Author: jsmith26washcoll

Applying African American Critical Theory to Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”

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William Faulkner’s story “A Rose for Emily” is written from the perspective of the people of her small town. They wonder and marvel at her odd behavior, reclusive existence, and eventually at the horror of the corpse in her bed. The story’s setting of post-Reconstruction Mississippi, the mention of Miss Emily Grierson’s ancestral claim to Antebellum aristocracy, and her romance with a northern carpetbagger could call for a close African American Critical Theory reading of the story in and of themselves. But where this critical theory could best be applied in this story is to the oft-overlooked character of Tobe.

Tobe is described as Miss Emily’s servant who does her shopping, her gardening, and the housework. He is also her intermediary at times with the curious townsfolk when they dare not approach the imperious woman directly. Where Tobe is the most compelling is in his role as Miss Emily’s secret keeper. When Emily poisons Homer Barron and keeps his body in her own bed to lay beside until her own dying day, Tobe does not call the authorities. In fact, Tobe himself may have played a role in the man’s demise. Faulkner tells us, “A neighbor saw the Negro man admit him at the kitchen door at dusk one evening” (“A Rose for Emily”). When Emily dies, Tobe admits the authorities to the house and quietly flees, never to be seen again.

Some scholars have suggested that perhaps Tobe didn’t like Miss Emily enough to stick around for her funeral. They overlook some of the crucial factors that African American Critical Theory asks us to examine. The politics of the era in which this story is set are complex.

After the Emancipation Proclamation, southern slaves found themselves “freed” in a south where the war had ravaged the economy and families. With few viable options for employment, some remained with their prior owners in the homes and on the land that may have been the only they had ever known. Tobe is described in the story as being elderly, so not many avenues of employment would be available to him. He may have been the Grierson family’s slave and was likely the child of slaves. Tobe’s options for other places to go were extremely limited, as no mention is made of him having family. He also may have wisely feared repercussions for his role in Homer Barron’s death.

It is telling, too, that it doesn’t seem to have occurred to scholars or the townspeople in the story that it was possible that Tobe and Miss Emily were more than boss and servant, or murderer and accomplice, or co-conspirators. The fact that it does not occur to many that Tobe and Miss Emily may have been lovers is also a reflection of the politics of the time in which the story is set and even the biases of the time in which we now live. Tobe’s steadfast loyalty, refusal to divulge secrets to the townspeople, and disappearance upon her death could certainly be interpreted as the actions of a man who loved her.

“Fringe” characters like Tobe, without whose participation the events of stories like this could never happen are too often overlooked. Scholars have a responsibility to reexamine texts like these through the lens of African American Critical Theory. Because without characters like Tobe, there is no story.

Works Cited

Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” A Rose for Emily, American Studies

at the University of Virginia,

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~drbr/wf_rose.html.

Updated Elevator Pitch- Transactional Reader Response Theory and “The World According to Garp”

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Despite my deep curiosity about writing groups who have enjoyed lasting success, I’m shifting gears in a big way. As much as I’d like to go down that path, the questions that are emerging from my research seem to be pointing toward answers that are primarily sociological and historical. I’d like to use my opportunity in Junior Seminar to explore a textual or literary artifact through the application of a critical theory.

John Irving has always been a favorite author of mine. In his 1976 novel, “The World According to Garp”, he deals with many controversial topics for that time (and even in this time) such as rape, asexuality, marriage, paternal love, feminism and more. As I researched this novel and its impact, something that came up in several critiques of the work was the reader response to the text.

Professor Harold Harris writes, “no novel that I have taught was so well liked, talked and written about as well, or succeeded nearly as well in getting students to think seriously about what novels are, what novelists do, and what we as readers can do with novels” (Harris, p. 111) Harris acknowledges that there are certainly finer novels. But no other novel has sparked such a reaction from his students.

