Benjamin A. Railton's Blog, page 322

May 11, 2015: Semester Conclusions: I Can’t Breathe

[As another semester winds to a close, a week’s series on some of the moments that have stood out to me and what conclusions I’d take away from them. Leading up to a weekend post on some of my summer and fall plans. Share your spring follow ups or summer/fall plans in comments, please!]On perhaps my most radical moment as a teacher—and why it wasn’t.As part of my semester preview series back in January (has it been four months already?!), I highlighted my plans to address the social media, public scholarly concept of the #FergusonSyllabus: the collective goal of providing students with texts, authors, frames, and contexts that can help us talk about and understand the histories unfolding all around us. As the recent events in Baltimore (among so many other places) have made all too clear, that goal remains as vital and meaningful as ever. And as I wrote in this Talking Points Memo piece on the Ferguson riots, one ironically but appropriately reprinted verbatim during the Baltimore ones, I don’t know that there’s any American history more important for us to remember in that context than “race riots” like that in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1898—nor, thus, any American literary work more worth our collective reading and engagement than Charles Chesnutt’s historical novel of that event, The Marrow of Tradition (1901).So as I wrote in that January post, I put Marrow back on my American Literature II syllabus for this semester. I’m glad I did, although we still struggled with the same issue I mentioned there (the inability of many of my students to get all the way through that admittedly challenging novel and to its particularly significant and powerful conclusion). But as it turns out, it was another novel in a different class—Richard Wright’s Native Son (1940), which has been on the syllabus for my Major American Authors of the 20thCentury course every time I’ve taught it—that provided me with the occasion for a far more overt #FergusonSyllabus moment. As we concluded our four days of conversations about Wright’s novel, I took a step back from the students’ strong points about Wright’s style, his creation of his protagonist Bigger Thomas, his depiction of his Chicago setting, and so on. I provided a number of statistics about racial inequities in the justice system in 21stcentury America, about the disturbing trends on the ground in communities like Ferguson, about death row and sentencing and the war on drugs and many other related issues. And then I removed my sweater, revealing the t-shirt underneath: stark black, with “I Can’t Breathe” in striking white letters.For someone who prides himself on not bringing my personal politics into the classroom—I know my choices of authors and texts, among many other pedagogical details, are certainly political ones in their own right, but I still find those different from overt statements of my contemporary political affiliations or attitudes—this felt like one of my most radical classroom moments by far. (After 10 years in the classroom, I don’t get nervous too often any more, but I was shaking like a leaf at that moment.) I can only imagine what fodder it would provide for critics of higher ed, those who like to rant about the “liberal indoctrination” we seek to carry out on our students. Yet the more I thought and have continued to think about the moment, the more I would argue it represents far more of a continuity with than a contrast to my other pedagogical choices. After all, I know of few texts, in any genre and from any period, that force us to confront difficult, unsettling, controversial, vital American truths—present and ongoing as well as past and originating—more than Native Son. Asking students to read and talk about that book is thus a deeply radical move—not in the narrow sense of partisan politics, but in the broader and much more important sense of impacting and affecting perspectives and conversations. Which is to say, whether I break out any more t-shirts or not, I’ll undoubtedly continue to wear my AmericanStudier heart on my sleeve.Next conclusion tomorrow,Ben
PS. Thoughts on this semester conclusion? Ones of yours you’d share?

