Final Paper

The assignment from Dr. Logan:


The assigned texts for this course barely scratch the surface of literary representations of women in early America.  As scholars of American literature, we will investigate this field more deeply by conducting primary and secondary research and developing projects that add original insight to the conversation about this topic.  To that end, each of you will choose for your research project one text (or set of texts, in some instances) from those listed (separate handout), all of which are lesser-known and infrequently taught.  You will then spend the semester completing successive stages of a research project on this novel, from learning the publication history of the text to developing an initial bibliography using various databases to writing abstracts of critical articles to completing and peer-reviewing drafts and presenting your work at a final LIT 6216 conference, to be held during the final exam period.  

[Submitted 7 December 2010]

Bonds of Intimacy: 

The Female Homosocial and Lesbian Continuum in Milcah Martha Moore’s Book

The women of Milcah Martha Moore’s Book are old, middle aged, young, married, single, widowed, separated from their husbands, excommunicated from their church, have children, are childless, have suffered the death of loved ones, participate in different sects of Christianity, and represent varied economic backgrounds.  Despite these cultural, social, and religious, and economic differences, preserved in Moore’s handwritten commonplace book are bonds of female friendship in the form of poetry and prose, authored by women for women.  These bonds of intimacy create a female homosocial space, in which the lesbian continuum functions as a measuring rubric for these bonds.


The 1997 modern critical edition of Milcah Martha Moore’s Book (hereafter MMMB) makes accessible previously ignored women’s writing in early American literature through Moore’s commonplace book, a rare example of the non-traditional format.  I say non-traditional in that the commonplace book existed in manuscript rather than printed form, and because the genre’s origins are closely tied to the education of men.  The commonplace books by male authors of this time period have received critical attention; women’s commonplace books are, more recently, pushed into the scholarly spotlight.  Catherine La Courreye Blecki and Karin A. Wulf, the editors, provide invaluable scholarship regarding the cultural, social, manuscript, and print culture of revolutionary Philadelphia and emphasize the bonds of friendship connecting the contributing authors and editor of the manuscript.  This essay extends Blecki’s and Wulf’s reading of female friendship by using feminist theories to explore the physical object of Moore’s commonplace book as a site of the female homosocial and lesbian continuum.  This argument is strengthened by a selective reading of friendship themed prose and verse entries from MMMB.


I argue that Moore’s commonplace book preserves the work of Susanna Wright, Hannah Griffitts, and Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson, thereby establishing a female homosocial presence through the dominance of female authorship within the text.  Though other themes are represented, the text opens with “An Essay on Friendship” by Griffitts, thereby signaling the tone and theme of the work as a whole.  Drawing on literary scholarship of Susan Stabile and Ivy Schweitzer, feminist scholarship of Adrienne Rich and Eve Sedgwick, and history of the book scholarship from Kevin J. Hayes, I illustrate the relationship between the strategies of defiance and non-compliance in regards to the readership, authorship, and female friendship in MMMB and the ways in which these relationships create a female homosocial space.

Annotated Bibliography

The assignment from Dr. Logan:


Annotated bibliography of all secondary sources consulted.  An annotated bibliography uses MLA format and contains a brief 3-5 sentence description under each entry explaining the argument presented in that particular source.  As well, one of these sentences should state exactly how the source was/was not useful in developing your project/argument.  It’s fine to cite parts of critical books, such as particular chapters used/read.  Please include only scholarly academic sources.  The following link provides more information about annotated bibliographies, including sample entries.  Please note, that for this exercise, you will simply describe the argument and its use value for the project.  

• http://olinuris.library.cornell.edu/ref/research/skill28.htm

• http://www.scottsdalecc.edu/mugford.bib.htm

[Submitted 5 December 2010]


Blecki, Catherine La Courreye, and Karin A. Wulf, eds.  Milcah Martha Moore's Book: a Commonplace Book from Revolutionary America.  University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State UP, 1997.  Print.

