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LITR 5831 Seminar in
World / Multicultural Literature:
American Immigrant Literature |
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trans-nationals in Immigrant Voices
pages from Why Cafeteria?
Irish immigrants 1840s exiles, immigrants
seminar review
Work out schedule however you can; when in doubt communicate
Welcome to run partial drafts by me, I'll do what I can in time given
I'll spend weekend reading grad and undergrad exams (+ grad posts)
Won't finish till Monday or Tuesday
Mid-to-late next week, look for email grade report
welcome to reply and continue discussion as helpful whenever
Content review
attempt at flexible, adaptable system for classifying, varying, discussing American multiculturalism
A few large categories--immigrants, minorities, dominant culture--with permeable boundaries
specializes to historical / cultural / personal differences
contrast to default multiculturalism: everyone gets their turn, choose your favorites
never enough time to cover every identity group
summary:
all are created equal, so everyone gets to speak for themselves, but unique cultural histories shape every identity and story (consciously or not)
fiction-nonfiction
nonfiction can be excerpted
seminar good-natured, esp. considering individual stress-levels and fatigue from 5-wks session
Appreciated your deference to my interruptions and know-it-all-ism, but tried to shut up--one sentence per contribution?
Always wish to be a better lecturer and discussion leader, but compensate by setting up questions and expecting students to answer, then adapting to response
1. As a great work of literature, how does Long Day's Journey exceed our categories or terms of study? How much is the Immigrant Narrative essential to Long Day's Journey, or how much can you study the play more generally as timeless art, as tragedy, etc.?
1a. How essential to emergent and classic American literatureis is this narrative and its corollary the American Dream? Can multicultural literary studies discuss and promote literary excellence as well as representation of competing identities, or is "excellence" just code for the old hegemonic patriarchal voice?
119 fear of the poorhouse
His father deserted . . . homesick for Ireland
120 So he went and he did die
120 work in a machine shop
121 made everything in life seem rotten
122 your own father . . . consumption
149 at home I first learned the value of a dollar and the fear of the poorhouse
banks fail . . . keep land
You've had everything
hard work = game of romance and adventure, play
150 damned atheistic morbidness
father > Ireland + suicide? rat poison
mother = stranger in a strange land
My two older brothers had moved to other parts.
x-romance in our poverty
evicted, mother and sisters crying, man of the family
151 you talk of work!
the Yanks, some Yank
a dollar extra
once you've learned a lesson, hard to unlearn it
152 millionaire factory owners
that mistake ruined my career as a fine actor
a great money success--it ruined me
become a slave to the damned thing
153 What the hell was it I wanted to buy . . .
2. Discuss "dreams" in speeches by Tyrone, Mary, and Edmund, particularly the coincidence of Tyrone's dream with the immigrant narrative and the American Dream. Relate to recurrent rhetoric of "dream" throughout course and American identity.
--the “Dream” as failed romance > tragedy—Tyrone, Mary, Edmund
Dream easily confused or conflated with any dream
read quote from O'Neill
unreal reality that everyone shares--or doesn't
symbols of truth--Freudian dream-interpretation
American Dream--success, nightmare, or hallucination?
"I have a dream"--social justice
89 dreamed it
99 drink . . . refuge and release in a dream where present reality is but an appearance
104 dreamed of becoming a nun
106 two dreams: nun, concert pianist
107 handsomer than my wildest dream
different from all ordinary men
108 someone from another world
brought back from her dream
109 relaxed dreaminess
131 If he's ever had a loftier dream than whores and whiskey . . .
132 I loved the fog
133 Ernest Dowson, days of wine and roses . . . closes within a dream
to be alone and myself in another world
a ghost within a ghost
134 such stuff as dreams are made on
140 her dream . . . concert pianist
not one in a million
141 the idea . . . to become a nun. That's the worst.
3. Long Day's Journey connects the Immigrant story with America's mobile culture and its loss of "home": easily observed, but what gains from this connection? What are the implications or consequences of mobile culture on family life, gender identity, community, etc.
37 This home has been a home again.
45 only home we've ever had, x-home
64 people who have homes
x-home but wants a home
69 so sick and tired of pretending this is a home!