May 9-10, 2015: NeMLA 2016 Plans

[This past weekend, the Northeast MLA held its annual spring conference in Toronto. I was there in my official capacity as the organization’s Vice President, as well as a presenter and audience member, and this week have followed up on a handful of the many interesting things that took place. Leading up to this special weekend post on how you can help me plan next year’s conference in Hartford!]Four of the many ways you can help as NeMLA pivots to planning for the 2016 conference in Hartford (scheduled for March 16-20, 2016).1)      Propose a session: NeMLA is driven, first and foremost, by its members, and most especially by their work at the conference. That starts with sessions, from conventional panels to roundtables, seminars, and other possible forms. And that starts with you! So please consider proposing a session, on any topic (I’m particularly interested in interdisciplinary sessions, natch, but it’s all good), and help shape our conversations at and after Hartford!2)      Help us reach out: One of my three main goals for the 2016 conference is to connect NeMLA with the community of Hartford. To that end, I’ve started to talk at length with folks from the Hartford Public Schools, and welcome any and all perspectives on how we can both bring such educators to the conference and bring the conference out into that local community. But that’s not the only option for such communal connections, of course, and I’m open to any and all other ideas as well.3)      Addressing adjuncts and labor: My second main goal for Hartford is that we build on our great starting points over the past couple years and extend and deepen our engagements with issues of adjunct and contingent faculty, academic labor, and the related questions to which they connect. That means not only finding ways to support such faculty in coming to and participating in the conference (although yes), but also thinking about what NeMLA can do as an organization in relationship to all these issues. Please feel free to share your suggestions on all those levels with me, and/or with our CAITY Caucus President Emily Lauer!4)      An interdisciplinary keynote: As I wrote in Wednesday’s post, Daniela Antonucci brought a wonderfully interdisciplinary keynote performance to the 2015 conference, highlighting her and NeMLA’s commitment to interdisciplinary humanities as a methodology, a theme, and an emphasis for our and the humanities’ future. I very much want to continue with that commitment and emphasis, and to feature an interdisciplinary keynote at Hartford as well. I’m pretty sure I want to host it at the Mark Twain House, and thus perhaps to connect to Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe (whose house is next door), and/or related histories and questions. But as with every aspect of the conference, these ideas are in development and evolving, and I would love your perspective and input!Next series starts Monday,Ben
PS. I’d love to hear your thoughts, questions, ideas, or interests for the 2016 conference, whether here in comments, by email, or any other way!

May 8, 2015: NeMLA 2015 Recaps: New Colleagues

[This past weekend, the Northeast MLA held its annual spring conference in Toronto. I was there in my official capacity as the organization’s Vice President, as well as a presenter and audience member, and wanted to follow up on a handful of the many interesting things that took place. Leading up to a weekend post on how you can help me plan next year’s conference in Hartford!]Brief introductions to the six colleagues I was excited to welcome to the NeMLA Board at our 2015 Board meeting.1)      John Casey: Our new American Area Director, John has as much to say about veterans’ experiences and texts as academic labor issues, farming histories as disability studies, and much, much more. I can’t wait to see how he develops connections for our Hartford conference! (Addendum: John also wrote a great follow up blog post of his own.)2)      Maria Di Francesco: Our new Second Vice President, Maria will be in charge of our 2018 conference (which likely will be held in Pittsburgh), and I’m excited to see what she does with it. But in the meantime, her interests in Spanish literature and culture, gender and identity, and the digital humanities will enhance all of our conferences and work as well.3)      Angela Fulk: Our new Member-at-Large for Pedagogy and Profession, Angela has what I consider to be an especially significant role: helping me and NeMLA address issues of adjunct and contingent labor at Hartford, one of my two central goals for the conferene (on which more this weekend). But there’s plenty more to this area than just those important issues, and Angela’s experiences and perspectives should inform it all!4)      Christina Milletti: Christina will be our first Member-at-Large for Creative Writing, Editing, and Publishing, a vital addition to our Board and to NeMLA’s work in an official capacity (that is, we’ve been doing this work for years, but this position and Christina will held amplify and extend those efforts). I can’t wait to work with her to help select our opening night creative reader(s) for Hartford!5)      Lisa Perdigao: Our new Cultural Studies and Media Studies Area Director, Lisa reflects just how capacious and rigorous this 21st century category is: that’s reflected by her two disparate and equally compelling contributions to the 2015 conference, a paper on Seamus Heaney’s final poems and the chaired panel on the future of TV about which I blogged yesterday, and by her many other evolving interests in American literature, culture, and Studies.6)      Richard Schumaker: Our new Comparative Languages and Theory Area Director, Richard brings a career’s work of impressive engagements with European and American literatures, cultures, and intersections to this transnational topic and work. That he’s also a pioneer in digital humanities and other uses of technology for scholarship and pedagogy exemplifies, as do the details for each of these six figures, how much each and all of them will bring to the Board, Hartford, and NeMLA. I’m lucky to work with them!Special 2016 post this weekend,Ben
PS. Were you at NeMLA 2015? I’d love to hear your follow ups as well—or your thoughts on this post even if you weren’t there!