Moore’s commonplace book, a handwritten manuscript, resides in the Edward Wanton Smith Collection in the Quaker Collection Library at Haverford College; it is not available on microfiche.  The modern critical edition, edited by Blecki and Wulf, makes my project possible.  The careful transcription work, the extensive and exhaustive biographical, cultural, historical, and history of the book scholarship provides the backbone of my conference paper.  The strong emphasis on friendship and same-sex relationships encouraged me to explore and extend their argument by classifying these relationships as explicitly female homosocial, as well as operating on the lesbian continuum.

Blecki, Catherine La Courreye.  “Reading Moore’s Book: Manuscripts vs. Print Culture and the Development of Early American Literature.”  Milcah Martha Moore's Book: A Commonplace Book from Revolutionary America.  Ed. Catherine La Courreye Blecki and Karin A. Wulf.  University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 1997.  59-106.  Print.

Blecki meticulously details the manuscript culture of Moore’s time, and the origins and use of the commonplace book genre by Moore and her contemporaries.  The role Moore played as editor, compiler and transcriber of MMMB is examined, revealing the careful and precise structure of the text.  Comparison of Moore’s commonplace book to her published Miscellanies, Moral and Instructive in terms of function and goals allows Blecki to claim that “Moore’s Book is her true literary and cultural success” (69).  The role and use of prose and poetry in MMMB are given equal attention by Blecki, and the theme of friendship in the entries is explored thoroughly, which I used for my project.   

Brayman, Hackel H., and Catherine E. Kelly.  Reading Women: Literacy, Authorship, and Culture in the Atlantic World, 1500—1800.  Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2008.  Print. 

The introduction provided me with a concise summary of current (feminist) scholarship and its struggles concerning defining the woman reader, and her literacy (reading and writing).  Instead of searching for THE female writer, one should research and locate specificity rather than generalizations or idealizations.  They repeat the call to expand the “archive” of women’s writings by thinking creatively about sources and evidence (3).  The importance and necessity of a “transnational, transatlantic context” (6) is confirmed for those studying the early modern world.  The transatlantic context appears in MMMB, as Moore includes excerpts from Graeme Fergusson’s journal that she kept while traveling in England.  Moore herself is a transatlantic creature, born in Madeira and later relocated to Philadelphia, with family members on three different continents.   

Rough Draft

The assignment from Dr. Logan:

Post completed draft to your blog 11/23/10, 11:59 p.m. and to your manuscript circle.

Send a copy to me as a Word doc.

Using Manuscript Circles Discussion Topic in Webcourses, complete Reader’s Reports by; send copy of Reader’s Reports to individual authors by 11/30/10.

[Submitted 23 November 2010]

Bonds of Intimacy: 

The Female Homosocial and Lesbian Continuum in Milcah Martha Moore’s Book

The women of Milcah Martha Moore’s Book are old, middle aged, young, married, single, abandoned by their husbands, kicked out of their church for their marriage, have children, are childless, have suffered the death of loved ones, participate in different sects of Christianity, and represent varied economic backgrounds.  Despite these cultural, social and economic differences, preserved in Moore’s handwritten commonplace book are bonds of female friendship in the form of poetry and prose, authored by women for women.

The 1997 modern critical edition of Milcah Martha Moore’s Book makes accessible previously ignored women’s writing in early American literature through Moore’s commonplace book, a rare example of the non-traditional format.  Catherine Blecki and Karin Wulf, the editors, provide invaluable scholarship regarding the social, manuscript, and print culture of revolutionary Philadelphia and emphasize the links of friendship connecting the contributing authors and editor of the text.  This essay extends Blecki and Wulf’s reading of female friendship by using feminist theories to explore the physical object of Moore’s commonplace book as a site of the female homosocial and lesbian continuum.

