Rick Bragg, All Over But the Shoutin'

Read a biography of Rick Bragg here.

Listen to Rick Bragg on NPR here.

Read an essay by him about his "absent muse" in the Oxford American.

See some of the places mentioned in All Over But the Shoutin' here.

Revised Syllabus for End of Semester

SEXUALITY, CLASS, AND CONTEMPORARY IDENTITY

December 1 All Over But the Shoutin’ (to page 107). OPTIONAL: Excerpts from Harry Crews, Childhood: Biography of a Place; Dorothy Allison, Two or Three Things I Know for Sure (performance piece) and “River of Names” (all on Blackboard)

December 3 All Over But the Shoutin’ (to 200)

December 8 Last Day of Classes

Concluding Thoughts and Observations; Final Exam

Preparation; All Over But the Shoutin’ (to end)

December 9 Dead Day. Graduate papers due in my mailbox by 5pm.

Interview with Ross McElwee in Vice

For a irreverent take on Ross McElwee's work, read this interview he did with Vice magazine.

Article in NY Times

In this Sunday's New York Times Book Review, there was a review of Ben Yagoda's new book entitled Memoir: A History. Please read the review, as it raises and addresses questions central to this course. It is available here.

Ross McElwee: Sherman's March (1986)

As we prepare to start watching and discussing Ross McElwee's 1986 film Sherman's March on Tuesday, please prepare my checking out the following websites.

Ross McElwee's homepage.

Some background on McElwee from the PBS Frontline website, including a great interview with him here.

A brief review of Sherman's March here.

And, finally, an article from MovieMaker here.

Lillian Smith's Killers of the Dream

Dear class,

Blogging this week will be suspended, as I want you to work on your papers (due Thursday!). Remember to finish Killers of the Dream for Thursday's class.

I will have meeting times available on Monday and Wednesday. An assignment sheet is on my office door (it circulated in class on Thursday).

Comments on Lillian Smith's Killers of the Dream

Born and raised in the deep South, Lillian Smith lived most of her adult life with her companion Paula Snelling on a mountain top in North Georgia, where they ran a summer girl’s camp, published a literary magazine called South Today, and spoke out brilliantly and often on the problems of race, gender, and class in the South. In 1944 Smith published her most famous work of fiction, Strange Fruit, a novel dealing with the effects of segregation on both races in a small southern town. In 1949 Lillian Smith wrote perhaps her finest work, Killers of the Dream, in which she asked a probing and provocative question, "Why has the white man dreamed so fabulous a dream of freedom and human dignity, and again and again tried to kill his own dream?"

Some biographical information on Lillian Smith and some background on Killers of the Dream can be found here, here, and here. How is this book similar to The Making of a Southerner? How is it stylistically and analytically different? What do you make of what you've read so far?

The Making of a Southerner (1947) + Extra Credit Opportunity

Class,

Please focus on studying for the midterm (Thursday) this week. There will be no blog posting until next Tuesday. 

Do, however, make sure you finish reading The Making of a Southerner; it is likely there will be a question on the midterm about it.  Come prepared to discuss the ending of Du Pre Lumpkin's autobiography tomorrow.

Also, note the following extra credit opportunity this Tuesday (October 27) at RZ's at the U of A Union. The following message is from Michelle Miesse, the current UA Coffeehouse Chair. 

There is an AMAZING slam coming up this Tuesday in RZ's at 7 pm.  It's featuring the Elephant Engine High Dive Revival Tour (long name...), which consists of five poets: Buddy Wakefield (2-time Individual World Poetry Slam Champion), Anis Mojgani (2-time IWPS Champ), Derrick Brown (IWPS Champ and opening act for Cold War Kids and The White Stripes), Shira Erlichman (Pushkart Prize Nominee and amazing person/poet), and Mindy Nettifee (Published writer and fantastic poet).  Three of these people have performed at the university before, so here's a chance to see them again!  This group is truly amazing.  They will do group pieces, poetry to song, and lots of silly things!  I saw them perform last year and it was awe-inspiring.  This is probably Arkansas' only chance to see this group of poets on stage all at once...and it's FREE!

