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literary legacies, folklore foundations: selfhood and cultural tradition in nineteenth- and twentieth-century american literature
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Book reviews
Literary Legacies, Folklore Foundations: Selfhood and Cultural Tradition in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century American Literature, by Karen E. Beardslee, 232 pages, University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, 2001. US$27.00 hardcover.
with a means of determining for themselves what is valuable and what discardable in terms of the externally defined concepts with which they have been struggling. This layered lesson, however, is not one the characters in the nineteenth-century novels have to learn. (p. xviii)
In her study of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American novels, Karen Beardslee questions the traditional trajectory novelists employ in their exploration of a protagonist’s selfhood. As she points out, traditionally, in American novels that explore a search for self, the traditional narrative device used to prompt such a search is to remove the main character from ‘‘his’’—the protagonist tends to be male— family and community. As a result, it is while in a new setting, and often in isolation, that the character explores his selfhood. In Literary Legacies, Folklore Foundations, Beardslee reveals what we can learn about the search for self when we locate that search within one’s family and community. According to Beardslee’s close analysis of eight novels, what is crucial in achieving a sense of self is returning to one’s roots, to the cultural legacy of the folk traditions of one’s family and community. The majority of the novels analyzed in her study forefront the experience of a female protagonist. While Beardslee speaks of female folk culture, female communities, and female folk traditions, what is markedly absent from this study is an explicit analysis of how feminist theory underpins the study of folklore as a whole, and the study of women’s folklore more specifically. Moreover, Beardslee argues that while gender and ethnicity play a role ‘‘in the character’s trials with a sense of self,’’
It is not fully clear why interrogating gender and ethnicity should be understood solely as a means of defining one’s self ‘‘from the outside in,’’ nor is it fully clear how gender and ethnicity are to be subsumed by notions of a universalizing folk group.Of particular import to her study is an analysis of the enduring practice of specific folklore traditions. For example, in her pairing of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s The Minister’s Wooing and Whitney Otto’s How to Make an American Quilt, Beardslee illuminates the role quilting has played as one of the foundations of women’s folklore. As she explains, ‘‘as you quilt a reality both private and public comes back to you; one single quilt patch has the ability to elicit speculation about the present, evoke memories of the past, and call forth snippets from the whole of American life’’ (p. 30). As the characters in their novels assemble and stitch a quilt, ‘‘[b]oth Stowe and Otto present the actual doing of folklore as a way of traversing the rocks and brambles thrown in the patch of progress. Together their works show us that what we create—our quilts, our lives, ourselves—is as much a part of the present as it is a thing of the past, whole out of fragments, a tenuous connection’’ (p. 58). It is startling that in such a discussion of the tenuous nature of marking history little mention is made of the ways in which women were erased from the historical record. Moreover, more could be said here about how quilting, needlework, and oral traditions can be read as fundamental, far-reaching feminist strategies that allowed for women’s inclusion in the creation and documentation of history. In her pairing of Zitkala-Sa’s American Indian Stories and Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, Beardslee conveys how ancient ways of knowing contain the very answers we need to reconcile, understand, and flourish in our present lives. Similarly, in the pairing of Maria Cristina Mena’s ‘‘The Birth of the God of War’’ and Roberta Fernandez’s Intaglio: A Novel in Six Stories, Beardslee demonstrates the vital nature of maintaining a connection to our past and to our people, a connection we renew by learning to tell the stories of our families and our community members. In learning the stories and maintaining the connection, the protagonist of each work is made whole as ‘‘tradition brings you back [and] tradition takes you forward—alive, well, whole’’ (p. 157).
[i]n the contemporary novels, the characters’ achievement of this is threatened, mainly because they are attempting to define themselves according to one or both of these concepts. The problem is our conceptions of gender and ethnicity are ever changing. Hence, individuals who seek self-definition through these concepts find their sense of self in a constant state of flux. Moreover, what truly problematizes identity for the contemporary characters is the fact that they have allowed or are allowing their definitions of self to be determined strictly from the outside in. Seeking a sense of self in this way is a dangerous endeavor, and one doomed to failure as the characters eventually learn. However, once they identify themselves with a specific folk group and engage in the traditions that define that group, they find that the group’s folklore provides individual members
Book reviews
Again, what is missing here is an explicit discussion of how gender shapes an individual or a community’s tradition as well as the individual or group’s expressive and ideational disposition. In her pairings of eight novels, Beardslee establishes that contemporary authors are not creating new messages, rather, she argues, they are carrying on a legacy—a legacy that is informed by the traditions of folklore. And in exploring such a literary legacy, she confirms that folklore is a ‘‘hands-on, hearts-in-living, a way to whole survival,’’ and shows us that when authors place both folklore and literature on a level playing field, they work together, reciprocally,
505
and their value is then made equal’’ (p. 165). Such an exploration of how folklore provides a foundation for literary legacies is worthy; however, more fully explaining how that exploration is informed by feminist theory would be worthier still. Cayo Gamber The University Writing Program, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA doi 10.1016/j.wsif.2003.08.011
Book reviews
Literary Legacies, Folklore Foundations: Selfhood and Cultural Tradition in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century American Literature, by Karen E. Beardslee, 232 pages, University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, 2001. US$27.00 hardcover.
