August 31, 2006

America is a mere 200 plus years old. Okay it seems like a long time, but it is not. We are new to this world, and new is good. However, we cannot forget what has happened to our nation in this short time period. That is why we study American Literature, and because we do not have much of an identity, we rely on our past, or mythologies.

According to Love and Death in the American Novel by Leslie A. Fieldler, there is a lot more to a text that just the words. We often forget that there a certain history and myth involved. The word myth is a mystery to me. So much of our past comes from myths and who we are today comes from these origins. Which means that no matter what we do today will always resport back to the original myth, story, word, ect. Something that confuses me is that according to Frye, is that all literature is displaced myth, and realism is only that.....a displaced myth. Is a displaced myth something that was said to be in our past but was not? Maybe I should not go there.

I want to talk a little more about American Gothic, and I know it is getting a little redundant, however I fell in love with the picture. Not because it is so happy and I have fun looking at it, but because it is so fascinating how this nation is fascinated by it! Guy Davenport inserted an exerpt in his book The Geography of Imagination on the painting "American Gothic". There is not many paintings in this world that are parodied as much as this one. I find The Simpsons parody to be rather humerous. But just the fact that there is so much information and meaning in one picture is fascinating. Who would have thought that this sister and dentist would become so famous, and so idoled? In this unhappy painting, we see many American features like the screen door and the house. We also find that this house was a domestic building built in the new world. Hence, NEW is still in the equation! What a cool painting and an informative one at that!

One more thing, Edgar Allan Poe shows up again!

Have a great weekend!

August 29 Class

We began they year out with a single question that arose in class....."What is the first thing that comes to mind when the word American is used?"

Words such as cowboy, baseball, freedom, liberty, pride, and growth were mentioned. As I sat in class I realized how much this nation has to offer and how so many things make up the United States of America. I thought it was an extremely interesting conversation and it did make me think of all of the things that make up this great country. Obviously we are going to cover the historic literature in this class that comes from the great late American authors.

We mentioned all of the authors and books that will be covered in class and Wallace Stevens was the author we spent the most time on. He makes the notion that we all must wash ourselves clean of the old but remember to connect it with the past. I believe that this is a very true statement. We remember what has happened to us to improve on what is to come of us.

Another thing that was talke about was how great literature is made. It must give pleasure to the reader, must show some amount of change, while being experimental and exciting! I can go without commenting on that because that what every single person looks for when reading anything!

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Kim and feel free to say hello and introduce yourself to me whenever you want! I look forward to a fun semester of class with all of you!

American Gothic

When people think of the word ‘gothic’, it is usually the word ‘black’ that comes to mind. When I first looked at the painting "American Gothic", black was the first thing that came to my attention, and it was not the clothes that made me think of the depressing color. The man and the woman standing in the painting do not crack a smile, in fear of expressing a little ounce of happiness. Of course during the 1930’s, there was not much to be upbeat about. The man stands in front of his wife holding a pitchfork, reminding us all of the long, hard days on the farm. He shows no signs of joy, as he is most likely to turn around after taking this photograph and head back to the farm. He is silent, still and black. This is truly where Americans got the gothic name. Not only is he wearing a black coat on the outside, he is wearing one on the inside. He appears to be a cold man, just going through the daily motions without a smile. The woman stands behind her husband, showing mixed emotions. She cannot look at the camera, because she fears ease. A little on the confused side, we see another thing that happened in the 1930’s and that is the woman always standing behind the man, figuratively and literally. Though she shows some signs of confusion as to whether she can or cannot be happy, she will not show anything because of the man standing in front of her who is gloomy. We still see signs of these today in the present faces of the American Gothic. However together, these two people shows us how the present American Gothic got their name.