May 7, 2015: NeMLA 2015 Recaps: Three More Great Panels

[This past weekend, the Northeast MLA held its annual spring conference in Toronto. I was there in my official capacity as the organization’s Vice President, as well as a presenter and audience member, and wanted to follow up on a handful of the many interesting things that took place. Leading up to a weekend post on how you can help me plan next year’s conference in Hartford!]A few quick takeaways from three more of the many great panels I had a chance to attend at NeMLA.1)      Poetry and Citizenship: Put together by Kirsten Ortega, this panel featured Prentiss Clark, Joseph Gamble, Daniel Velella, and James Reitterdelivering papers exploring the possibilities and limitations of poetry’s ability to perform social and political work in its world. I learned a great deal from all four talks, about topics as diverse as Walt Whitman (Prentiss’s talk) and 21st century Wisconsin protest poetry (James’s), but was particularly struck by Daniel’s work with Harryette Mullen—I had heard of Mullen’s work but never read her; given that one of the Mullen poems Daniel shared (“Bitter Labor”) utilizes and revises the text of the Chinese Exclusion Act (!), I’ll certainly be remedying that omission ASAP.2)      Regionalism and “Others”: Put together by NeMLA Associate Executive Director (and newly minted PhD) Brandi So, this panel featured Scott Zukowski, Florian Freitag, Christine Payson, and Alexznder Hollenberg presenting papers on American literary regionalism’s engagements with issues of race, ethnicity, and other forms of identity and community. I’m not sure I’ve ever attended a panel that dovetailed more fully with my work and interests, and at the same time that added to my sense of each focal period and its texts and authors. For example, Florian’s re-situation of New Orleans local color writing in the context of its Scribner’s magazine publication (including illustrations and engravings, as well as texts engaging each other across subsequent issues) has given me much to think about when it comes to George Washington Cable, Grace King, and their peers.3)      The Future of TV: Put together by NeMLA’s new Cultural Studies and Media Studies Area Director Lisa Perdigao, this panel featured Justin Johnston, Steven Stanley, and Christopher Culp analyzing different current or recent TV shows and trends through questions of futurity, queer theory, and other related issues. Given that Christopher played a clip from my favorite Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode (and perhaps my favorite hour of TV ever) as part of his analysis of musical episodes, it’s difficult for me not to just focus on that moment here! But just as intriguing, and perhaps more intellectually necessary, was the way that Steven’s paper on American Horror Story: Coven challenged my prior perspective on the show’s troubling representation of the American past. I learn a great deal from every conference panel I get to attend, as exemplified by all three of these compelling converstions.Last recap tomorrow,Ben
PS. Were you at NeMLA 2015? I’d love to hear your follow ups as well—or your thoughts on this post even if you weren’t there!

