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LITR 4326 Early American Literature Model Assignments |
Final Exam Essays 2017 Sample answers
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Chelsea Brotherton
December 12, 2017
Evaluating the Qualities of Pleasurable Literature
One of the biggest things that I have learned
in this course is to evaluate a piece of writing for its literary value, and
analyze what it is about that work that makes it either informative,
pleasurable, valuable, or invaluable. Before this course, I just read something
and then drew my own conclusion about whether or not I enjoyed that piece of
writing; there was never any thought given to why I did
or did not like the piece, and what
implications that had for the value of the writing. Through this course I have
learned how to evaluate why I do, or do not, like something, and that a work not
being enjoyable doesn’t necessarily mean that it holds no literary value.
In my midterm I wrote about what makes
something enjoyable to read, and highlighted that “through the combination of
action, dialogue, and writing style, it is not enough to have one of these
traits to make an entertaining work; in order to make a text pleasurable, it
must be written with at least two of these qualities.” I still believe that, as
a general rule of thumb, at a base level if a work has at least two of those
qualities, it will be somewhat enjoyable. However, there was another factor that
I missed in my analysis through my midterm that you brought up to me in my
critique: subject matter. The subject matter of a piece of writing has a very
large impact on the reception of the work. For instance, in my midterm I looked
at The Federalist Papers, which is a broad piece of political writing that works
more with abstract thought and ideals. The other pieces that I analyzed
delved much more into personal and individual
aspects of life, and told much more of a story. It is these individual stories
that have more pull for being pleasurable to the everyday reader, as being able
to connect with a character who is relatable often times makes a work easier and
more enjoyable to read. I will pay attention to this difference throughout this
paper, as the personal vs. universal subject matter plays a large role in the
reception and enjoyment of a work of literature.
Now that I have established a set of criteria
on which a piece of writing might be judged for pleasurableness, I can take a
look at objective 4, and place works on a sort of time line of literary
progress. I can rate a work, and place it based on where it fits in according to
contemporary conventions, such as the ones I have previously laid out here.
Taking a look at Samson Occum’s “A Short Narrative of My Life,” Susana Rowson’s
Charlotte Temple, and Charles
Brockden Brown’s Edgar Huntly: Memoirs of
a Sleep-Walker, we can see how and where they fall along a timeline on the
way to contemporary and popular literature.
Samson Occum’s “A Short Narrative of My Life”
is just that, a simple narrative. There is no dialogue throughout the work,
there is really no action so much as a plain retelling of events, and the
writing style is sorely bland. This text seems to be written much more for
information than for pleasure. The writing style from Occum is exemplified here:
” When the half year expired, they desired me to continue with them, which I
complied with, for another half year, when I had fulfilled that, they were
urgent to have me stay longer. So I continued amongst them till I was Married,
which was about 2 years after I went there” (Occum, 9); the text is very linear,
with a first, next, then.. timeline style of events. This dry writing style
coupled with the plain language and lack of action lends this text to be quite
boring. Although, the subject matter of this text is one that is personal, and
tells a story. So why, then, so we not connect with this character, or take much
pleasure from this story? I see this is a distinction in the method of
story-telling; picture a bed time story, vs. an old man’s retelling of his
life’s events. The bed time story is usually in the present and lively, while an
old man’s is told as Occum’s is: the linear recounting of events. I think it
takes much more skill to create a compelling story from a recounting of events,
rather than placing your story in present action. So, though Occum’s subject
matter is personal, it is told in a way that lends it to be dry and unenjoyable.
This story would be placed farther back on a literary timeline, when the
conventions of modern popular literature were still unknown, and writers were
still exploring writing pieces for pleasure.
Susana Rowson’s
Charlotte Temple would be placed much
further along the literary timeline than Occum’s work.
