ENGL 103A Midterm

public anonymity

Franklin dissolves private self into \_____ \______ through print, which detaches words and ideas from their authors and allows them to be evaluated on their own merits

print

a metaphor for Ben Franklin(self) → offers a vision of human character to a univeral type rather than obeying the promptings of one's soul or inner self

Revolutionary Period

period w/ tension b/w the author as a private person & the public interest that writing is expected to serve (esp. true for autobiography)

republicanism

in early America, founded upon the principles of virtue, disinterestedness, and popular sovereignty (democratic participation \= essential → Amer gov't could avoid the greed and corruption assoc w/ Brit & Euro values)

story of the Jett/Wharf (Ben Franklin)

"I was generally a leader among the Boys, and sometimes led them into Scrapes, of which I will mention one Instance, as it shows my early projecting public Spirit, tho' not then justly conducted. There was a Salt Marsh that bounded part of the Mill Pond, on the edge of which . . . we used to stand to fish for Minnows. By much Trampling, we had made it into a mere Quagmire. My Proposal was to build a Wharf there fit for us to stand upon, and I show'd my Comrades a large Heap of Stones which were intended for a new House near the Marsh, and which would very well suit our purpose. Accordingly in the Evening when the Workmen were gone, I assembled a Number of my Playfellows, and working with them diligently like so many Emmets . . . we brought them all away and built our little Wharf."

-the story is intended to foreshadow the public figure that is to come

- he always had a project - making an object of consumption, & making himself the object of public regard (he is the Leader of the Boys)

The Silence Dogood Letters (Ben Franklin)

"Being still a Boy, and suspecting that my Brother would object to printing any Thing of mine in his Paper if he knew it to be mine, I contriv'd to disguise my Hand, and writing an anonymous Paper I put it in at Night under the Door of the Printing-House."

-writing seems to be a kind of replacement for an author

-as soon as the letters are connected w/ an author → connected w/ the author's egotism

-about anonymity

Ralph's poem (Ben Franklin)

"Now, says he, Osborne never will allow the least merit in anything of mine, but makes 1000 criticisms out of mere Envy. He is not so jealous of you [Franklin]. I wish therefore you would take this Piece, and produce it as yours. . . . We shall see what he will say to it. It was agreed, and I immediately transcrib'd it that it might appear in my own hand.

. . . It was read. . . .Ralph [the author] only made some Criticisms and propos'd some Amendments, but I defended my Text. Osborne was against Ralph, and told him he was no better a critic than a poet."

-a rivalry b/w Ralph and Osborne

-it is only when the author is disguised that the work really gets the appreciation that it deserves

-concerned w/ disguising the author's hand in order to get proper appreciation of the writing

BF pseudonyms

Silence DoGood, Miss Polly Baker, Poor Richard, The King of Prussia, etc.

Publius

(in The Federalist Papers, 1787-88)

Alexander Hamilton, John Jay & James Madison's pseudonym

Life as a Book (Ben Franklin)

"Were it offered to my Choice, I should have no Objection to a Repetition of the same Life from its Beginning, only asking the Advantage Authors have in a second Edition to correct the faults of the first."

- sees autobio as an opportunity to live his life over again, but also as opportunity to revise his life (fix it)

- to the extent in which he gets to fix it → gets to be his own author, the creator of BF

eratum

an error in writing or printing; chiefly, an error noted in a list of corrections attached to a printed book; relates to BF → thinks of his life as a book → error in life \= error in print of his autobio?

Print Metaphors in the Autobiography (Ben Franklin)

"A fresh difference arising between my Brother and me, I took it upon me to assert my freedom, presuming that he would not venture to produce the new Indentures. It was not fair in me to take this Advantage, and this I therefore reckon was one of the first Errata of my life."

-errata \= an error in printing or writing

-thinks of his life as a book

-talking about compositing

Print Metaphor 2 in the Autobiography (Ben Franklin)

"Keimer tho' something of a Scholar, was a mere Compositor, knowing nothing of Presswork. . . . At this time he did not profess any particular Religion but was something of all on occasion . . . & had, as I afterwards found, a good deal of the knave in his Composition."

-talking about the character of his employer

-show that personal identity is something that is made

-self-invention rather than self-discovery

Scheme of Moral Perfection (Ben Franklin)

"Tho' I never arrived at the Perfection I had been so ambitious of attaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was by the Endeavor made a better and happier Man than otherwise I should have been; As those who aim at perfect Writing by imitating the engraved Copies, tho' they never reach the wish'd for Excellence of those Copies, their Hand is mended by the Endeavor."