Benjamin Percy states, “He has sold tens of millions of copies of his books, books that have earned descriptions like epic and extraordinary and controversial and sexually brave. And yet, unlike so many writers in the contemporary canon, he manages to write books that are both critically acclaimed and beloved for their sheer readability. He is as close as one gets to a contemporary Dickens in the scope of his celebrity and the level of his achievement; the two of us couldn’t walk down the street or order a coffee in Toronto without his being hyperventilatingly recognized by a fan” (Percy).

So what makes the novel “The World According to Garp” so compelling to its readers? What makes them tremble with excitement at meeting its author?

One reason is that Irving’s well-crafted novel leaves enough room in the text for “multiple explanations – which allow or even invite readers to create their own interpretations” (Tyson, p. 166). This is a novel where the author means for the reader to find a position, discuss it, and even defend it. Transactional reader response theory allows the author the opportunity to create experiences for the reader to engage in “retrospection… anticipation… fulfillment or disappointment…revision… and so on” (Tyson, p. 166). This text, that positions itself as the biography of a writer as he develops, “guides us through the processes involved in interpreting… it” (Tyson, p. 166). As the writer Garp grows and evolves, so does the reader’s interpretation of him and the events and characters of the story.

The transaction between Irving and his readers is what makes this novel and others he’s written compelling and exciting to discuss and write about.

Works Cited

Harris, Harold J. “Teaching Garp.” Journal of Aesthetic Education, vol. 16, no. 2, 1982, pp. 108–111. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3332284.

Percy, Benjamin. “THE Wrestler.” TIME Magazine, vol. 179, no. 19, May 2012, pp. 40–45. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=75053051&site=eds-live.

Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: a User-Friendly Guide. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2015.

The Lifelong Process of Subjectivity

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Lois Tyson tells us in Chapter 9 of “Critical Theory Today” that
New Historical Criticism prevents us from fully appreciating the context of the time in which we live, because we are part of the mechanism of that historical context. Society influences people who influence history that influences society. Culture is so interconnected that every action is shaped by or a response to the time and society in which we live. The reactions of artists then become part of the creative tapestry of their time.

Tyson explains, “our subjectivity, then, is a lifelong process
of negotiating our way, consciously and unconsciously among the constraints and freedoms offered at any given moment in time by the society in which we live” (270).

The texts of authors who frequently revisit their own works reflect this
process of navigating one’s own changing subjectivity. Over the course of her professional life, Marianne Moore whittled her 1919 poem “Poetry” down from the original 29 lines to merely 3.

“I too, dislike it: there are things that are
important beyond all this fiddle.

Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for
it, one discovers that there is in

it after all, a place for the genuine.” (Moore,
1919)

As Moore navigated the world in which she lived and her own changing
subjectivity, she distilled her thoughts down and became more concise. She decided that the introductory lines of “Poetry” accomplished what she needed them to and did away with the other 26 lines. Many aspiring poets likely cringe at the idea of lopping off so many lines of well-worded imagery and commentary on the form, but Moore understood that they weren’t necessary to her point and may have even undermined the crucial message of those first lines by being a distraction. With only three keenly honed lines, her message was likelier to strike true in the mind of the reader.

Conversely, Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” ballooned over his lifetime. He not only edited his original 12 poems, the quantity of poems ballooned. The last edition he released before his death contained over 400 poems. He also shuffled and reordered his poems. Increasingly, his poems dealt with death and mortality as he considered his legacy. Rather than refine his texts like Moore, he bolstered them with other works. He lived in a perpetual state of reaction to his time and to his own life.

Moore and Whitman, as part of history, interacted with the changes in the world as they happened and reacted to them. The democracy of New Historical Criticism allowed both the daughter of a single mother and a son born to economically challenged parents to not only reflect on the eras in which they lived, but to shape the perception of those eras. Moore and Whitman are threads in the fabrics of their respective times.

Works Cited
Moore, Marianne. “Poetry by Marianne Moore – Poems | Academy of American Poets.” Poets.org, Academy of American Poets, https://poets.org/poem/poetry.

Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: a User-Friendly Guide. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2015.

Celebrated Writing Groups: The Genius of Eliciting Reader Response

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Writing groups have existed throughout written history. From Plato’s Symposium to the Brontë sisters to Benjamin Franklin’s Junto, it’s a familiar model. A group of people with aspirations to write get together, share their writing (and often wine), critique one another’s work, and help each other hone their craft.

Some writing groups through history have enjoyed a great deal of success compared to others. There were other groups of writers working together in the same period as many of the writing groups we’re most familiar with. Why did they not experience the same lasting success? What made the Brontë sisters so successful? What did their triad possess that other writing groups in their time did not? What was it that has scholars and the general public still consuming their literature?

Perhaps it is a spark of genius that elevates some writing groups while others receive no wide acclaim, and that genius is to elicit a response from the reader that is potent enough for their work to survive long after the works of their peers.  Aspiring writers who do not possess the gift of working with themes and characters that resonate with their readers may become serviceable writers, but their writing does not capture the imagination and hearts of the readers. Texts that strike a chord with the reading public are lasting and celebrated because of the way readers connect with them.

The book, “Writing Groups: History, Theory, and Implications” by Anne Ruggles Gere looks at writing groups throughout history and their evolution into social groups that democratized scholarship in all sorts of communities. It is a very interesting starting point to look at the mechanics of writing groups and the theories behind their function.

Works Cited

Gere, Anne Ruggles. Writing Groups: History, Theory, and Implications. Published for the Conference on College Composition and Communication Southern Illinois University Press, 1987.

Lucy O’Donnell or LSD?

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A key facet of the Reader Response Critical Theory is the understanding that through the combination of the reader and the text, meaning is created. Lois Tyson explains it as, “a written text is not an object, despite its physical existence, but an event that occurs within the reader, whose response is of primary importance in creating the text” (164).

Julian Lennon arrived home from preschool with a painting he had made of his schoolmate and friend Lucy O’Donnell. When his father John asked him about his work of art, Julian simply said, “it’s Lucy in the sky with diamonds” (Runtaugh, 2018).

Julian Lennon’s Painting of his friend, Lucy O’Donnell

John, a fan of Lewis Carroll, connected the abstract nature of his son’s art with the “Which Dreamed It?” chapter of “Through the Looking Glass“. He sat down to write a song about the type of fantastical world that a three-year-old child might imagine, written in the style of Lewis Carroll’s descriptions of imagery.

When the song was released, more observant listeners connected the title “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” with the drug lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), a hallucinogenic drug. John Lennon was known to experiment with the drug, and the surrealist world described in the song seemed to reflect the experience of an LSD trip. The belief was so pervasive that the song was banned from the radio.

John claimed that he was inspired to write the song because of Julian’s painting and his reading of Lewis Carroll.

“This is the truth: My son came home with a drawing and showed me this strange-looking woman flying around,” he explained during an appearance on The Dick Cavett Show in 1971. “I said, ‘What is it?’ and he said, ‘It’s Lucy in the sky with diamonds,’ and I thought, ‘That’s beautiful.’ I immediately wrote a song about it. After the album had come out and the album had been published, someone noticed that the letters spelt out LSD and I had no idea about it. … But nobody believes me” (Runtaugh2018).

His bandmate Ringo Starr, Julian’s mother Cynthia Lennon, and friend Pete Shotton confirmed John’s story (Runtaugh, 2018).

Readers believed he was making a thinly veiled reference to drug use. They combined the letters in the title of the song with the surreal imagery and applied what they knew of John’s use of hallucinogens and came up with their own meaning. Reader Response Critical Theory teaches us that the meaning created by the reader’s experiences and beliefs while digesting the text is valid.  

Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter what John Lennon intended, consciously or subconsciously. When the consumer of his art can make a sound argument for their perception, and back it with evidence, their argument becomes a valid critical response. When a large group of consumers, or an “interpretive community” (Tyson, 176), agree upon that meaning through the Social Reader Response Theory, that agreement demonstrates that societal influences inform the constructs readers apply to texts. “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” may always be associated with hallucinogens, and no protestations will convince many readers of the lyrics otherwise.

Julian Lennon’s painting currently hangs in the home of musician David Gilmour (Raul, 2016). The song is played regularly on the radio and there are dozens of videos to accompany the song on the internet. Future listeners who don’t necessarily understand the drug culture of 1967 may indeed believe that the song is about the lovely painting by a three-year-old boy as the experiences of the interpretive community change. John Lennon’s author intent may someday align with the reader’s response, after all.

Works Cited

Raul. “Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour Owns Julian Lennon’s ‘Lucy in The Sky With Diamonds’ Painting.” FeelNumb.com, FeelNumb.com, 5 May 2016, http://www.feelnumb.com/2011/05/17/pink-floyds-david-gilmour-bought-julian-lennons-lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds-painting/.

Runtagh, Jordan. “Remembering the Real ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds’.” Rolling Stone, Penske Business Media, 25 June 2018, https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/beatles-sgt-pepper-at-50-remembering-the-real-lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds-121628/.

Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: a User-Friendly Guide. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2015.

The Deep Structure of Feminine Temptation and its Consequences

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Structuralist criticism teaches the scholar of literature to look for recurring deep patterns in the framework of the composition of many texts. These comment elements or themes give us insight into the conscious or subconscious themes that are repeated time and time again throughout history.

One such deep structural pattern is the recurring concept of a virginal female character being tempted into sin by an evil male influence. The innocent pays dearly for her transgression, nearly loses her life, and is saved by the positive influence of another, more virtuous woman.

In “Goblin Market” by Christina Rossetti, two seemingly parentless young maiden sisters are called to by the evil, masculine goblins who offer them their fruits. Each day, the sisters endure the increasingly confrontational calls from the goblins hawking their wares. When one of the sisters, Laura, is tempted beyond reason, she must give a golden curl of hair to the goblins in exchange for the fruits they offer. She gorges on the sensuous feast of fruits and returns to her sister with tales of the pleasures she’s enjoyed. Her sister Lizzie scolds her and reminds her of another maiden who once dealt with goblin men and withered away. Laura reassures Lizzie that she’ll be fine, but when she realized she can no longer see or hear the goblin men, she begins to pine for the fruits they offered. She wastes away until her virtuous sister goes to the goblin men and purchases fruits and rubs the juices upon her face without enjoying the sensual pleasure of them herself. She returns to Laura who kisses the juices from her sisters face and is restored to health, grateful and chastened by her experience with the goblin men. Laura then expresses gratitude for the intervention of Lizzie and her sister’s virtuous nature.

Fifty years prior, Marianne and her sister Elinor in Jane Austen’s tale, “Sense and Sensibility” have a similar relationship. When Marianne falls for the dashing Willoughby, she lets all propriety go by the wayside. She spends scandalously unchaperoned time with him and provides him with a lock of her hair as if they were engaged to be married. After she’s risked her reputation and social standing on him, he abandons her for a more advantageous match with a wealthier woman. Devastated, Marianne jeopardizes her health and catches a fever that nearly kills her. Elinor saves the day enlisting Colonel Brandon to fetch their mother to nurse Marianne back to health. Marianne realizes the error of her ways and begins to take her sister’s advice and settles down.

126 years later, a popular movie (based on the novel by the same name) “Practical Magic” follows the structure. Sister Sally marries and settles down with a family. Her sister Gillian chases her impulses across the country and ends up linked with an evil man. Only the intervention of her sister Sally can rescue her from the consequences of her misdeeds. Gillian nearly dies in the process and decides to emulate her sister for her own well-being once she’s recovered.

