In class today we tried to identify and understand the relationships between several of the more prominent elements of nineteenth century American culture: Romanticism, Manifest Destiny, the Second Great Awakening, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self-Reliance,” Joseph Smith’s Book of Mormon and King Follett Sermon, William Cullen Bryant’s poetry, etc. We wound up with the whiteboard scribblings above.
So — to reiterate the questions I left you with at the end of class: Do the elements-plus-the-relations-between-them amount to some “thing,” some movement or cultural phenomenon? Or (as Gertrude Stein once said of Oakland) is there “no there there”? If there is something there, does it already have a name? If there is something there but it hasn’t already been named, what name might we most appropriately give it?
BTW, for more info on Joseph Smith and the Mormon scriptures, see the link at right for “Notes on the Mormon Scriptures.”
Wednesday, October 20
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6 comments:
I think that you can find relationships between most of the literature and elements we discussed, with the possible exception of the Book of Mormon. The reason I would consider leaving that out is the possibility that there is truth to the idea that it was a translation and not a work created by one man, namely Joseph Smith.
I don't know if there is a name for the relationship of elements we discussed. One possibility would be the Adam trope we have discussed several times, although that might be too simple and not reach far enough into these elements.
Another thought would be "changing views for a new world" or "changes in settler/pioneer life.". Maybe not too imaginative, but it would let the reader know what they would be looking for in the works.
I am sure that there is a way to connect the works since they are part of our American Literature class. In some ways they are much like the literature we are reading in our Victorian and Romantic Literature class, in that they have elements in common based on the fact that they were produced in a time period and place that would influence the works based on that culture and time period. They would be written according to the expectations of the reader and the understanding of the writer as to the proper way to do things.
I agree with Laurel. Even if we ourselves could not come up with a name for a unifying idea, there is one. All of the works are results of the cultural and social influences of the time and from that a relationship that links all of them under a common idea can be found. Even if I cannot think of a word that would sum up the ideas, I'm sure someone can certainly coin a phrase or invent a term that captures the elements of the work.
I agree with what is being said. I also think that identity is something that may be left out of our web. I believe that a lot of what is already in our web can be tied in some way to some form of identity. I will post more soon.
To continue on with my previous post of identity, let me give you some examples. Some of the different types of identity that can be tied in are personal identity and national identity. Personal identity can be tied to many of the themes, especially "Self Reliance" and "becoming one like God Himself". Joseph Smith's Book of Mormon, tells readers and believers that they should strive for a personal identity with God. As far as National identity goes, it is easy to see how manifest destiny can be tied to national identity. So in all, I believer that another concept that is missing from our web is Identity.
Often times we make connections between various different aspects of life yet we have no term or word that can be used to describe them. I don't believe there is a term for this, the closest I can get is Universal Unconsciousness that correlates all of these ideals together. It however does not describe the relationship aspects that make them correlate to one another or describe how they influenced one another. The word will probably have to be made, but where does the authority to do something like that come from? I don't know, I do know that these correlate with one another.
I agree with Laurel, Abby and Fonz. I think there is a relationship between the literature and elements discussed in class, but just because we can't come up with a name for it it doesn't mean that it doesn't exists. These works were created because of the influences of culture and society so they all have that to relate to and fall back on. The answer might be really simple, but because we are looking at great complicated works it may just be harder for us to figure out.
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