with a means of determining for themselves what is valuable and what discardable in terms of the externally defined concepts with which they have been struggling. This layered lesson, however, is not one the characters in the nineteenth-century novels have to learn. (p. xviii)
In her study of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American novels, Karen Beardslee questions the traditional trajectory novelists employ in their exploration of a protagonist’s selfhood. As she points out, traditionally, in American novels that explore a search for self, the traditional narrative device used to prompt such a search is to remove the main character from ‘‘his’’—the protagonist tends to be male— family and community. As a result, it is while in a new setting, and often in isolation, that the character explores his selfhood. In Literary Legacies, Folklore Foundations, Beardslee reveals what we can learn about the search for self when we locate that search within one’s family and community. According to Beardslee’s close analysis of eight novels, what is crucial in achieving a sense of self is returning to one’s roots, to the cultural legacy of the folk traditions of one’s family and community. The majority of the novels analyzed in her study forefront the experience of a female protagonist. While Beardslee speaks of female folk culture, female communities, and female folk traditions, what is markedly absent from this study is an explicit analysis of how feminist theory underpins the study of folklore as a whole, and the study of women’s folklore more specifically. Moreover, Beardslee argues that while gender and ethnicity play a role ‘‘in the character’s trials with a sense of self,’’
It is not fully clear why interrogating gender and ethnicity should be understood solely as a means of defining one’s self ‘‘from the outside in,’’ nor is it fully clear how gender and ethnicity are to be subsumed by notions of a universalizing folk group.Of particular import to her study is an analysis of the enduring practice of specific folklore traditions. For example, in her pairing of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s The Minister’s Wooing and Whitney Otto’s How to Make an American Quilt, Beardslee illuminates the role quilting has played as one of the foundations of women’s folklore. As she explains, ‘‘as you quilt a reality both private and public comes back to you; one single quilt patch has the ability to elicit speculation about the present, evoke memories of the past, and call forth snippets from the whole of American life’’ (p. 30). As the characters in their novels assemble and stitch a quilt, ‘‘[b]oth Stowe and Otto present the actual doing of folklore as a way of traversing the rocks and brambles thrown in the patch of progress. Together their works show us that what we create—our quilts, our lives, ourselves—is as much a part of the present as it is a thing of the past, whole out of fragments, a tenuous connection’’ (p. 58). It is startling that in such a discussion of the tenuous nature of marking history little mention is made of the ways in which women were erased from the historical record. Moreover, more could be said here about how quilting, needlework, and oral traditions can be read as fundamental, far-reaching feminist strategies that allowed for women’s inclusion in the creation and documentation of history. In her pairing of Zitkala-Sa’s American Indian Stories and Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, Beardslee conveys how ancient ways of knowing contain the very answers we need to reconcile, understand, and flourish in our present lives. Similarly, in the pairing of Maria Cristina Mena’s ‘‘The Birth of the God of War’’ and Roberta Fernandez’s Intaglio: A Novel in Six Stories, Beardslee demonstrates the vital nature of maintaining a connection to our past and to our people, a connection we renew by learning to tell the stories of our families and our community members. In learning the stories and maintaining the connection, the protagonist of each work is made whole as ‘‘tradition brings you back [and] tradition takes you forward—alive, well, whole’’ (p. 157).
[i]n the contemporary novels, the characters’ achievement of this is threatened, mainly because they are attempting to define themselves according to one or both of these concepts. The problem is our conceptions of gender and ethnicity are ever changing. Hence, individuals who seek self-definition through these concepts find their sense of self in a constant state of flux. Moreover, what truly problematizes identity for the contemporary characters is the fact that they have allowed or are allowing their definitions of self to be determined strictly from the outside in. Seeking a sense of self in this way is a dangerous endeavor, and one doomed to failure as the characters eventually learn. However, once they identify themselves with a specific folk group and engage in the traditions that define that group, they find that the group’s folklore provides individual members
Book reviews
Again, what is missing here is an explicit discussion of how gender shapes an individual or a community’s tradition as well as the individual or group’s expressive and ideational disposition. In her pairings of eight novels, Beardslee establishes that contemporary authors are not creating new messages, rather, she argues, they are carrying on a legacy—a legacy that is informed by the traditions of folklore. And in exploring such a literary legacy, she confirms that folklore is a ‘‘hands-on, hearts-in-living, a way to whole survival,’’ and shows us that when authors place both folklore and literature on a level playing field, they work together, reciprocally,
505
and their value is then made equal’’ (p. 165). Such an exploration of how folklore provides a foundation for literary legacies is worthy; however, more fully explaining how that exploration is informed by feminist theory would be worthier still. Cayo Gamber The University Writing Program, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA doi 10.1016/j.wsif.2003.08.011