-achieving a perfect moral character is like achieving perfect handwriting → all idiosyncrasies are erased → just become this perfect, impersonal thing

-become a model of imitation by being a model of perfection

-compare Franklin's ideas about the self to Calvinist ideas about the soul (original sin, predestination → fate)

two views of character (Ben Franklin)

1) as a project or performance, as something to be cultivated through hard work and discipline. Examples: John Locke's view of the infant mind as a tabula rasa (blank slate); Franklin.

2) as something inborn, deep and spiritual that cannot be changed by personal behavior. Examples: Calvinism, caste, race and ethnicity.

slave narrative

1. as a genre their uniformity is a product of their unity of purpose → all written to encourage opposition to slavery by exposing its barbarity, 2. like Franklin, Douglass speaks not just for himself as a private person, but above all for his people. But Franklin chooses this role; Douglass is compelled by the conventions of the genre 3. yet Douglass produces a uniquely powerful narrative, bc he writes w/ restraint & detachment and bc he provides unprecedented insight into the psychological effects of slavery

Douglass, Narrative (of the life of Frederick Douglass)

Mr. Gore once undertook to whip one of Colonel Lloyd's slaves, by the name of Demby. He had given Demby but few stripes, when, to get rid of the scourging, he ran and plunged into a creek, and stood there at the depth of his shoulders, refusing to come out. Mr. Gore told him he would give him three calls, and that, if he did not come out at the third call, he would shoot him. The first call was given. Demby gave no response, but stood his ground. The second and third call were given with the same result. Mr. Gore then, without consultation or deliberation with anyone, not even giving Demby an additional call, raised his musket to his face, taking deadly aim at his standing victim, and in an instant poor Demby was no more. His mangled body sank out of sight, and blood and brains marked the water where he stood.

-slaves all witness it, but he cannot get in trouble bc slaves (relates to Slave Law in Antebellum America)

-hypocrisy of slavery

Authorship and Authority (douglass narrative)

1. the prefatory testimonials are symptoms of a tension at the heart of the genre: → by lending their authority to the author acknowledge that he must depend upon white intermediaries for public credibility.

2. Douglass responds by addressing us as both somebody who has experienced slavery from the inside and as somebody who can explain that experience with the detachment and objectivity of an outside observer, combining the 2 roles usually divided between the slave narrator & his white abolitionists sponsors.

3. the Narrative describes slavery as a system that denies its victims the linguistic resources they need in order to understand and express their condition, and it describes its author's success in overcoming his slave origins as a matter of replacing the script that slavery has written for him with his own.

-on the one hand, lend authority to the author, Douglass → trying to help

-but, by showing that he needs to have authority, show his dependence on white intermediaries for public credibility

slave songs (Douglass)

I did not, when a slave, understand the deep meaning of those rude and apparently incoherent songs. I was myself within the circle; so that I neither saw nor heard as those without might see and hear. They told a tale of woe which was altogether beyond my feeble comprehension. . . . Every tone was a testimony against slavery. . . . I have frequently found myself in tears while hearing them. The mere recurrence to these songs, even now, afflicts me; and while I am writing these lines, an expression feeling has already found its way down my cheek.

-continuity from past to present

-constructs narrative identity: someone who is both the same and different as he once was

-tensions b/w past and present

-positions himself both as a victim and an authority to/ analyst of slavery

-this is why as middle man is unnecessary

antithesis

a figure of speech in which sharply contrasted ideas are juxtaposed in a balanced or parallel phrase or grammatical structure, as in 'Hee for God only, shee for God in him'(Milton).

-relates to Douglass (Mistress Auld is forbade by husband to teach Douglass to read → identify quest for literacy w/ the quest for division b/w master and slave)

-separating self from slave origins

whipping of Hester

"He would whip her to make her scream, and whip her to make her hush" (narrative)

"I was hushed, terrified, and stunned"

(My Bondage and My Freedom)

-first extended narrative

-talks about char of Captain Anthony (Douglass' first master and possible dad) and scene of whipping of Aunt Hester (D's aunt)

-mother sent away, possibly bc she birthed Anthony's son → whips aunt bc she's caught w/ Lloyd's ned (jealous)

-rel b/w Hester & Anthony \= a rep of the rel b/w his mother & Anthony → feels silenced from these acts; speechlessness

-identifies w/ aunt → disabling

-typical slave narrative aspect \= witnessing first whipping

seldom whipped (Douglass)

"I was seldom whipped by my old master, and suffered little from any thing less than hunger and cold. I suffered much from hunger, but more from cold. In hottest summer and coldest winter, I was kept almost naked--no shoes, no stockings, no jacket, no trousers, nothing on but a coarse tow linen shirt, reaching only to my knees.... I would crawl into this bag, and there sleep on the cold, damp, clay floor, with my head in and feet out. My feet have been so cracked iwht the frost, that the pen with which I am writing might be laid in the gashes."

