Sarah McCall DeLaRosa

Midterm – Web Review

Martin D. Briones, “Consequences of Flight”

http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR/5731/models/midterms/mt07f/mt07fbriones.htm

I chose this 2007 Midterm because the concept of the Flying Africans interests me. I had never heard of it and I remember mentally gawking in class when Dr. White introduced the topic—it’s just something so unique to me. I wanted to see what Briones had to say about it. I appreciated his treatment of the flight motif as necessitating “associated dangers” or consequences (Briones). Personally, I found his essay to be a little less polished, which caused me some problems in following the flow of his argument. However, I thought Briones’ use of previous students’ submissions and specific references to class discussion showed a lot of preparation and thoughtfulness on his part. I hope to be able to incorporate references like that into my own midterm submission.

Karen Hrametz, Poetry Presentation

http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR/5731/models/presentations/prsns06sp/po06/po06hrametz.htm

I decided that I wanted to review someone’s poetry presentation, and Hrametz’s discussion of Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise” in 2006 caught my attention because I really enjoyed that poem when we did it in our class. I was very interested when I read the biographical paragraph Hrametz included to inform the class about the more challenging events in Angelou’s life. Before reading this paragraph I did not know a single thing about Maya Angelou personally. I was very moved by the events of her life and I really appreciated Hrametz’s inclusion of that small biography in her presentation. I did not appreciate, however, her statement that Angelou is a “voice for all African-Americans” (Hrametz). I think it is foolish and even racist to assume that all people with black skin must have the same feelings, experiences, opinions, and emotions, to be expressed by one voice. And it is very much an undeserved pressure, and ridiculous assumption, to place the responsibility of speaking for any large group of people on the unsuspecting poet Maya Angelou. Angelou is undoubtedly a prominent black poet, but I do not agree with the implications of Hrametz’s statement.

corey porter!, Research Journal

http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR/5731/models/projects/projects07f/p07fporter.htm

Since one of our research options is a research journal, and I do not really know how I would do one, I decided to review someone else’s to get an idea of how they might be done. I chose Porter’s because the title made me laugh a little. I have to admit I had a hard time reading the journal though, because his writing style was grating on me. I understand that a journal is personal and Porter can write however he wants to. I just feel that, knowing that he was to turn this project in for evaluation, publication, and perusal by future students, he might have written in a more academic style. His voice was at times entertaining, but it mostly clouded my view of his argument and at times completely distracted me. I did appreciate the organization with which he presented his research process, and I valued having taken a look at his work to get an understanding of how one might approach a research journal. Perhaps I am being too strict in my review of Porter’s work, but I would have done it differently. It was entertaining though, when it was not frustrating.

Midterm – Essay

“A Rose by Any Other Name Would be Less Rosy: The Naming/Identity Crisis in African American Literature”

Names are an integral part of one’s identity, history, and personhood. First names, last names, middle names, nicknames—we all feel a sense of ownership and connection to our names. We are proud or embarrassed of the nickname we earned in middle school, nostalgic at the idea of relinquishing our maiden name in marriage (so some of us decide to keep it), and indignant when we hear a second and third “Sarah” being called in the class roll. Our names, be it irrational or natural, feel like a part of us, so it is no wonder that issues of naming are present in much of African American literature. A people whose history is bruised by the chains of slavery, they were the property of others and as such had none of the rights or considerations given to free men. This disproportionate relationship with the dominant culture has left African Americans with an identity crisis exemplified by their focus on names. The African American literature we have read in this class shows the progression they have made with their naming/identity crisis—from voiceless, forced participation to having the right and the responsibility to chose how to assert themselves.

Powerlessness

            Objective 1 for our class is “to define the ‘minority concept’ as a power relationship” between certain ethnic groups and the dominant American culture. Obj 1a deals with “involuntary (or forced) participation” of particular minorities like African Americans in mainstream American culture; and Obj 1b focuses on minorities as being “voiceless and choiceless,” as compared to the dominant American culture’s self-expression and self-determination. These issues of complete powerlessness are illustrated in the naming crises of the African American literature we have studied this semester.

In his journeys, as he was being passed from owner to owner as a slave, Olaudah Equiano was renamed three times, he writes in The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789). None of his owners cared to know or keep is African birth name, so they called him Michael, Jacob, and Gustavus Vassa. On a ship with one of his masters, Equiano remembers that “when I refused to answer to my new name, which at first I did, it gained me many a cuff; so at length I submitted, and was obliged to bear the present name, by which I have been known ever since” (Ch 3, par 7). At no time was Equiano considered when he was being renamed to suit his masters (Obj 1b). They threw off his old name and gave him a name for their convenience; that was all that mattered to the slave owners (Obj 1a). Even in his writings, as a free man, the slave name he was forced to accept follows him—he includes it in the title of his life’s narrative because that is how he was most well known.

            In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself (1861), Harriet Jacobs explains that her children “had no lawful claim to a name” (Ch XIV) because she was a slave and their father was a free white man (the law at the time being that children followed the condition of their mother, in this case, into slavery). Even beyond the law, Jacobs says that her children’s father’s last name would not have been accepted at their baptism, we can assume because of social mores. The legal code and the social structures at the time were set up to prevent her children from having a last name (Obj 1a), and though it saddened her she had no power or means to resist (Obj 1b).