I argue that Moore’s commonplace book both preserves the work of Susanna Wright, Hannah Griffitts, and Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson and establishes a female homosocial presence through the dominance of female authorship within the text.  Though other themes are represented, the text opens with “An Essay on Friendship” by Griffitts, thereby signaling the tone and theme of the work as a whole.  Drawing on literary scholarship of Susan Stabile and Ivy Schweitzer and history of the book from Kevin J. Hayes, I illustrate the relationship between the strategies of defiance and non-compliance in regards to the sexuality, readership, authorship, and friendship in MMMB.

It’s Complicated

Friendships are complicated.  

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I found these on today’s PostSecret.

• From Jezebel: “The Televised Guide to Teen Girl Friendships” by Ryan

I recommend reading through the user comments on this post, which expand upon the list by Ryan.  I love how people commenting are so willing to share their personal experiences – my cousin was a Rayanne, I was a Daria and my friend was a Jane, I love Buffy/Willow!, “His list is so limited…so…gringa upper middle class” etc.  Make sure you click on “earlier discussions” to get all the comments, they’re worth reading.

Oh Sucker Punch, how do I love thee?  Let me count the ways….


But first, watch the trailer.

The movie is set up as quest: Baby Doll and her friends have to find map, fire, knife, and a key.  We are told, “the fifth thing is a mystery.”


Let’s take a closer look at the trailer.


Written words in the trailer: 

• “Reality is a prison.”
• “Your mind can set you free.”

Spoken words in the trailer: 

• “To reach your own paradise, just let go.  What you’re imagining right now, you control this world.”
• “I’m going to help you to be free.”
• “Begin your journey, it will set you free.”

I love it, absolutely love it.  Although, I have to admit, I’m a sucker for girls who kick ass, especially if they have guns, knives, and flame throwers.  I wonder if this film could serve as an example of the female homosocial – Baby Doll must work with her asylum inmates in order to achieve her quest – her freedom.  I guess we’ll have to wait until March 25, 2011 to find out.   


In the meantime, you can watch IGN’s Rewind Theater and see what they have to say about Sucker Punch.

Contextual Documents

The assignment from Dr. Logan:
By 11/5/10 submit a list of contextual documents and information to me with explanations or rationale.  Post links or documents to your blog.  Think about this assignment as creating an online space for understanding your text fully and as preparation for your Undergraduate Study Guide.



[Submitted 5 November 2010]

Primary Sources 
Please note that some of the biographical, historical, and cultural sources will overlap the boundary between primary and secondary sources.  Also, some of the sources blur the line between historical and cultural studies.  Lastly, the sources listed below would not be reprinted in their entirety – passage length would be determined by its importance and contribution to the overall theme of female friendship.

Images:
Blecki, Catherine L., and Karin A. Wulf, eds.  Milcah Martha Moore's Book: a Commonplace 
Book from Revolutionary America.  University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 1997.  Print.

• Since Blecki and Wulf could only include three images of Moore’s commonplace book, I have to assume the text is too fragile for photographic reproduction, which is a shame.  These three images – the title page, and entries 81 and 82 – would be included as part of my contextual documents.

Howland, Gulielma M.  Papers, 1700-1867 (bulk 1750-1840).  MS 1000.  Haverford 
College.  Tripod.  Web.  5 Nov. 2010  <http://tripod.brynmawr.edu/record=b2132024~S12>.

• Photographs of Hannah Griffitts’s letters to her friends and family on the subjects of friendship and family serve to expand upon themes in her poem and prose entries in MMMB.  Both photographs and transcriptions of the letters would be included. 

Male authors:
Lockridge, Kenneth.  The Sources of Patriarchal Rage: The Commonplace Books of William Byrd and Thomas Jefferson and the Gendering of Power in the Eighteenth Century.  NY: NY UP, 1992.  Print.

• Short excerpts from William Byrd’s commonplace book are helpful because it too is “unruly” – instead of presenting a variety of topics, as dictated by tradition, it goes “on at great length, almost obsessively, about a single, emotionally laden subject” (5).  Unlike MMMB which focuses on female friendship and supportive connections, Byrd’s commonplace book is a prime example of “private patriarchal rage and public and private misogyny” (x).

