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.

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:

[click for larger image]

From Post Secret (tumblr archive):

[click for larger image]

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.  

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:

 

Happy Happy, Joy Joy!

You can’t tell by reading this post, but earlier tonight, while reading the first entry in MMMB, I was doing my happy dance (theme music provided by Ren & Stimpy).  It was a silent version of my happy dance because I was in one of the graduate study rooms in the library, but you get the idea.  The first entry in MMMB is titled “An Essay on Friendship,” and I’ve typed out the whole thing, all 160 lines, below, so we can all be on the same page.

My immediate reaction was something along the lines of “heck yeah!” because as you’ll see from the poem below, there are many references to bonds of friendship these women formed with each other.  Key words and phrases struck me:

strong affections, hearts cemented, mutual love, tender tye, union of the soul, sacred bond, tender joy, divine friendship, bosom friend, sacred trust, fond partner of their soul, sweet bonds of friendship, and friendly souls.

That's just to name a few.  And while some might find the language of the poem a little hokey by today’s standards, especially because of the rhyming couplet format, I found it sweet and sincere.  There is real love, warmth, and tenderness present in these lines by Hannah Griffitts.  There is also, if I’m not mistaken, a tone of instruction on how to maintain this type of intimate relationship with other women.  There are also sections of the poem that deal with the death of women, and how it affects the friends left behind.  I think my hunch concerning MMMB as a concrete site of the lesbian continuum is not so far off, and that’s a relief to me. 

Enjoy the poem, after the jump.

Quickie

This post will be a quickie, just two more definitions that are meant to help me better understand the Queer theory I’ll be using for my project.

Definition of lesbian continuum from The Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism:

A term introduced by Adrienne Rich in her essay on COMPULSORY HETEROSEXUALITY, lesbian continuum refers to the broad spectrum of intimate relations between women, from those involving the experience of or desire for genital sexuality, to mother-daughter relationships and female friendships, to ties of political solidarity – all of them “forms of primary intensity between and among women.”  Rich associates such bonds, within each woman’s life and throughout the course of history, with resistance to heterosexuality and male domination.  The concept is similar to what Carroll Smith-Rosenberg and Eve Sedgwick describe as “female homosocial” ties, including but not limited to explicitly lesbian ones.  It has been part of the feminist critical project to call attention to such ties as a theme in literary texts and as a pattern of influence among women writers.  See also HOMOSOCIAL, LESBIAN CRITICISM.

Rich, Adrienne.  “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence.”  In Blood, Bread, and Poetry: Selected Prose 1979-1985.  New York: Norton, 1986.

Sedgwick, Eve.  Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire.  New York: Columbia University Press, 1985.
 
Smith-Rosenberg, Caroll.  “The Female World of Love and Ritual: Relations Between Women in Nineteenth-Century America.”  In Disorderly Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victorian America.  New York: Knopf, 1985.

This definition is fascinating, and the use of the term broad spectrum reminds me of the Kinsey scale, a sliding scale of sexuality.  Specifically, it reminds me of the idea that the boundaries between heterosexuality and homosexuality are not necessarily solid and/or impenetrable. 

A point that I’m not sure I agree with is the idea that these feminine bonds are formed within the framework of “resistance” to heterosexuality and male domination.  Why does the lesbian continuum have to be pressed against a framework of resistance, instead of working independent of male domination?  Is this resistance to heterosexuality the only way to reveal these bonds between women?  If so, why? 

After reading this definition, I realize that I really, really, really need to read Rich’s article.  It is also pretty clear to me that Rich’s stance is rather radical.  The benefits of a radical stance is, in my opinion, that it breaks open the issue, tearing it open to a broad spectrum of responses.  I will also try to track down the reviews of Rich’s article, which should help gauge the reaction of her peers at the time of publication -which, incidentally, was in 1980, a year before I was born.         

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.     

Artifact Inventory

The assignment from Dr. Logan:
 
As early American scholars seeking to analyze the literary representations of unruly women, we must first understand the text as a material artifact, an object that circulated in and had meaning for specific readers who lived in a particular socio-cultural moment.  By considering the text as an artifact, we draw closer to understanding how the text functioned in its original context.  While we may be unable to travel to archives in Boston, New York, or Philadelphia, we can look at digitized or microfilm images of the original objects and learn about how particular texts looked, felt, and circulated.  To that end, our initial research activities will introduce us to our chosen texts as material objects.

[Submitted: 3 September 2010]


Question 1:  When, where, and by whom was your text first printed?

Answer:  When: Because the common place book was unpublished, there is no publication date.  According to the scholars Blecki and Wulf, authors of the modern edition, the entries were compiled during the middle years of the American Revolution, between 1760 and 1770. 

That is not to say that the contents were necessarily written between this time frame.  Blecki notes the earliest poem is from 1704 and the latest, 1788.  Wulf notes that “[s]ignificant clusters of material are dated between 1764 and 1769 and from 1773 through 1776” (38). 

Where: Milcah Martha Moore resided in the Delaware Valley area in Pennsylvania, amongst Quakers (aka the Society of Friends).

By whom: Moore was the only known transcriber, but none of the entries were written by her.  The three main contributors were Susanna Wright, Hannah Griffitts, and Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson. 

There are 13 unidentified authors that are possibly men; the rest of the entries are by women.  There are at least 16 distinct authors. 

Not all of the content of the commonplace book is original prose and/or poetry.  Reprints of original content by “noted intellectuals and prominent colonials, Quaker and non-Quaker, and people from many sides of the debate over the American Revolution” (xiii) are scattered throughout.