74 second-rate hotels . . . as if this was a home
75 McGuire, piece of property
> property, x-home
88 my father's home
102 barrooms where they feel at home
104 on stage?
respectable home, best convent
I've never felt at home with them
157 a stranger who never feels at home
4. Objective 2d. How do the Tyrone family's generations exemplify the immigrant narrative: first-generation as heroic, second-generation as Americanizing (but intimately connected to first-generation ± Old Country).
19 premature disintegration
31 If Edmund was land . . .
32 never known value of a dollar
32 you forced me on stage
33 x-gratitude, x-ambition
34 Edmund fired from college
Irish peasant idea that consumption is fatal
keep your dirty tongue off Ireland, peasants, bogs, hovels
35 you've been the worst influence for him
45 disgraced yourself, no responsible parents
63 stop sneering at your father
66 can't help being what the past has made him
5. How does Irish-American experience fulfill or exemplify the immigrant narrative? How much does Irish-American culture remain uniquely Irish? Catholic? Whether or how to discuss characters' alcoholism as a historical sign of Irish identity?
19 Irish charm
19 long, narrow Irish face
22 Shaughnessy
Shanty Mick
23 Harker, Standard Oil millionaire
28 Irish lilt
29 Bridget so lazy and shy . . . her relatives [extended family]
41 That Bridget . . . second cousin on police force in St. Louis [Irish + politics]
47 servant, stupid Cathleen
53 Cathleen buxom Irish peasant
54 drink kill uncle of mine in the old country
55 what a wench
56 Cathleen = our wild Irish lark
68 whiskey in moderation = best of tonics
101 divil
103 good man's failing
113 His people were the most ignorant kind of poverty-stricken Irish
118 Cathleen and Bridget work hard for poor wages
129 Shakespeare an Irish Catholic + Duke of Wellington
139 father x-Irish gentleman
139-40 prosperous enough in his wholesale grocery business
140 champagne drinker + consumption
13 Irish lilt, forebears, peasant
x-romantic, picturesque
15 property > profit
land
18 don't start in on poor Jamie
19 premature disintegration
19 Irish charm
19 long, narrow Irish face
21 quotes Othello
dope sheet on ponies
22 Shaughnessy
Shanty Mick
23 Harker, Standard Oil millionaire
king of America
Socialist gabble
24 king of Ireland
26 scold Jamie
28 Irish lilt
29 Bridget so lazy and shy . . . her relatives
31 fine society doctors, rich summer people
If Edmund was land . . .
32 never known value of a dollar
32 you forced me on stage
33 x-gratitude, x-ambition
34 Edmund fired from college
Irish peasant idea that consumption is fatal
keep your dirty tongue off Ireland, peasants, bogs, hovels
35 you've been the worst influence for him
37 This home has been a home again.
41 That Bridget . . . second cousin on police force in St. Louis
44 Chatfields in their new Mercedes
Chatfields and people like them
45 NY hotel
45 only home we've ever had, x-home
disgraced yourself, no responsible parents
47 servant, stupid Cathleen
2.1
53 Cathleen buxom Irish peasant
54 drink kill uncle of mine in the old country
55 what a wench
56 Cathleen = our wild Irish lark
63 stop sneering at your father
63 lost your true self forever
64 people who have homes
greenhorns
x-home but wants a home
66 can't help being what the past has made him
68 whiskey in moderation = best of tonics
69 so sick and tired of pretending this is a home!
2.2
73 x-find fault with Bridget
74 second-rate hotels . . . as if this was a home
75 McGuire, piece of property
> property, x-home
76 will power
79 one true faith of the Catholic Church
bad Catholic in observance, but I believe
81 consumption
x-my side of the family
82 your Irish bog-trotter idea
83 keep your tongue off Ireland . . . map of it on your face
insult to the Old Sod
87 Waste > poorhouse
secondhand bargains
88 my father's home
89 dreamed it
90 past = present = future
96 no longer call my soul my own
Act 3
99 drink; Cathleen's stupid, good-humored face
refuge and release in a dream where present reality is but an appearance
100 confiding familiarity
a banshee
everything has changed
101 divil
102 barrooms where they feel at home
103 good man's failing
trauneen
traneen: Anglicized spelling of
Irish traithnín,
trathnan, a little stalk of
grass
grippe: influenza
money, property, fear of poverty
104 on stage?