Biographical:
Ousterhout, Anne M., Joseleyne A. Slade, and Susan M. Stabile.  The Most Learned Woman in America: A Life of Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson.  University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 2004.  MLA International Bibliography.  Web.  23 Sept. 2010.

• The life of Graeme Fergusson directly contradicts the gendered standards of behavior for single and married women of her culture.  By choosing selections from her biography, I can consider her strategies of resistance and non-compliance and extend these real life examples to her prose entries in MMMB.

Blecki, Catherine L., and Karin A. Wulf.  "Preface."  Milcah Martha Moore's Book: a Commonplace Book from Revolutionary America.  University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 1997.  xi-xviii. Print.

• Blecki and Wulf provide short, succinct biographies of Moore, Wright, Griffitts and Graeme Fergusson that shed light on the experiences that shaped these women’s lives.  Because the commonplace book is intensely personal, biography cannot be ignored or excluded from the discussion of the text.  

Historical:
Hayes, Kevin J.  “Preface.”  A Colonial Woman's Bookshelf.  Knoxville: U of Tennessee P, 1996.  ix-xv.  Print.


Hayes, Kevin J.  “Reading Women.”  A Colonial Woman's Bookshelf.  Knoxville: U of Tennessee P, 1996.  1-27.  Print.

• A combination of history of the book and biographical approach allows Hayes to fill in the blank spaces of colonial women’s reading habits – how they read, what they read, why they read.  Hayes provides both the norms and deviations of reading practices, allowing the reader to differentiate between the fantasy of idealized feminine readers presented by men in literature and historical reality. 

Cultural:
Stabile, Susan M.  “Pen, Ink, and Memory.”  Memory's Daughters: The Material Culture of Remembrance in Eighteenth-Century America.  NY: Cornell UP, 2004.  74-125.  Print.

• The descriptions of Deborah Logan’s writing process are not only beautiful, they are highly descriptive and provide an accurate picture of how women approached writing in their daily lives.  Namely, the hurdles they faced in finding enough time, a space of their own, proper paper, quill pens, and ink are provided for the reader.  These obstructions were also possibly faced by Moore, Griffitts, Wright, and Graeme Fergusson.

BFF 4 Eva!

It’s Female Friendship Week over at The Frisky.  What, you ask yourself, is Female Friendship Week all about?  Let’s take a look:

Besties, frenemies, sisters, and groups of gal pals.  Explore the joy, the sorrow, and the everything else of the female friendships in our lives.  Let’s face it, dudes are much less complicated creatures.  But they could never replace the ladies in our lives (The Frisky).

Ah, I love it when modern connections to the female homosocial and lesbian continuum found within MMMB drop into my lap without any effort on my behalf.  

Speaking of (literary) sisters, I’m going to take the opportunity to share an xkcd comic about Emily Dickinson, a Jane Austen PostSecret card, and the article “Jane Austen’s Well-Known Style Owed Much to Her Editor, Scholar Argues” from The Chronicle of Higher Education by Jennifer Howard.


From xkcd:

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From Post Secret (tumblr archive):

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From The Chronicle of Higher Education: “Jane Austen’s Well-Known Style Owed Much to Her Editor, Scholar Argues” by Jennifer Howard


Also, Jane Austen’s Fiction Manuscripts?  Amazing.  Simply amazing.  What a beautiful and stunning example of digital humanities.  Now anyone with a computer, not just scholars with access to expensive databases and journals, can see Austen’s manuscripts, over 1,100 pages worth.  The site also allows you to view, side by side, published editions and Austen’s handwritten manuscripts.  And unlike the (Emily) Dickinson Electronic Archives, there aren’t entire sections subject to restricted access.


Enjoy.  