The Making of a Southerner, Day Two (up to page 151)

As you continue reading The Making of a Southerner, think about how Katharine Du Pre Lumpkin narrates the material and psychological aftereffects of the Civil War. What does she say about Lost Cause ideology? (You can read about the Lost Cause here and here.) How do both whites and blacks react to the loss what she terms the "old order"? Are there moments in the text that you feel her dislocate her allegiances from this old order and nod toward her conversion to racial equality? Keep reacting to the text's subtle critiques of southern paternalism, racism, and plantation-based ideologies.

You might want to also continue to think about the issues of tone, narrative, and point of view that we discussed in class yesterday.

The Making of a Southerner (1947)

Some background on Katharine Du Pre Lumpkin (1897-1988) can be found here.  You can also listen to an oral history interview with her here.  As you read the first part of this autobiography (through page 47), think about how Katharine Du Pre Lumpkin looks back on the world in which her father and grandfather lived. Does she view it with nostalgia?  With skepticism?  With outright critique?  What does she tell us about life on the plantation? 

Why does this first part of the autobiography not read as autobiography (that is, about the self) but as biography?  How do class and gender figure into her autobiography?  

Finally, comment on what you notice about the style, voice, and sense of self found in this early section of The Making of a Southerner. 

Mary Mebane: End

As you finish reading Mary, post your final assessment of the text below. How does Mary compare and contrast with the other autobiographies that we have read so far? How does its treatment of race, gender, and class differ? What do we learn through reading this autobiography? What did you especially enjoy in this final section?

We'll also be discussing again the question of audience. To whom do you think Mebane directs her autobiography? 

Looking forward to reading your comments!

Mary Mebane, Day 2

As you post below, think about how we described Mary Mebane's autobiography last Thursday. We focused on the many moments of quiet recognition and delicately voiced epiphany in the text. We also looked a few moments where Mebane has trouble discussing herself and only voices her "I" after discussing "someone" or "one" (page 23-24 is a paramount example of this oblique type of  narrative). 

As her autobiography proceeds, does it become more frank? Do you continue to notice moments of reticence or narrative shyness? How does the narrative foreground or conceal issues of race, gender, and class?

Link to Harry Crews' Review of Mary

We will be reading an excerpt from Harry Crews' autobiography A Childhood: The Biography of a Place a bit later in the course. Read his review of Mary E. Mebane's autobiography here.

Mary E. Mebane's Mary (1981)

Use the space below to comment on ANY aspect of the opening of Mary E. Mebane's autobiography. You might want to focus on the features of African-American autobiography that we discussed in class yesterday. The intersection of race and gender in this text will be our primary focus, but read the opening of this text with an eye to Mebane's descriptions of material life in the South (especially her sensitivity to the domestic labor her mother handles daily), and her negotiation of memory itself. Are there tonal shifts in her text? Moments that she cannot remember? Experiences that she describes as vividly burned in her mind?

We've now read enough texts that you should start comparing and contrasting Mebane's text with those of other African-American women (Jacobs, Angelou, Hurston) and with the autobiographies of Douglass, Wright, and Washington. Keep noticing the form of the genre and how Mebane modifies or follows its demands.

Commentary on Zora Neale Hurston / Maya Angelou

Please note there will be no blogging today. I'd like you to focus on finishing up your short response papers. Note that these papers will be discussed and shared in class.

Wright's Black Boy, Day 4

As we finish discussing Wright's Black Boy, we will think about the critique of American racism that Wright frames throughout his text. We will also think about a few other aspects of the text's overall structure, including how this text modifies and bends the unstable genre of autobiography.

As you finish this text, think particularly about how Richard reveals shifts in his thinking and feeling over the course of the text. You might want to describe the evolution of Richard’s attitude toward white people. At what points do we detect a shift in his attitude? Likewise, you might want to identify passages in the text where Richard reflects upon the very act of "reading" his own past. Does Richard critique his ability to understand his experiences of the past at any points in the text? In what ways does Wright, as an adult writing his autobiography in retrospect, color the description of events and experiences as they unfold?

As we finish the text, we will also cycle back to the original organizing metaphors the Wright sets up at the start of his autobiography? What role does hunger play in the autobiography? How does Richard view hunger at the end of the novel? Has his attitude changed?

