is almost an obligation for the student of US literature; but Garland and Ferber occupy lesser (though still high) places in the canonical hierarchy. A question one might legitimately ask: what determines which works become canonical and which don't? Is it the quality of writing (however we might determine that)? "Literariness"? Number of copies sold? Author's personal connections? The whims and fancies of book reviewers and/or literary critics?
Gender and the woman's perspective -- Sure, Chicago has produced more than its share of tough guys . . . and many of its most famous literary luminaries are men (think Dreiser, Upton Sinclair, Sandberg, Algren, Mike Royko, Saul Bellow, David Mamet, etc.). But we musn't let our vision become myopic and fail to see the contributions by outstanding women writers like Cather and Ferber, whose respective prose styles present some interesting tonal contrasts to each other. This week not only showcases the work of two important women writers, but also takes as its thematic focus a narrative arc defined by women's relation to and experiences in a strange, intimidating, mysterious urban environment. In the process, these stories all address issues of gender: what kinds of social expectations are placed on women; how men and women relate to, converse with, dance around each other in their social interactions; how Chicago itself was perceived by a certain type of woman in a specific historical context; and how, in turn, the city shaped the minds and hearts of these characters (this last process is articulated from a naturalistic perspective, to be sure).
Segue to a mystery -- Next week we begin the long but thrilling journey through Erik Larsen's monumental book, The Devil in the White City, a history of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago (especially its architectural design by Daniel Burnham and other architects) and account of a true-life serial killer, H. H. Holmes, who among his many crimes and misdemeanors victimized several young women who journeyed to Chicago for work and/or to see the amazing Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park. What more appropriate prelude to Larsen's book than a taste of the literature that captures this particular thread of emigration from various parts of the country, especially the rural Midwest, to the mighty metropolis on the southern rim of Lake Michigan? My hope is that these stories will give us an entertaining and insightful peek into the hopes, fears, and frustrations of young women trying to find a place in the urban wilderness at the turn of the 20th century.
See you on the Discussion Board!
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