So, there’s been a lot of wonderful, one-liners this entire class. I think we should all share any that we remember or wrote down as I think this would be a great, humorous way to end this blog. Anyways, here’s one I wrote down in October:
“I laugh during orgasms.” – Dr. Gary Richards
I know the blog is closed. I know this is not a snarky comment – sorry, Professor Richards. However, this was something I wanted to say:
Thanks for all the help in the review session and online – I feel like I rocked that exam, and it was definitely with the entire class’s help. Although I didn’t fully utilize the blog during the semester, I did skim it once a week and went back over everything last night. We have some very interesting thoughts!
This class has been, by far, one of my favorites and I will greatly miss our witty repartee.
Thanks to everyone for making it memorable and I hope you all have an awesome break!
(Insert quote from any book that isn’t The Awakening or Incidents, because they were no good, here.)
I don’t think Southern Lit is something that you can define. I think each individual person has to figure out what Southern Literature is for them. It could be Twain’s greatest novel or Hurston’s lesser known novel. It could be a book you have sitting on your book shelf about that small southern town, except it’s not quite as quaint and perfect as it looks on the outside. All in all, I think that the Canon, which tells us what’s southern and what’s not, is not the end-all meets-all. Like Jack Sparrow said about the pirate code, “It’s more like guidelines”.
That being said, this class has been amazing. I can’t wait to do it again in Modern American Lit next semester.
“I have done!”
“A Streetcar Named Desire: Stanley and Stella… hm, not really sure when the last time they went to Church was. Sex >God in this one, although I’m pretty sure Blanche could benefit from a confession or two. In comparing the settings of New Orleans in both The Awakening and Streetcar- religion has a different role in each”
Religion does play different roles in the setting of New Orleans in these two texts. That is probably the case because each is set in New Orleans at a different time in it and the south as a whole’s evolution. Separated by time, the differences also come in the separation of class within the stories. This is really an interesting comparison, because one might suspect that the upper class in New Orleans might somehow match up with the upper class Blanche has descended from. But, I suspect that religion plays a different role as you suggest in the upperclass of New Orleans in the period of the Awakening than it does in the period of Streetcar.
What is the most tragic thing about Blanche is that she ultimately ends up suspended in this sort of limbo at the end of the play. We presume she’s being sent to an institution, but will she be kept their…forever? Probably not. We see in the play Stella and Stanley are staying together, and will be presented with the challenge of raising a child in the hostile environment in which they apparently thrive. The question about them is really how will they raise this child? But with Blanche, there is no certain question to ask, as she is being isolated from what was left of her family, and has done enough in the events leading up to the play to isolate herself from any of her other peers. We as the readers just don’t know about her at the end of the play. She’s gone to an institution… but then what?
I remember being really confused by how this could possibly encompass the plot of all southern literature. I remember because I still am. But I want to understand it and try to make a few of the stories we read this semester fit into this sentence.
ASND:
On the night Stanley ate Blanche, Stella died when she found out what Stanley did to Sister.
yup, that works.
Pudd’nhead:
On the night Pudd’nhead ate “Tom”, “Chambers” died when [he] found out what Roxy did to “Tom”.
maybe more of a stretch, but still works.
I guess what’s meant by this sentence is that usually in a piece of Southern literature, nature/fate/inevitability (the hogs) always catches up with one character? And usually someone has an extreme reaction when something someone else has done is revealed? okay…a little less confused. That construct definitely has to be used loosely to work on some of the other texts.
I said in a comment on another post that if the two slave narratives we read this semester are to stay on the syllabus they would both need to because the way the dialogue with each other is what makes them viable sources of learning in the class. Douglass’ narrative and Jacobs’ narrative each have flaws or aspects of the effects of slavery which they do not fully portray. Each is selective in its portrayal of the life of a slave. But when read one after the other like we did in this class, they seem to act together as a more complete portrayal than they would on their own. They depend on each other to be relevant.
Many of you seemed to agree some sort of summary of the play Summer & Smoke would have given some clarity to my paper, and I’m in desperate need of blogposts, so here you go.
Summer & Smoke takes place in Glorious Hill, Mississippi, where Alma Winemiller lives with her preacher father and her crazy mother. Since she was a child, Alma has loved/stalked/had a crush on John Buchanan Jr., the son of the doctor next door. The play begins on the fourth of July. Alma is considering the proposal of Roger Doremus (the character I played), but when she talks to John for the first time in years, she is thrown for a loop, and wildly pursues John and ignores Roger. John is a bit of a scumbag who runs with the wrong crowd, and is a much more sexual being than Alma. He is everything she is not, but what the play is about is the progression of how the two switch places. When Alma hears that John is having a party and planning to marry Rosa Gonzales, she calls his father to tattle tail on him. When his father is shot by Rosa’s father when he comes back to discipline John, the switch begins. Alma is sent into a deep depression that she barely recovers from in time to see that John is engaged to one of her vocal pupils. He has discovered that there is something beyond carnal hunger for sexual gratification, while she has discovered her sexuality. At the end of the play she meets a man and it is presumed they are going to go enjoy each other.
So i guess that’s the skinny of it…I highly recommend it. Alma is much more interesting than my quick summary just made her seem.
EdgarAllenYo ?
(please excuse the poor grammar and txt speech that will follow…I feel like having fun with this 140 character limit)
The Murders in the Rue Morgue:
Dupain is a great detective! who killed ladyz? Srsly though it makes no sense! Dupain figured it out! It was an Ourang-Outang? yup.
How to Write a Blackwood Article:
editor tells Psyche Z 2 write bout emtn, talk bout classic stuff in greek or latin, then in her story she haz dog and her head chpd by clock
The Fall of the House of Usher:
I visit Roderick, creepy friend Maddy is sick. Maddy is dead. We bury Maddy. Evrything is weird. Maddy wasn’t ded. Now both r, house falls.
The Masque of the Red Death:
so many ppl died of plague, but there’s a mask party!Holla! No sickies allowd! color rooms, ono guy with red mask in black room, fight! dead
The Premature Burial:
OMG ppl r buried alive, smtimes no1 notices. Smtimes I fall asleep n ppl think I died, o no i fell asleep n ppl thought i died Im on a boat.
The Black Cat:
I beat black cat, blind cat, hang cat, house burns dwn. New cat? white spot? ok. Hate cat, kill wife, put her behind wall. Whr da cat?uh oh.
Hop-Frog, or The Eight Chained Ourang-Outang:
King is real douche to HopFrog. HF says they should dress like Ourang-Outangs, trix em and then hangs em n sets m on fire n HF n girl escape
Having read Pudd’nead Wilson twice now in two different Richards classes, it’s intriguing to note the differences in what was focused on in the text in the two classes. I felt that in American Humor we read Twain’s work as being the story of “Tom,” while in Southern Lit. I felt like we read the story as being Roxy’s. Truthfully, Twain tells the stories of both characters in almost equal measure. But, in each class we read the text with different preoccupations, so that the first time I read it, it seemed like Roxy was just a part of “Tom”‘s story, while the second time the opposite was just as true. I think the preoccupation with race and gender as a crucial elements to the regional identity of the South is what drew more focus to Roxy’s storyline in my second reading of the story. While these were large parts of what we focused on in American Humor as well, I think as others have pointed out that these two preoccupations wound up being given the majority of our attention in our studies of Southern Literature.