To Kill a Mockingbird

As you read To Kill a Mockingbird, think about how this novel reflects upon the decade we have just studied. We spoke today about the nostalgic voice that opens the text and how this voice is a mixture of child-like innocence and a more adult sensibility. Check out this remarkable clip of the film's introductory credits: click here.

Please post questions and comments about the text below.

Richard Wright (1908-1960), Native Son (1940)

Wright in Paris, 1949

Click on over to the University of Illinois' Modern American Poetry website to see this link for information on Wright's life and career, a chronology of his work, a link to a PBS photo archive of his life, and other resources. Also check out the Mississippi Writers Page here for more information about Wright's life and work. If you are interested in knowing more, you might want to read Hazel Rowley's biography entitled Richard Wright: The Life and Times (2001; a review in the NY Times is available here).

Please post responses to the text below.

More on Steinbeck

NPR has a great story on the controversies that Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath inspired . This story chronicles how the book was banned and burned in a number of places, including Kern County, California (the endpoint of the Joad family's migration). Listen to or read the story here. The NPR page also features Rick Wartzman's book Obscene in the Extreme: The Burning and Banning of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, which covers this history in greater detail.

And, as I mentioned in class, here's the link for Bruce Springsteen's "The Ghost of Tom Joad," which underscores the popular resonance of Steinbeck's tale.

Upcoming Readings: The Grapes of Wrath

Since I imagine a number of you will have different editions of this text, I'm providing chapter numbers below.

Friday March 19: Up to Chapter 10

I highly suggest that you try to finish the text over spring break.

Monday March 29: Up to Chapter 21

Wednesday March 31: Up to Chapter 27

Friday April 2: To end; clips from John Ford's film will be shown in class.

"Take This Job and Write It" Article in the NY TImes

Today's NY Times Book Review had a great essay on why so little fiction comments directly on the experience of work. Jennifer Schuessler, the author of the article ("Take This Job and Write It"), draws upon the literature of the Great Depression and specifically mentions John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. Read the piece here.

Nathanael West, The Day of the Locust

West's text gives us a chance to slow down a bit and carefully read a short piece after Agee's epic Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.

March 5: For Friday's class, please come in prepared to discuss your papers and read up to page 18 of The Day of the Locust (59-88, up to Chapter 10 if you are reading a different edition; note that the edition you have also has Miss Lonelyhearts in it--a separate text).

March 8: 89-135 (up to Chapter 19)

March 10: 135-end

March 12: Continue discussing the end and the text as a whole.

Here are some online resources to help you get started: a great article from the LA Times on the writing of The Day of the Locust here. The trailer for the movie version can be found here on YouTube. And--only after you've finished the text!--check out one of the dramatic scenes from the film here.

Article on Depression Era Film from Sunday's NY Times

Click here to read this Sunday's NY Times article on the DVD release of Leo McCarey's Make Way for Tommorrow (1937). It has never been released on video until now--and now it forms the 505th film in the Criterion Collection. Please add it to the list of extra credit films that I recently passed out.

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men Comments

Please see some of the previous posts for additional resources on Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Describe below any aspect of the opening of the text that you find interesting. Some questions to think about: how would you describe Agee's style? How does it contrast or complement the photographs by Walker Evans? In what ways does this text break with traditional documentary aesthetics? Where does it depart from "realism"? How does Agee bring his own body and subjectivity into the text? How does he represent the poor? What are the power relationships you see in the text?

More on Depression Era Photography

Extraordinary photo essay here, featuring many of the photographs we examined in today's class.

Photo images by Dorothea Lange set to music by Bing Crosby here (YouTube)

Follow up story from one of the children in Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother" photograph here.

Library of Congress webpage with links to many more photographs.

Music from the 1930s

"Pennies from Heaven": Billie Holiday video and song here.

"Strange Fruit" by Billie Holiday here.

"Brother Can You Spare a Dime?" Bing Crosby, Lyrics by Yip Harburg (YouTube). Great Tom Waits cover here.

Woodie Guthrie website here.

Lyrics for some popular songs of the Great Depression here.

Jazz during the Great Depression here (from PBS's remarkable Ken Burns Jazz series).

Agee/Walker: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

Part of what we will discuss in class over the next few days is the "truthfulness" of "documentary" images. Please read this discussion between Errol Morris and James Curtis here.

Upcoming Readings: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

February 17: Finish Sullivan's Travels (less than 10 minutes remaining). Discuss film and upcoming paper assignment.

February 19: Music, photography (see syllabus). Please bring your copies of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. We will examine the prefatory material, including the photographs at the front of the text. Start reading the text, because we will be moving through it relatively quickly.