Works Cited:

Anonymous.  Jane Austen Is Better Than Sex.  Digital image.  PostSecret (Tumblr Archive). 16 June 2010.  Web.  25 Oct. 2010.  <http://postsecret.tumblr.com/post/704140943>.

Munroe, Randall.  The Carriage.  Digital image.  xkcd.  03 Sept. 2010.  Web.  25 Oct. 2010. <http://xkcd.com/788/>.

Paper Proposal

The assignment from Dr. Logan:


Call for Papers!  LIT 6216:  Unruly Women in Early American Literature.

The organizers of the LIT 6216 Scholars Group announce a call for papers to be presented at its final graduate student conference on Tuesday, December 7, 2010 from 7-9:50 p.m.  The conference will explore representations of women as transgressive or unruly; “unruly” is understood in a broad sense in the context of early American gender norms.  Topics might include women whose experiences were out of the ordinary (captivity, travel, etc.), women who broke laws or defied dominant cultural mores and/or values, cross-dressing women, etc.  Exploration of different textual forms  is welcome, including sentimental or historical novels, speeches, conversion narratives, crime and execution narratives,  short fiction, autobiography (including diaries memoirs, journals), biography, letters, poetry, etc.  Papers should engage with the scholarly conversation in early American literary studies, including a knowledge of the historical and cultural context in which the text was produced.   Please send questions and/or submit your abstract to Dr. Lisa M. Logan by 10/22/10.

Conference format:  Papers for this conference will be circulated beforehand and discussed (rather than read) at the conference meeting. 

See Research Project Components for more details.

[Submitted 24 October 2010]

Jay Jay Stroup
Graduate Student, UCF
jayjaystroup@knights.ucf.edu

Bonds of Intimacy: 
Locating the Female Homosocial & Lesbian Continuum in Milcah Martha Moore’s Book

The modern critical edition of Milcah Martha Moore’s Book, published in 1997, exposes previously ignored women’s writing in early American literature.  Moore’s commonplace book, an unpublished, non-traditional format, is now accessible to all scholars.  While Catherine Blecki and Karin Wulf provide invaluable scholarship regarding the culture of the Philadelphia, as well as manuscript and print culture during the Revolutionary era, there is no mention of Queer or Feminist theory.  The possibility of locating the female homosocial and lesbian continuum in MMMB is hinted at through Blecki’s and Wulf’s multiple references to female friendship, but not made explicit.  It is my intent to strengthen these references through the use of Queer and Feminist theories, and explore the physical object of Moore’s commonplace book as a site of the female homosocial and lesbian continuum in early American literature.     

Moore’s commonplace book simultaneously preserves the work of Susanna Wright, Hannah Griffitts, and Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson and establishes a female homosocial presence through the dominance of female authorship within the text.  Out of the one hundred and twenty six entries, sixty three of them are authored by Griffitts (exactly fifty percent of the entries), twenty five are authored by Wright, and three by Graeme Fergusson.  Though other themes are represented, the text opens with “An Essay on Friendship” by Griffitts, thereby signaling the tone and theme of the work as a whole.  Through the use of Susan Stabile’s scholarship on the relationship between memory and the archive, and commonplacing as a distinctly feminized art I argue that not only does the text operate on the lesbian continuum, it also transgresses normative female behavior for colonial America in terms of reading and authorship.  I am relying on the scholarship of Kevin J. Hayes (A Colonial Woman’s Bookshelf) to provide evidence of normative and transgressive reading experiences of women during colonial America.   

Adrienne Rich’s "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence" highlights the way in which behavior not ascribing to strict hetero-normative standards is punished, the concept of which is transferable to MMMB: Griffitts and Wright refuse to marry, Moore is thrown out of the Society of Friends for marriage to a cousin, and Graeme Fergusson’s secret marriage to a Tory ruins her economically, socially, and politically.  While Carroll Smith-Rosenberg’s "The Female World of Love and Ritual: Relations between Women in Nineteenth-Century America" deals with literature and behavior of the 1800s, there are markers of the female homosocial and lesbian continuum that are also applicable to MMMB, specifically in the entries dealing with female friendship.  