respectable home, best convent
dreamed of becoming a nun
I've never felt at home with them
105 Bridget's lies about her relations
106 music in the convent
two dreams: nun, concert pianist
107 the medicine?
only the past when you were happy is real.
great matinee idol
play about French Revolutiohn and leading part was a nobleman [Count of Monte Cristo]
handsomer than my wildest dream
different from all ordinary men
108 someone from another world
brought back from her dream
109 relaxed dreaminess
110 Tyrone a lot to drink
111 poison life for you
112 only learn to take life seriously
113 So I'm to blame?
His people were the most ignorant kind of poverty-stricken Irish
114 act like your real self
117 Where is my wedding gown now?
118 Cathleen and Bridget work hard for poor wages
119 fear of the poorhouse
His father deserted . . . homesick for Ireland
120 So he went and he did die
120 work in a machine shop
121 made everything in life seem rotten
122 your own father . . . consumption
125 a curse put on you without you knowing or willing it
Act 4
127 he has not escaped
128 burning up money
129 to hell with your figures
Shakespeare an Irish Catholic + Duke of Wellington
130 3 bulbs > poorhouse
131 If he's ever had a loftier dream than whores and whiskey . . .
132 I loved the fog
133 Ernest Dowson, days of wine and roses . . . closes within a dream
to be alone and myself in another world
a ghost within a ghost
134 such stuff as dreams are made on
136 deny God, deny hope
137 pleasures vulgar herd can never understand
137 Dowson: booze and consumption
library
138 whoremongers and degenerates
Shakespeare a souse?
good man's failing x poison
139 ghost haunting past, before I was born
father x-Irish gentleman
139-40 prosperous enough in his wholesale grocery business
140 champagne drinker + consumption
140 her dream . . . concert pianist
not one in a million
141 the idea . . . to become a nun. That's the worst.
141 pretty horrible
142 as if, in spite of loving us, she hated us
damned poison, cursed poison
She's not to blame! . . . You are!
143 What did I know of morphine?
146 You think I'm going to die
147 poisoned your mind
the state famr
land poor
148 be fair to you because I knew what you'd been up against as a kid
can't help being what you are
pride or shame?
148-9 All I care about is / to have you get well.
149 at home I first learned the value of a dollar and the fear of the poorhouse
banks fail . . . keep land
You've had everything
hard work = game of romance and adventure, play
150 damned atheistic morbidness
father > Ireland + suicide? rat poison
mother = stranger in a strange land
My two older brothers had moved to other parts.
x-romance in our poverty
evicted, mother and sisters crying, man of the family
151 you talk of work!
the Yanks, some Yank
a dollar extra
once you've learned a lesson, hard to unlearn it
152 millionaire factory owners
that mistake ruined my career as a fine actor
a great money success--it ruined me
become a slave to the damned thing
153 greatest artistic promise
worked like hell
wild with ambition
I read all the plays ever written
Edwin Booth
my good bad luck made me find the big moneymaker
great romantic part
life had me where it wanted me
What the hell was it I wanted to buy . . .
155 where is it now?
old trunk in attic cf. dress
156 drunk with beauty, lost myself
Dreaming . . . ecstatic freedom
veil of things drawn back
157 a stranger who never feels at home
158 to hell with old Gaspard
159 pass out . . . Can't, that's trouble.
160 tonight doesn't count
the old sob act
161 Old Gaspard, the miser in "The Bells" [Les Cloches de Corneville, 1876, popular operetta trans. as The Bells of Corneville The Chimes of Normandy.]
162 Fat Violet
163 business was business
164 where I've got--nowhere
165 hophead . . . booze talking
166 caught her in the act with a hypo
never dreamed before that any women but whores took dope
167 family White Hope (cf. The Great White Hope by Howard Sackler, 1967 play depicting Jack Johnson, 1878-1946, called Jack Jefferson in play]
168 warn you--against me
169 on purpose . . . the part . . . that hates life
x-work as sucker's game
I love you more than I hate you.
170 Gone to confession
178 the damned poison