- meeting of past & present: placing pen in the scars of feet from cold

-placing the image of slavery right before readers' eyes

-pen measures the distance b/w the slave boy and the present Douglass → linguistic mastery

-writing instrument is now in hands of slave rather than slaveholder where the instrument is the whip

-rewriting himself

self invention

Franklin does this through self-effacement; Douglass does this through self division

Tryal mutiny

(1805) part of Amasa Delano's trial (Narrative of Voyages and Travels in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres 1817) → the basis for Benito Cerino

San Domingo Revolution

(1791-1804) slaves seized control of an entire French colony, which was on the island of Hispañola (which is now divided b/w Haiti and Santo Domingo)

-also called the Haitian Revolution

-a huge blow to France's holdings in the area of the Caribbean

-a touchstone for discussions of slavery

Colombus

-introduction of slavery to Hispaniola (1490s)

-relates to Benito Cerino bc Melville places Christopher Colombus is the figurehead on the front of the ship → widens the scope of the story to include the beginnings of slavery → Melville wants you to be aware of many slave revolts

Creole

ship w/ slave mutiny (1841), relates to Douglass' "The Heroic Slave" and character of Madison Washington

narrative pov Melville

1. omniscient narration (the battle);

2. third-person transcription of first-person testimony (Cereno's deposition)

3. focalized third-person narration (throughout)

sense of self (Douglass, narrative)

"The slaveholders have been known to send in spies among their slaves, to ascertain their views and feelings in regard to their condition. The frequency of this has had the effect to establish among the slaves the maxim, that a still tongue makes a wise head. They suppress the truth rather than take the consequences of telling it. . . ."

-slaves quarreling over goodness of masters, but when alone denounce masters

-believed the goodness was transferrable to themselves

-no sense of self → the inarticulate slave, undivided from the master

-Douglass builds own sense of self through division with master; Sabbath school, learning to read

Benito Cereno and The Heroic Slave

1. both authors tell stories about slave mutinies from white male perspective (Melville employs Delano to make us recog how slavery blinds us to the truth, but Douglass does to enlist the sympathies of his white readership),

2. both question rel b/w slavery & the natural order (Douglass's hero argues slavery violates nat order, but Melville suggests that nature does not take sides on human matters)

3. both feature intelligent, charismatic slave leaders (But Wash's power over others \= from the eloquence & conviction w/ which he justifies his cause, Babo's \= fromsubtlety & tenacity w/ which he withholds understanding from enemies, refusing to the end to satisfy demand for it)

slavery and nature (3 views)

(Benito Cerino)

1. slavery is natural, 2. equality is natural, 3. nature is indifferent

pathetic fallacy

the attribution of human feelings and responses to inanimate things or animals, especially in art and literature (relates to Benito Cereno, refers to trade winds as freinds bc trade winds facilitate slavery → Cerino naturalized slavery)

points of comparison

both concern slave mutinies; both derive from historical sources; both employ a white narrative perspective; both ask whether slavery is consistent w/ the natural order; both feature intelligent, charismatic black leaders (Benito Cerino & The Heroic Slave)

difference (b/w Melville and Douglass)

Douglass's heroic slave directly states his principles, while Melville's Babo refuses to explain his actions

realism and race (Chopin)

1. realist fiction emph what novelist Joseph Conrad called "the power of the written word . . . to make you see"—(ordinary things & what is otherwise invisible incl

thoughts, feelings and the spoken word)

2. Chopin extends realist pursuit of visual immediacy to incl race ("La Belle Zoraide" → assoc the superiority of true stories & real speech w/ heroine's pref for man who looks black over one who tries not to)

3. by undertaking to make race visible, realists like Chopin ack that by 1890's, race no longer considered synonymous w/ skin color (goals of Jim Crow segregation → incl making blackness visible where it wasn't; "Desiree's Baby" enlists realist fiction in this process)

Stephen Crane

wrote Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893): "His infantile countenance was livid with fury. His small body was writhing in the delivery of great, crimson oaths."