By focusing the lens of Queer theory on a commonplace book from early American literature, strategies of defiance and non-compliance by women in regards to their sexuality, readership and authorship are brought to light.  It is the strategies of defiance contained within that classify MMMB as an unruly text, authored and edited by unruly women.  Re-identifying the commonplace book as a site of the female homosocial expands, rather than contracts, the possibilities for future scholarship.  This identification invites and encourages the co-mingling of other schools of theory – feminist, racial, cultural, historical, economical and more.  

The Homosocial Network

If, as Dr. Logan’s Early American Women’s Words undergraduate class postulates, Facebook is a modern version of the commonplace book, then the movie The Social Network is worth taking a closer look.  I have not seen the movie, and have very little desire to do so, but after reading through some of these movie reviews, I might have to see it – in the name of research, of course.


The first review that caught my eye was on Slate (I am addicted to Dear Prudence).  I glanced through it and a reference to another article, “The (Homo)Social Network” is what snagged my attention.  The homosocial is on my mind almost twenty four seven thanks to this project, so there was no way I could let this opportunity for a modern connection slide past me.


So, I gathered a list of articles reviewing The Social Network, which wasn’t too hard because some of the reviews refer to other reviews.  This list is by no means exhaustive, obviously, but it heartens me to see reviewers grappling with the role of women within the movie, and its social consequences.  Enjoy.

• From Bitch Magazine: "Tube Tied: Stephen Colbert Asks About Women, and Maybe that's All I Need" by Michelle Dean

• From Jezebel: "The Social Network, Where Women Never Have Ideas" by Irin Carmon

• From Women and Hollywood: "Stephen Colbert Asks Aaron Sorkin About the Ladies in The Social Network" by Melissa Silverstein

• From IFC: "The (Homo)Social Network: "The Social Network" doesn't have a problem with women -- its characters do." by Alison Willmore

• From Slate: "Is the Facebook Movie Sexist?" by Dana Stevens

• From Salon: "Sorkin explains "Social Network" sexism" by Tracy Clar-Flory and "Female programmers on "The Social Network."  How accurate is the Facebook movie's depiction of women as trophies in the world of Web 2.0? We asked the experts." by Tracy Clark-Flory

• From The Daily Beast via Business Insider: "Groupies, Sexed-Up Asians, Vengeful Sluts, And Feminist Killjoys – Meet The Women Of The Social Network" by Rebecca Davis O'Brien

• [Edited on 19 October 2010 to add another link] From Tenured Radical, The 2.0 Edition: "Straight People, Listen!  The Pervasiveness of Cruelty in Mass Culture" by Tenured Radical

Preliminary Bibliography

The assignment from Dr. Logan:  


Using the MLA International Bibliography and America: History and Life databases at the UCF Library, develop a preliminary bibliography of secondary scholarly sources in the discipline of literature (with contextual sources from historians).  Use MLA documentation style.  Include keywords and searches used to develop this bibliography.  Consult a reference librarian if you encounter difficulties. 

[Submitted: 24 September 2010]

I have included a lot of sources which will (probably) end up being discarded during a closer look at each journal article and/or book.  However, I wanted to include them all because, one, I spent a lot of time looking them up, and two, it provides with me a wide range of possibilities for my project.  This preliminary bibliography will serve as a valuable resource for my project, and while I know I’ll end up spending more time on research, this guide should help me narrow and focus my search.

There were no results for female homosocial, and none applicable to my topic for homosocial in MLA, which is unsurprising considering its absence in the Library of Congress Subject Headings book.

Using MMMB in MLA for various options yielded just the modern edition.  Using MMMB as keyword term in America: History & Life yielded two already recorded book reviews of the modern edition, and one article about her published Miscellanies, Moral and Instructive text.