Speculation:  The creation of a commonplace book speaks to me of commitment, passion for literary expression, creativity, generosity, and a keen mind. 

Moore’s commonplace book was a creation meant for sharing and delighting in the works of her friends and family, to showcase their talents and to preserve their work.  It’s a physical representation of her love for them (and their love for her).  It’s obvious this book was a long-term commitment, requiring careful thought in terms of editorship. 

Plus, the act of carefully handwriting 132 pages of prose and poetry, making sure it was legible for her intended audience, must have been exhausting.  I know my handwriting is terrible and it would have taken a great deal of concentration for me to accomplish her feat. 

I find it fascinating that the book was complied during the middle years of the American Revolution, perhaps when it felt to Moore and her friends and family that no end to the war or a happy solution was in sight.  I am eager to begin reading through the entries to see the war through the lens of Moore, a Quaker and Loyalist.

My previous experience has always been through men’s writing – Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, etc.  And most of those writings were strictly political.


Question 2: How often was your text reprinted?  List all of the reprints.  Do not confuse dates of publisher’s/printer’s birth and death with reprint dates.

Answer:  A modern edition was edited by scholars Catherine La Courreye Blecki and Karin A. Wulf and published in 1997.

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

The original commonplace book is located in the Edward Wanton Smith Collection, in the Quaker Collection Library at Haverford College, Pennsylvania.  Its current status is “in house only” and there are no digitized copies of the original manuscript.

Moore, Milcah Martha. MS 955. Edward Wanton Smith Collection, Haverford College.

Speculation:  What is most frustrating is the lack of a digitized copy of the actual manuscript.  I haven’t contacted the Edward Wanton Smith Collections yet, but I do want to find out if the text is even available for scanning, photocopying and/or photography.  Though Blecki and Wulf state that the text is in excellent condition, that doesn’t mean it will withstand the scanning or photocopying process.

The modern edition does contain a picture of the title page as well as a picture of two pages containing two poems, but it’s not the same as having an actual copy.

I should state though, that I am satisfied that Blecki and Wulf made an accurate and complete transcription based on the “Notes on the Text” section.  This section describes their textual methodology, which “maintains the eighteenth-century character of the text as Moore transcribed it with as few modifications as possible, while offering a readable text for twentieth-century students and scholars” (xxiii).

Welcome

Welcome to my research blog, Bonds of Intimacy.  This is my second experience using Blogger to record and make public the process of a semester long research project that culminates in a conference paper and presentation.  My first experience is visible here, at my blog Conduct Yourself.  Feel free to explore my previous work, both Conduct Yourself and the wiki-styled page I created with three other classmates, Geography of Milton’s Paradise Lost.  See my bio for more details about the classes and professors. 

Because this project encourages us to record the process, this blog will not be perfect.  The components of the research project posted will be the copies I submitted to Dr. Logan for a grade – not corrected copies.  Sometimes I will be right, but more often (probably) I will be wrong.  But that’s okay.  What is important is that I learn with each assignment, expanding my base of knowledge.  It will be messy, even chaotic at times.  You will learn how nerdy I am, that my social life (what little there is to begin with) will take a backseat to this project because I get severe tunnel vision, and that if I forget to bring a sweatshirt to the fourth floor of the UCF Library, I will complain about the cold and how it makes my nose drip.  In short, the life of an English literature graduate student is decidedly unsexy.  But that’s okay too.

This blog, by its very nature, will be a strange, and perhaps uneasy, combination of academic product and personal reflections.  I am in a way, taking my cue from Anne G. Myles, whose article "From Monster to Martyr: Re-Presenting Mary Dyer" we read for our second class.  In her article, she states, “My approach to, and need for, this material is obviously informed by the fact that I encounter it as both a Quaker and lesbian reader looking for a usable past; however, these seem to me powerful, challenging dimensions in any context” (18).  The material she references is the relationship between Anne Hutchinson and Mary Dyer, and it is Myles’s hope that it can be categorized as a “’lesbian’ scene in seventeenth-century America” (18) – as based on the idea of the lesbian continuum¹.  

It is this article, and specifically the class discussion we had concerning this claim of a lesbian scene, that birthed (pun intended) my thesis: that the commonplace book Milcah Martha Moore created is a physical representation of her love for her friends, and their love for her.  That these women belong somewhere on the lesbian continuum, I am sure.  I am risking my entire research project on this claim because in a way, despite being neither a Quaker nor a lesbian such as Myles, I too am looking for a usable past.  I want to believe that despite the political, social, economical, religious, and legal restrictions women faced in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century America, they could in fact, rely on each other.  It is important to me to believe they could turn to each other for love (sexual or non-sexual), comfort, support, affection, advice, and friendship to form intimate bonds, both in spite of and despite the men involved in their lives.     

Feel free to explore my blog, and especially feel free to comment on its design and content (what little there is so far).  I hope my enthusiasm for this project is contagious, and that you, my readers, stick around until the conclusion.

¹The lesbian continuum, as Dr. Logan explained in class, is like a sliding scale.  On the one end, you have women who are friends with women, and at the other, women who have sex with other women.  I must admit that is the extent of my knowledge on this theory, so of course, I have more research to do.



Works Cited:
Myles, Anne G.  “From Monster to Martyr.”  Early American Literature 36.1 (2001):  1-30. JSTOR.  Web. 24 August 2010.