May 6, 2015: NeMLA 2015 Recaps: Three Amazing Performances

[This past weekend, the Northeast MLA held its annual spring conference in Toronto. I was there in my official capacity as the organization’s Vice President, as well as a presenter and audience member, and wanted to follow up on a handful of the many interesting things that took place. Leading up to a weekend post on how you can help me plan next year’s conference in Hartford!]On one thing that stood out to me about each of the conference’s three opening performances.1)      The 2015 conference opened with a creative reading and performance by Tobago-born, Toronto-based poet, author, and scholar M. NourbeSe Philip. Philip both read excerpts from a personal essay in progress and performed (along with her daughter-in-law) pieces from her book-length poem Zong! (2008). The hour-long performance was never anything but riveting—but I was especially struck by the moment when, amidst chants of the names of murdered African slaves from Zong!, Philip interjected, “Trayvon, Mike, Erik.” I can’t imagine a more visceral or affecting link of past to present.2)      Following directly on Philip’s performance was a talk and reading by Madeleine Stratford, a poet, translator, and professor of translation. Stratford gave a multi-layered presentations on poetry, translation, language, and what those complementary creative forms and acts can help us understand and engage with. I learned a lot and was provoked to think a lot further by many of her points and ideas, but was especially moved by her final hope for the conference to follow: that it be a celebration of language. Stratford’s perspective, like this conference, remind us that language is far from just a discipline or niche—it’s what defines and connects us all.3)      And there was the keynote, on the conference’s second night. I wrote back in this January preview post about President Daniela Antonucci’s plans for a truly ground-breaking keynote, an interdisciplinary performance that would combine scholarship, music and song, images and the visual arts, and dance. Well thanks to both Daniela’s vision and the inspiring talents of PS. Were you at NeMLA 2015? I’d love to hear your follow ups as well—or your thoughts on this post even if you weren’t there!

May 5, 2015: NeMLA 2015 Recaps: Roundtable on Writing Prolifically

[This past weekend, the Northeast MLA held its annual spring conference in Toronto. I was there in my official capacity as the organization’s Vice President, as well as a presenter and audience member, and wanted to follow up on a handful of the many interesting things that took place. Leading up to a weekend post on how you can help me plan next year’s conference in Hartford!]Three great pieces of advice from the roundtable “Strategies for Becoming a Prolific Writer,” at which I presented alongside Anna Strowe, Felipe Ruan, and Simona Wright:1)      Interdisciplinarity: It will come as no surprise to readers of this blog that I made the case for thinking of and developing our work in interdisciplinary ways, but others on the panel (and in the audience) advanced elements of the same idea. For one thing, such thinking allows us to imagine connections, audiences, and avenues for our work that would be closed off if we defined ourselves in overly narrow or specialized ways. And for another, as I argued at the roundtable in response to a question about job market dangers of interdisciplinarity, increasingly institutions need faculty who can teach multiple things, wear multiple hats, extend their work in a variety of directions. All reasons to practice interdisciplinarity, I’d say!2)      Rhizomatic Thinking: Simona specifically made the case for thinking of our scholarly work and identity in a rhizomatic way, with roots and branches that extend in multiple directions. This is partly another way of putting the interdisciplinary emphasis, but it would be possible and important to aim for rhizomatic thinking even within one discipline (or even a more specialized focus within one, on for example one specific author). Audience member Mark Fulk made a similar point, about the way that unexpected connections between our focus at any given moment and other ideas/subjects often prompts our writing and projects. And we can’t see such connections, much less pursue them, if we aren’t open to the rhizomatic approach Simona emphasized.3)      Pleasure: All of the presenters made the case, in one way or another, for writing about what interests us, what we’re passionate about, what gives us pleasure. This might seem to be a given, but I don’t believe it is—too often, academic or scholarly writing reads and feels like a chore, to the author as well as the reader. The dissertation process itself seems geared in many ways to producing precisely such writing. Perhaps we can’t change the dissertation process (although we can and should consider it), but we can certainly redefine academic writing more broadly as something that should be interesting and pleasurable, to the author and then (and thus) to its readers.All things I’ll bring with me into my ongoing and future writing for sure! Next recap tomorrow,Ben
PS. Were you at NeMLA 2015? I’d love to hear your follow ups as well—or your thoughts on this post even if you weren’t there!