I included book reviews because I want to know how the book/article was received by the scholarly audience, or to quote Dr. Anna Jones, to see if they “bought it.”  I also included dissertations because of their works cited, which could potentially yield a lot of valuable sources.  I especially want to track down Susan Stabile’s dissertation, not just the abstract, which will require an ILL because the full text is not available via ProQuest.  When I included sources listed in the books I have already checked out of the UCF library, I only looked in the introductions due to time constraints.  Sometimes a source would appear in multiple locations (a book’s introduction, MLA and America: History & Life); I merely recorded it the first time I encountered it rather than list unnecessary duplications.

The categories of my preliminary bibliography at a quick glance:

• Recommendations from: Dr. Logan, and Jessica Workman.
• Found on my own
• From my previous research on The Factory Girl

• From Civil Tongues & Polite Letters in British America, A Colonial Woman’s Bookshelf, Literature After Feminism, The Madwoman in the Attic, Memory’s Daughters, and Reading Women.

• Using of Marty Beth Norton as author in MLA
• Using Adrienne Rich as the subject term in MLA
• Using Carroll Smith-Rosenberg in America: History & Life
• Using Carroll Smith-Rosenberg in MLA
• Using Susan Stabile as author in MLA
• Using Laurel Thatcher Ulrich as the author in WorldCat

• Using commonplace book in America: History & Life
• Using commonplace book as subject (1700-1799) in MLA
• Using Delaware River Valley (N.Y.-Del. & N.J.) (1700-1799) in America: History & Life
• Using female friendship in literature (1700-1799) in MLA
• Using female-female relations (1700-1799) in MLA
• Using lesbianism in literature (1700-1799) in MLA
• Using literature and revolutions, (subject literature: American) (1700-1799): in MLA
• Using Manuscripts, American in America: History & Life
• Using Manuscripts, American (1700-1799) as subject in MLA
• Using Manuscript studies, American (1700-1799) as subject in MLA
• Using Quaker women (1700-1799) in America: History & Life
• Using Quaker women (1700-1799) in MLA

Spare Thoughts: 2

Question:  How and why did you make decisions about your blog appearance?  What ambitions do you have for it?  What reservations?  What is at stake in fashioning oneself as a public intellectual in this way?  What possible connections can we make between the study of early American literature and contemporary culture?  

Answer:  I have the advantage of previously completing (and surviving) the semester long research project designed by Dr. Logan with last year’s class, LIT6009: American Novel and National Identity—Romanticism and Imperialism (Spring 2009).  So, I am relatively familiar with Blogger thanks to creating Conduct Yourself and feel comfortable with the idea of exposing myself, my research process, and my final academic product online.  With Conduct Yourself, I chose a relatively neutral color palate of beiges, greens and browns to present an aura of professionalism, and only rarely strayed off topic.  

I decided, with this current project, I wanted something completely different, and that I needed to improve and exceed my previous work.  Despite less than a year in between the projects, Blogger has changed and updated their templates, design, and posting tools, which allows for more flexibility and personalization of standard templates.  My entire research project hinges on the ideas of the female homosocial, the lesbian continuum, and the search for a usable past, so I figured I could allow my blog to have more personality this time around.  I chose a template that features a brightly colored watercolor painting, with rather indistinct shapes – they could be random blobs or perhaps flowers, who knows.  I liked the ambiguity of it, to be honest.  

To balance the tones of red, pink, and bright orange, I kept the side tabs, date tabs, and pages’ tabs a dark gray/black (but transparent).  I adjusted some of the color options for the text (kept it black on the posts for readability) to match the colors in the background image.  
I think the blog reflects some of my own personality, which in my Welcome post, I mentioned will be a key part of this research project.  I also recently discovered icons that I really like, including the flourish that now adorns most posts, echoing the flourishes Moore used in her book.