February 22: Let Us Now up to page 65, including all prefatory material

February 24: 66-193

February 26: 194-278

March 1: 279-page break on 343

March 3: to end. Paper DUE.

Hollywood in the Depression

The decade marked by the Great Depression and leading into World War II is remembered as Hollywood’s Golden Age. During this period, new genres were formed, new stars were born, and the studio system rose to mammoth status. The eight major studios, each known for its distinctive style and stars, collectively produced 95% of all American films. More than 7,500 features were released by the studios between 1930 and 1945 to eager audiences. More than 80 million people took in a least one film per week at the height of the cinema’s popularity. This period also saw the introduction of the Production Code, B-Films, and the first animated feature of Snow White.The 30s was also the decade of the sound and color revolutions and the advance of the 'talkies', and the further development of film genres (gangster films, musicals, newspaper-reporting films, historical biopics, social-realism films, lighthearted screwball comedies, westerns and horror to name a few). It was the era in which the silent period ended, with many silent film stars not making the transition to sound (e.g., Vilmy Banky, John Gilbert, and Norma Talmadge). By 1933, the economic effects of the Depression were being strongly felt, especially in decreased movie theatre attendance. Hollywood’s Golden Age began to decline in the late 1940’s due to the introduction of television, Hollywood blacklisting, and the ability of actors to become ‘free agents.’ A final blow to the industry occurred in 1948, when antitrust suits were filed against the major studios.

Click on over to this website for more information about Hollywood during the Depression.

Sullivan's Travels

Dear students, please note that if you are blogging for Friday, comment on the previous post on God's Little Acre. We can keep extending and fostering that discussion.

To prepare for watching Sullivan's Travels in class, please read some background on the film here and here. Read up on the director Preston Sturges here.

End of God's Little Acre

As you finish the book, pay special attention to Chapter XV (p. 148+). What do you make of this chapter? How does the novel continue to comment on the culture of visuality and spectacle, on "gold fever" and commodity fetishism, and on the role of sexual desire and enjoyment in the ascent of capitalism?

Comment below on ANY aspect of the text.

Society of the Spectacle: Guy Debord

Video on YouTube here.

Book Covers of God's Little Acre

God's Little Acre Continued...

Great class on Wednesday!

We've started to identify many of the tensions in the opening of Caldwell's novel: the tension between word and deed, science and superstition, women and men, action and inaction, and the town and the country. We also raised some important questions about the role of empathy in this text and the ethics of representing poverty. Keep following these issues and keeping thinking about WHY the characters act in the manners that they do.

Here are some additional links to check out:

Background from The New Georgia Encyclopedia on Caldwell and his novels.

Another trailer for the movie on YouTube.

The original song "God's Little Acre" by Joe Valino (1957)

Another clip from the film on YouTube. (with Darling Jill and the Albino)

Upcoming Page Readings for God's Little Acre

Here are the page numbers for our upcoming reading of God's Little Acre.

February 1 Erskine Caldwell, God’s Little Acre (1-54)

February 3 God’s Little Acre (55-107)

February 5 God’s Little Acre (107-157)

February 8 God’s Little Acre (157-end)

And check out the trailer for the movie version on YouTube here.

Comments on As I Lay Dying

Dear class,

Please use the comments section below to post on ANY aspect of As I Lay Dying that is of interest to you. Please also continue reading--I realized that I forgot to list page numbers on the syllabus for the reading tomorrow, so please read what is assigned for Wednesday--we'll certainly be discussing Addie's section in class tomorrow.

Here are some questions you might want to think about:

1. Which are the most intelligent and sympathetic voices in the novel? With whom do you most and least identify? Why?

2. Why is Addie’s narrative placed where it is, and what is the effect of hearing Addie’s voice at this point in the book? How do the issues raised by Addie here relate to the book as a whole?

3. We've talked a lot about Darl in class, but what exactly makes Darl different from the other characters? Why is he able to describe Addie’s death when he is not present? How is he able to know intuitively the fact of Dewey Dell’s pregnancy?

5. How does Anse manage to command the obedience and cooperation of his children? (Does he?) What do you make of him?

7. Jewel is the result of Addie’s affair with the evangelical preacher Whitfield. When we read Whitfield’s section, we realize that Addie has again allied herself with a man who is not her equal. How would you characterize the preacher? What is the meaning of this passionate alliance, now repudiated by Whitfield? Does Jewel know who his father is?

8. In what ways does the novel show characters wrestling with ideas of identity and embodiment?