Charlotte Temple opens immediately
with dialogue between two characters, narration, and characters in action: “’Are
you for a walk," said Montraville to his companion, as they arose from table;
"are you for a walk? or shall we order the chaise [carriage] and proceed to
Portsmouth?" Belcour preferred the former; and they sauntered out to view the
town, and to make remarks on the inhabitants, as they [the townspeople] returned
from church” (Rowson, 1.1). This is immediately attention-grabbing; the reader
is left to wonder who these characters are, what their purpose is, and where the
story will go from here. Throughout the rest of the novel, Rowson continues to
use dialogue, action, and narration. Her writing style is
much more entertaining than Occum’s, due to the
pace of the narration; Occum’s work drags on very slowly whereas Rowson’s flows
better due to the quick pace. However, that quick pace becomes a too-fast pace
at times, and Rowson runs the risk of confusing or losing her reader. So, pace,
too, should be considered in evaluating the satisfaction of a literary text. As
for the whole of Charlotte Temple,
it’s storyline is personal, intimate, and dramatic; it has all of the makings of
an enjoyable reading. We get in depth characters who face universally human
issues of love and loneliness. Charlotte
Temple has a personal subject matter, relatable characters, dialogue,
narration, action, and a quick- albeit sometimes too much so- pace. I think this
novel would be placed much farther along the literary timeline than Occum’s “A
Short Narrative of My Life,” but still not quite to the end of contemporary
popular literature. Charlotte Temple
has many of the makings of contemporary literature, but does not quite make the
mark.
Charles Brockden Brown’s
Edgar Huntly: Memoirs of a Sleep-Walker
falls in line quite well with Rowson’s work as far as placement on our
literary timeline. This novel starts off as a letter, which seems to be a
convention often used in the pre-modern novel to get things started in a work
meant for pleasure. This convention works very well in giving the novel a
reasonable starting point. Brown’s subject matter is personal, and tells a story
full of relatable characters. Throughout the novel there is a fair bit of
dialogue between characters, a good amount of action and plot, but an
overwhelming amount of narration. Where Rowson’s pace was often too quick,
Brown’s pace is excruciatingly slow at times and renders the novel difficult to
get through. There are enormous spans within Brown’s work that are entirely too
detailed, rambling, and boring, especially the narration of Clithero’s story.
There are moments of the novel that have great action and dialogue:
At the same moment a pistol flashed at my ear, and a report followed. This,
however, produced no other effect than, for a short space, to overpower my
senses. I staggered back, but did not fall. The ball, as I afterwards
discovered, had grazed my forehead, but without making any dangerous impression.
The assassin, perceiving that his pistol had been ineffectual, muttered, in an
enraged tone, "This shall do your business!" At the same time, he drew a knife
forth from his bosom. (Brown, 7.37-7.38)
But even in this moment where Clithero has been
attacked with a gun, narrowly escaped death from the bullet, and Wiatte is
coming for him with a knife, the pace of the story does not quicken. This
section of text is no more lively than any other, and though full of action and
some dialogue, produces no more pleasurable effects than without. Even though
Brown’s work does have action, dialogue, and a personal subject matter, his
writing style and slow pace create a work that is slow to read and altogether
not that enjoyable. However, I do think this text would be placed right along
with Charlotte Temple on our literary
timeline, as it does achieve a great likeness to the modern novel in regards to
the action, dialogue, and subject matter of contemporary works.
It seems to me, unlike in my midterm, that
there is a lot more at play with the enjoyableness of a text than action,
dialogue, and writing style. I have highlighted that subject matter and pace
both have great effects on the pleasure of a text, however different
combinations of these things result in great differences in the pleasure of
reading the work. A piece of writing can have all of the action, dialogue, and
narration in the world, but if the pace is too fast or the subject matter too
distant, it can end up failing the reader. Likewise a novel could have a great
pace, personal subject matter, action, dialogue, and narration, and still become
a failure for a reader because of the author’s writing style. So, it is clear
that there are a whole lot of factors that contribute to making a piece of
writing enjoyable to read, and that this is no science. It may be entirely
impossible to predict how pleasurable a piece of writing will be based on any
characteristics. Reading is a very subjective experience, and it’s entirely up
to the reader whether or not they enjoy a particular piece of writing; but, I
think that you can get a fairly good indication of when a work of has the
possibility of being enjoyable based on many of these characteristics. Beyond
assessing work for its enjoyableness in this course, I have learned about the
value of works that I don’t particularly enjoy. Just because a work doesn’t
bring me pleasure doesn’t mean that there is no useful information or nothing to
be learned from it. There are many works which are not pleasant to read, but
which hold valuable information or lessons to be learned. Also, the literary
timeline that we have been looking at in class is very interesting to see the
evolution of writing through the years, and how far it has really come. These
works are not like modern writing, but it is cool to see the beginnings of the
similar conventions play out in these early novels.
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