Key Issues & Keywords

The assignment from Dr. Logan:

Using your reading so far, course notes, and other materials as appropriate, list key issues raised by your selected text that are relevant to the study of representations of unruly women in early American literature. These issues could include genre, sub-genre (i.e. novel, short story, memoir; gothic, seduction tale, biography, etc.), subject matter (character, education, religion, crime, history, curiosity, etc.), and apparent readership.

Make a list of “keywords” for MLA and other database searches.  Make your list as specific as possible, noting page numbers and specific language, metaphors, patterns, etc. (It might be helpful to consult the National Union Catalog Subject Heading list at the UCF Library reference desk.)

[Submitted 19 September 2010] 

This is the list of issues, in alphabetical order, that I came up with prior to searching through the Library of Congress Subject Headings book (the red books behind the reference desk at the UCF Library).

1. Commonplace book studies
2. Delaware Valley, PA (during American Revolutionary War)
3. Female homosocial
4. Female literacy pre-Revolution through post-Revolution
5. Feminist theory
6. Friendship
7. Lesbian continuum
8. Manuscript studies
9. Quaker definitions of partner, soul, bosom friend
10. Quakers
11. Queer theory
12. Reading habits of the eighteenth–century American woman
13. Trans-Atlantic communication, pre-Revolution, Revolution, post-Revolution
14. Use of poetry by Quakers, especially women

While this list isn’t too shabby, it could be better.  I decided to search through the Library of Congress Subject Headings, because after all, these are the headings used by all the database search engines.  You can search through the subject headings online here, but I prefer to look through the book in person, especially since experience has taught me I’ll find so much more than expected if I do so.

These are what the "red books" look like, by the way:

 

Pioneer Woman -> Process -> BlogHer -> Homosocial -> MMMB

Last night, I was trying to think of what to post about next.  I had made a vow to myself to post more often than I did with my last project, Conduct Yourself.  Immediately after creating my blog, I went through and typed up all the “Food for Thought” suggestions in our research project syllabus into eight separate word documents.  I am hoping that by already having these prompts typed up, I will be more likely to follow through and post my responses.  Here’s to good intentions.

So, back to last night.  I could write my first food for thought response, or I could get more creative, but I was coming up blank.  I decided to browse through my daily websites for inspiration, and that my friends, is when I hit the jackpot.  The Pioneer Woman actually posted “Ten Important Things I’ve Learned About Blogging” earlier that same day.  She saved me.  This post ties into revealing the process of both research and blogging, which is what this project is all about (that and our selected texts).  If you’ve never heard of Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman, you are missing out, big time.  I am excited to find a way to tie her into my own research project because I love her and her website so much.  If you’re asking yourself what does a pioneer woman have to do with my research project, well, let’s take a look at her post on blogging.

Ree includes the following list:   

1. Be yourself.
2. Blog often.
3. Be varied.
4. Exercise more.
5. Allow your boundaries to set themselves naturally.
6. Bring back retro phrases like “hanky panky.”
7. Don’t be afraid to embarrass yourself.
8. Try your best to spell words correctly and use proper grammar.
9. If you have writer’s block, push through and blog anyway.
10. Value every person who takes time out of their day to stop by your blog.
11. I love ya.

You really need to click on the link for the full text of her post, because her writing is wonderfully humorous.  Even thought this is an academic research blog, as I stated in my Welcome post, there will be a mixture of academic and personal reflection.  I can’t keep my personal self out of this research and I think it would be a mistake to do so.  If I am not excited and passionate about this project, and if I cannot find a personal connection with the text, then why would I expect my readers to slog through boring and uninspired writing?  This is why I will be taking Ree’s advice to heart, especially number seven.  I’ll be expanding “don’t be afraid to embarrass yourself” to include taking risks, despite not knowing how things will turn out.  Because that’s what I’ll be doing with my project, taking a huge risk – I don’t know if I’ll be right or wrong but I know I’ll enjoy the process of finding out.