Time and time again, young woman in literature and film fall victim to the evil influence of tempting male figures. They suffer gravely for the mistake, and rely upon a woman, often her sister, of better character to pull them back to the right path. This deep structure is used a cautionary tale to young women and reflects our society’s fear of sexually empowered young women.

Works Cited

Austen, Jane. Sense and Sensibility. Edited by Peter Conrad, D. Campbell, 1992.

Dunne, Griffin, director. Practical Magic. Village Roadshow Pictures, 1998.

Rossetti, Christina. “Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44996/goblin-market.

Limiting Genius with the New Criticism Method

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The New Criticism model of literature evaluation forces us to compare a text against itself. It constrains us to what has been provided for us by the author. All arguments must stem from what is on the page, all evidence to support those arguments must come from that same page. We are asked not to consider the author’s background, their intent in writing the text, or the impact the artifact has had upon the reader.

The effect of this model of criticism is to limit the brilliance of some pieces of literature, by removing from their merit the huge emotional response a reader may have to the piece to avoid the “affective fallacy” (Tyson, 131). Removing the author’s background or purpose in writing to avoid the “intentional fallacy” (130) can also hobble appreciation of the piece; by not including their experiences or lack of experiences, we don’t fully appreciate what they’ve accomplished with the text.

The piece “Incarnations of Burned Children” by David Foster Wallace is a piece that suffers from the avoidance of the two fallacies Tyson describes. The text is a visceral stream of consciousness narrative from the internal dialogue of a father whose child has just been critically injured. The text itself does not follow many of the traditions that Eliot espouses authors building upon. Wallace’s concept is not a new one. The words he chooses, while well chosen, aren’t especially academic or inventive. What is new, or “temporal” (Eliot) about the piece is the effect the structure and words chosen have upon the reader.

If the reader is limited solely to the text, they will find little formal structure here. Even punctuation often goes by the wayside to accomplish the frantic, pell-mell feeling of the text. The piece is so appallingly real that many parents struggle to read the piece or listen to the work being read. When reading this piece, the reader fights to get through the piece quickly, desperately seeking resolution to the horrors unfolding before them, much as the father himself is trying to remedy his child’s distress. Wallace forces the reader to become the parent. The reader’s urgency is evidence of the brilliance of the piece. If we remove their response to the piece, we miss out entirely on the genius of the structure.

Where Wallace’s work might please Eliot is in his depersonalization. Eliot describes depersonalization as “a continual surrender of himself as he is at the moment to something which is more valuable” (Eliot). Wallace, who had no children of his own, steps into the shoes of a parent on the worst day of their lives. He surrenders himself to the experience that many parents have experienced to varying degrees. He fully explores the helplessness and rage and frustration a parent cast into those circumstances feels, with little personal experience to draw from.

To remove the reader’s response to “Incarnations of Burned Children” and to remove the incredibly real way Wallace explored a situation he had no experience in is to detract from the genius of the piece. Wallace’s ability to cast the reader into the same emotional crisis as the protagonist of his work using commonplace words arranged and paced in a deliberate way detracts from the piece’s value. His ability to conceptualize the emotional state of the man without having experienced it himself is remarkable.

For these reasons, the New Criticism model of evaluating literature cannot effectively assess the merits of some works. In works such as this, the New Criticism model becomes merely a starting point to look at the structure of the piece, its patterns, and overall tone. We as scholars must then step outside the model to truly evaluate the whole of the piece.

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a500/incarnations-burned-children-david-foster-wallace-0900/

Works Cited

Eliot, T. S. “Tradition and the Individual Talent by T. S. Eliot.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, 13 Oct. 2009, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69400/tradition-and-the-individual-talent.

Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: a User-Friendly Guide. Routledge, 2015.

Wallace, David Foster. “Incarnations of Burned Children.” Esquire, Hearst Magazine Media Inc., 11 Oct. 2017, https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a500/incarnations-burned-children-david-foster-wallace-0900/.