May 4, 2015: NeMLA 2015 Recaps: Italian American Inspirations

[This past weekend, the Northeast MLA held its annual spring conference in Toronto. I was there in my official capacity as the organization’s Vice President, as well as a presenter and audience member, and wanted to follow up on a handful of the many interesting things that took place. Leading up to a weekend post on how you can help me plan next year’s conference in Hartford!]On three takeaways from Marica Antonucci’s excellent seminar on transnational Italian and American histories, with which my NeMLA conference began.1)      Vincenzo Botta: Lucia Ducci of UMass Amherst began the seminar with a paper on Botta, an Italian American educator, journalist, author, and reformer about whose multi-part 19thcentury life and transnational influence I literally knew nothing before this talk (and I doubt I’m alone—even that Wikipedia page at the first link is pretty bare bones). In many ways Botta seems to me parallel to Yung Wing, and Ducci’s wonderful talk gave me lots of great starting points for continuing to think about this interesting and inspiring life, voice, and history.2)      Tex : Tyler Norris of William and Mary presented a compelling analysis of Tex, the longest-running Italian comic book. Begun in 1948, this depiction of a heroic lone Texas Ranger making his way through multiple 19th century histories (Mexican American War, Civil War, Native American wars, etc.). Texseems very much in conversation with other mid-20th century pop culture depictions of the frontier, from the TV show The Rifleman to John Ford’s series of John Wayne Westerns. But I’ll need to learn a lot more about what Tex and Italian culture do with those familiar tropes, work that Norris once again prompted and modeled.3)      The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit : Marisa Escolar of UNC Chapel Hill concluded the seminar by analyzing depictions of Italy and Italian American culture in post-WWII fiction and culture, a topic that interestingly complements the second book project of my colleague and friend Joe Moser. Escolar analyzed a number of books, films, and other texts, but I was particularly interested in her compelling take on both Sloan Wilson’s 1955 novel and the 1956 Gregory Peck filmof the same name. As with Botta and Tex, I know more or less nothing about these texts, but Escolar and this seminar have prompted me to learn more!Those three papers, along with David Aliano’s on early 20th century tourism materials and Roberto Vezzani’son the “New Italy” in Fascist propaganda, got my NeMLA off to an inspiring start for sure. Next recap tomorrow,Ben
PS. Were you at NeMLA 2015? I’d love to hear your follow ups as well—or your thoughts on this post even if you weren’t there!