I'm also interested in personal responses to the text. How has this text altered your perception of race in America? Of what it means--and how it feels--to grow up as a "black boy" during Jim Crow segregation?

I suggest you all read through the end material included in the edition I chose--there's some additional information about Richard Wright's life and the reception of this text that might be of interest.

Wright's Black Boy, Day III

Since there will be no class on Thursday, Thursday and Tuesday (September 29th) bloggers can use the space below to continue to comment on Wright's autobiography.

You might want to think about the following:

1) What arguments or observations does Wright make about the psychology of groups? What connections does he make between crowds and violence?

2) Continue to explore the role of reading, writing, and interpreting to his process of self-discovery.

3) What do we learn about the South during this period? How does Wright describe Jim Crow segregation?

4) Any other aspect of the text you find intriguing or baffling.

Wright's Black Boy, Day II

As you continue reading Black Boy, use the space below to comment on any aspect of the narrative. You might want to think about how Richard's attitude toward race evolves and how his social consciousness starts to shift. You might also trace out further the relationship between language and power that we discussed on Thursday. How does the autobiography continue to point to the importance of literacy?

Keep following the central motifs of the text: hunger, guilt, fear, desire, fire.

Richard Wright's Black Boy

As you begin reading Richard Wright's Black Boy, think about how the narrative establishes its authenticity. Why do you think Wright begins where he does? What metaphors or organizing images are beginning to structure the text? Who do you think his audience is for this narrative? How do you respond emotionally and intellectually to the story?

You might be interested in looking at this chronology of Wright's life. Further information about Wright can be found here.

Along this Way + JWJ Biography

A wonderful site with information on James Weldon Johnson's biography is here.

To access the e-text of Along this Way, go to the UArk library webpage at library.uark.edu. Search for "Along this Way." The second entry you will see is the electronic version. Click on it and you'll be able to access it. If you are using a home computer, you will need to enter your UArk username and password.

I'd like you read sections I-IV (up to page 39). Please print these out and bring them to class. We'll be continuing to theorize and think about autobiography as a genre and I will begin to set up Black Boy for Thursday. You might want to start reading it this weekend.

Remember that the Ozarks Writers Live is on Saturday (info at www.faylib.org) and that Shakespeare Abridged is playing at Theatre Squared (theatresquared.org). Send me a 1-2 paragraph write-up after you attend for extra credit.

Comments on the end of Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man

Dear students,

As you read to the end of Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man, think about your overall evaluation of our nameless narrator. What do you applaud about him? What do you critique? What message about race, class, and gender in American do you think Johnson seeks to leave you with? And why do you he tells us this story through the genre of autobiography?

Looking forward to our discussion tomorrow--please come in ready to debate and discuss this provocative text!

Comments on Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man

Dear students,

For each day of blogging I will set up a post, and you will write your commentary (1-2 developed paragraphs, ideally tied closely to the text--try to discuss specific language and specific scenes) in the comments section. Click on the link below.

You are free to write on whatever strikes you as interesting, intriguing, or inexplicable in the section we will be discussing. For Tuesday, you might want to think about how knowing that this text is a novel and not an autobiography reshapes our conception of its purpose. You might also think about how Johnson's text nods to slave narratives. What kind of social and cultural critiques does the novel offer? And why does it do so through irony?

Let me know if you have any questions!

Welcome to English 3863/5723!

Throughout the semester, we will be using a blog (southernself.blogspot.com, note no “www”) as forum for responding and analyzing the autobiographies we will be reading. In addition to in-class participation, your contributions to this blog will be assessed as part of your final grade. I will also be using the blog as a way to make class announcements, post handouts or sample papers, describe assignments, and respond to questions.

My expectations are that you will contribute to this blog with the same degree of respect, thoughtfulness, and intellect that you use in making oral contributions to class discussion. Please "attend" this blog regularly between our class meetings and contribute a minimum of once a week. Response dates will be assigned in class and all responses must be completed and uploaded by 9pm the night before class so that other students can read and think about your responses before we meet. You must identify your posts either with your name or an identifiable version of your name (e.g., "Sally H."). Please let me know if you have any questions.