            In Toni Morrison’s novel Song of Solomon (1977), we meet or hear about three characters with the unusual and unenviable name Macon Dead. In the middle of the first chapter, we learn that this family name had been passed down from an original “naming done to them by somebody who couldn’t have cared less.” The name “Macon Dead” was a mistake “scrawled in perfect thoughtlessness” (Ch1) by a drunken worker for the Freedman’s Bureau who was registering former slaves after the American Civil War. The man who became known as Macon Dead Sr. was an illiterate, newly freed man who was unable to read his papers to realize that the name that had been legally assigned to him was not his birth name but a product of a confused conversation with a muddled, unconcerned government official (Obj 1a and 1b). Unwittingly, Macon had been renamed and it followed his family for three generations.

How to Deal

Objective 4 for our class is “to register the minority dilemma of assimilation or resistance—i.e., do you fight or join the culture that oppressed you.” Keeping this objective in mind, it helps to illuminate episodes of assimilation, adaptation, and resistance accomplished by African Americans in and through their literature. With the bonds of slavery cast aside and (somewhat limited) freedom now their own, African Americans take on the responsibility to choose their own solutions in this naming/identity crisis they are often placed in.

            We have an example of Olaudah Equiano’s resistance to this naming problem he had been forced into in the title of his narrative, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. He uses his slave name, yes, but he also and firstly calls himself by his African birth name—and that is how we refer to him today. It may be said that Equiano both assimilates to and resists the name-oppression of the dominant culture in the titling of his narrative (Obj 4).

            In trying to preserve his safety and new found freedom, Frederick Douglass explains in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave, Written by Himself (1845), that he had to change his name himself many times. This was not forced upon him by anyone else. Rather, as a free person, he alone held the responsibility to keep himself safe and one of the ways he chose to do so was to change his name, thereby disguising his identity. The name he was born with, that his mother gave him was Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, and the many subsequent names he assumed included Frederick Bailey, Frederick Stanley, Frederick Johnson, and finally Frederick Douglass. Noting that he always retained the first name “Frederick,” Douglass told his friend, “I must hold on to that, to preserve as a sense of my identity” (Ch XI). Douglass’ name-switching is another example of assimilation with a hint of resistance (Obj 4)—though he acts within the culture to change his name and hide, he keeps hold of himself by refusing to lose his first name. In explanation of why he kept the name Frederick Douglass instead of perhaps reverting back to his birth name, he explains: “as I am more widely known by that name [Frederick Douglass] than by either of the others, I shall continue to use it as my own” (Ch XI).

            Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself is signed by the author, Linda Brent. We now know that “Linda Brent” was the penname of the former slave and writer Harriet Jacobs. Jacobs was making a similar decision to what Douglass had to when she decided to write under a new name to protect herself. She also protected the lives of the friends and acquaintances she mentions by giving them aliases as well. In her “Preface by the Author,” Jacobs states that she has “concealed the names of places, and given persons fictitious names” because she “deemed it kind and considerate towards others to pursue this course.” She finds a means of resistance and is able to tell her story by playing along with the dominant culture’s naming game and protecting her friends (Obj 4).

            By way of adapting to their illiteracy and the problems of naming, many of the characters in Song of Solomon get names for their children from the Bible. Magdalene (called Lena), First Corinthians, Pilate, Ruth, Reba (from Rebecca) and Hagar all receive their names from their parents’ eyes choosing, at random, “a group of letters that seemed to [them] strong and handsome” (Ch 1). This can be read as a form of assimilation, because they are giving their children “Christian” names from the Bible, but it is also a form of resistance because they are taking matters into their own hands and not being victimized by their illiteracy (Obj 4).

            Many of the characters and places in Song of Solomon do not go by their given names but by nicknames instead. Macon Dead III is called Milkman because of an awkward encounter between a neighbor, his mother, and he when he was a child. Milkman’s friend Guitar earned that nickname because as a boy he once admired the instrument in a shop window. Often in the bar with Milkman and Guitar, we meet men called Railroad Tommy, Hospital Tommy, and Empire State. There is also what is called “Not Doctor Street,” because, as we read in the beginning of Chapter 1, the residents of Southside resisted the local government’s attempt to rename a local landmark. These nicknames are all examples of the people voicing their discontent with some opposing force (perhaps an unseemly first name or the erasure of a local identity) and reacting against it (Obj 4).

            African American literature is working through the naming crisis that started with slavery. Working within and against the dominant American culture, African Americans are taking back their identities and establishing new ones. The slave narratives and contemporary works like Song of Solomon illustrate the situations of identity crisis with their treatment of names and renamings, and they show a resurrection of determination and confidence as they take the naming into their own hands.

Midterm – Research Plan

I intend to do a pair of research posts for my Research Option for this course. I believe they would provide me the opportunity to take a deeper look at some issues we cover in class. I am also hoping that some of this research could be used to springboard my work for my Master’s thesis.

My first research post will be on slave literature—not just slave narratives. I would like to include in my study the songs they sang in the fields, and any poetry, prayers, or other types of literature I can find, along with the traditional slave narratives. I will use the writings we read in class by Olaudah Equiano, Frederick Douglass, Jupiter Hammon, and Harriet Jacobs to begin my study. I am very interested in using this topic for my Master’s thesis, but I am still looking for my particular angle on it.

My second research post may be about American Indian literature, because I am becoming interested in that now that we are starting that section of the course. The class discussions we had concerning the North American Indian origin stories posed many leads that could be fruitful. We will also be covering Mexican American literature before the second research post is due, so I may chose to do something along that vein if I find it interesting.

I hope to report on what I find valuable in slave literature studies and in whatever other area I chose, and if I am lucky I could end up with the topic for my Master’s thesis by the time the semester ends.