May 2-3, 2015: April 2015 Recap

[A Recap of the month that was in AmericanStudying.]March 30: April Fools: Stooges and Marxes: An April Fools series on American humor kicks off with two talented and significant groups of siblings.March 31: April Fools: The Interview: The series continues with what’s problematic, and what’s important, about the controversial recent comedy.April 1: April Fools: Keaton and Chaplin: Mining the past or the present for laughs, and why we need both, as the series rolls on.April 2: April Fools: Minstrel Shows: What we do with comic art that’s just not funny any more.April 3: April Fools: James Thurber: The series concludes with three ways the unique humorist captured the human condition.April 4-5: Crowd-sourced April Fools: An addendum of mine and funny responses from fellow AmericanFools—add your foolish-in-the-best-sense thoughts in comments!April 6: Baseball Lives: Hank Greenberg: A series on meaningful baseball lives starts with why we should remember one of the first and greatest Jewish American athletes.April 7: Baseball Lives: Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige: The series continues with what we can never know about Negro Leagues lives, and what we definitely can.April 8: Baseball Lives: John Rocker: Three distinct, contradictory, and important stages in a controversial baseball life, as the series rolls on.April 9: Baseball Lives: Cuban and Japanese Stars: Two recent communities of international stars, and the different historical contexts to which we can connect them.April 10: Baseball Lives: Maria Pepe and Mo’ne Davis: The series concludes with two young stars who reflect how much has changed, and why we must remember both.April 11-12: Tim McCaffrey’s Guest Post on Jackie Robinson: Extending the series with one of my favorite past Guest Posts, on a less well-remembered moment in one of our most inspiring baseball lives.April 13: New AmericanStudies Books: Fugitive Slaves and the Unfinished American Revolution: A series on great new AmericanStudies books starts with one that helps us understand a crucial Early Republic question.April 14: New AmericanStudies Books: States of Trial: The series continues with a book that exemplifies both international and interdisciplinary AmericanStudies.April 15: New AmericanStudies Books: Belligerent Muse: A new book that complements a classic one, and what they offer us together, as the series rolls on.April 16: New AmericanStudies Books: Chinese Yankee: The book that corrects a significant historical omission—and why that’s not even its best effect.April 17: New AmericanStudies Books: Cowardice: A Brief History: The series concludes with a book that reminds us of the value of looking at things from the other side.April 18-19: Crowd-sourced AmericanStudies Reading List: In my latest Crowd-sourced post, fellow AmericanStudiers share their own book recommendations—add yours in comments, please!April 20: Patriot’s Day Special Post: My annual Patriot’s Day special post, on the easier and harder forms of patriotism.April 21: How Would a Patriot Act?: Squanto: A series on nominees for genuine American patriotism starts with a 17th century cross-cultural patriot.April 22: How Would a Patriot Act?: Quock Walker: The series continues with the 18th century patriot who also represents an alternative, vital kind of Founder.April 23: How Would a Patriot Act?: Yung Wing: The many reasons to remember one of my favorite Americans as a 19th century patriot, as the series rolls on.April 24: How Would a Patriot Act?: César Chávez: The series concludes with why it’s so important to remember the labor activist as a 20th century patriot.April 25-26: How Would a Patriot Act?: You: But wait, a special weekend post on a contemporary American patriot—you!April 27: Communist Culture: “The Palace-Burner”: A May Day series on communism in American culture kicks off with one of my favorite poems and images of difference and empathy.April 28: Communist Culture: Dos Passos and Wright: The series continues with two authors and lives that trace the appeals and limitations of communism in the 1930s.April 29: Communist Culture: Doctorow and Coover: Two distinct but complementary historical fictions of the Rosenbergs, as the series rolls on.April 30: Communist Culture: The Blithedale Romance: How Hawthorne’s autobiographical novel of his experience with communism differed from his prior romances, and how it connects to them.May 1: Communist Culture: Woody Guthrie and Steve Earle: The series concludes communist protest anthems and artists, then and now.Next series starts Monday,Ben
PS. Topics you’d like to see covered on the blog? Guest Posts you’d like to write? Lemme know! 

May 1, 2015: Communist Culture: Woody Guthrie and Steve Earle

[In honor of May Day, a series on some compelling cultural representations of communism in American history and identity.]On communist protest anthems and artists, then and now.In one of my earliest blog posts, I nominated Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land”(1944)—ideally the version with all the verses, but I was willing to settle for the more commonly accepted shortened version—as a new national anthem. I have been interested to see that both of my sons have learned and performed the song (in that shortened version) in their elementary school music classes, as I vaguely remember doing in my own. Because the truth is that, even without the usually excluded verse about the “No trespassing” sign that has nothing written on the back, “This Land” offers what we would have to call a communist vision of America: as a place that is fundamentally shared by all of us, owned not as private property or competitive resource but as a communal space that “belongs to you and me.” By 1944, communism had already come to be closely associated with (if not entirely tied to) the Soviet Union, and thus to an explicit alternative to American identity, making Guthrie’s song a subtle but (to my mind) definite protest anthem.Far, far less subtle is Steve Earle’s song “Christmas in Washington”(1997), which in its chorus implores, “Come back Woody Guthrie/Come back to us now/Tear your eyes from paradise/And rise again somehow.” Earle’s song is about the need for new protest anthems at the turn of the 21st century, as well as representing an attempt to offer precisely such a new anthem, and besides the request of Guthrie’s ghost Earle’s speaker also calls for the return of a pair of early 20th century communist activists: “So come back Emma Goldman/Rise up old Joe Hill/The barricades are going up/They cannot break our will.” Which is to say, while protest songs can of course take any number of different political and social perspectives, Earle ties both his and Guthrie’s protest anthems much more specifically to communism—not, again, in the Soviet sense, but rather in an emphasis on radical activisms (both labor and social) and their concurrent arguments for social and economic equality.Earle’s song is even less likely than the full version of Guthrie’s to become a new national anthem (and, to be clear, much less powerful than Guthrie’s as well, especially in the much-too-specific late 1996 setting of its opening verse). But one significant benefit of playing the two songs back to back is the reminder that Guthrie wasn’t just a unifying American voice—he certainly wanted to be and (I would argue) was that, but he did so through offering a radical, protesting perspective, one that it is no stretch to call communist. Which, like all of the week’s texts and artists in their own interconnected ways, would remind us that communism has not been just some external threat to the United States—that it has also, and far more importantly, been a multi-century thread and presence in our own society and identity, an American community and perspective deserving of the extended attention and analysis that these cultural works help provide.April Recap this weekend,Ben
PS. What do you think? Cultural representations of communism you’d highlight?

April 30, 2015: Communist Culture: The Blithedale Romance

[In honor of May Day, a series on some compelling cultural representations of communism in American history and identity.]On the novel that significantly shifted an author’s career—and yet its continuity with his two prior masterpieces.Nearly a century before Richard Wright published his autobiographical essay “I Tried to Be a Communist” (1944), Nathaniel Hawthorne published a semi-autobiographical novel that could have been titled the exact same thing. Between April and November 1841, Hawthorne lived at George and Sophia Ripley’s West Roxbury, Massachusettsutopian experiment Brook Farm; the experiment brought together many other prominent Transcendentalists, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, and Bronson Alcott. Hawthorne’s experience with the Brook Farm community (which continued for another six years or so after his depature) was mixed, as reflected both in the letters he wrote while there to his future wife Sophia Peabody and in his subsequent description of the period as “essentially a daydream, and yet a fact.” And just over a decade later, he would portray a strikingly similar utopian community in The Blithedale Romance (1852).Blithedale was Hawthorne’s third romance in three years—following The Scarlet Letter (1850) and The House of the Seven Gables (1851)—and marked a significant shift from the prior two. I would categorize both of them as historical romances: Scarlet quite overtly, as it is set more than two hundred years prior to its publication date; and Gablesin its central use of the Salem Witch Trials, a history which Hawthorne calls in the novel’s famous Preface“a legend prolonging itself, from an epoch now gray in the distance, down into our own broad day-light, and bringing along with it some of its legendary mist.” Blithedale, on the other hand, is not only set in its own historical moment but centrally focused on engaging with, challenging, and at times satirizing that moment’s philosophies and ideals, most especially those of both Transcendentalism and communism. Perhaps to aid in that sense of present grounding, Hawthorne likewise shifts from the earlier novels’ third-person narrators to a semi-autobiographical (if also quite complex) first-person one, Miles Coverdale, who narrates for us his own experiences of the Blithedale utopian community.But if Blithedale is interestingly distinct from the two novels that preceded it, I would nonetheless argue that reading it in relationship to those historical romances helps us analyze how Hawthorne chooses to depict his socially realistic topic. After all, both earlier novels likewise featured realistic historical subjects—community in Puritan New England and the causes and legacies of the Witch Trials—but portrayed them through what Hawthorne described, in that Gables Preface, as the Romance’s “right to present that truth under circumstances, to a great extent, of the writer’s own choosing or creation” (in contrast to the Novel, which he argues “is presumed to aim at a very minute fidelity … to the probable and ordinary course of man’s experience”). Literary historians have long sought to pin down which Blithedale character is which historical figure—Zenobia is Fuller! Hollingsworth is Ripley! and so on—but Hawthorne’s definition of the Romance would lead us in a different direction: to consider instead how he bends the historical realities of that place and time into a new, more Romantic shape, “manages his atmospherical medium” to present “the truth of the human heart.” Like both prior novels, that is, Blithedaleultimately presents the human heart of its histories—an important achievement indeed.Last cultural communism tomorrow,Ben
PS. What do you think? Cultural representations of communism you’d highlight?