The Depiction of Marriage in Zora Neale Hurston's Stories

by Maurice Jackson 

Through research I was able to find many interesting facts about the relationship between African American men and women and how the institution of marriage has been viewed throughout history by these two groups. One of the major factors found to contribute to the frame work and roles within the intergender relationships of African Americans is the idea of patriarchy. Research has found that patriarchy affects the relationships of African Americans differently than those of Eurocentric relationships. In a historical view, it seems oppression has altered and distorted the gender roles within African American relationships and thus helps to provide context as to why the relationships are harder to interpret.  The oppression that has plagued African Americans since the days of slavery has contributed to the decrease in the role of provider while increasing the role of provider for African American women. In this this context it seems that African American women are more able to adopt a role of self-sustaining, and an increased ability to become independent. Another factor mentioned is the role of love within these relationships. An article published in the Journal of Black Studies argues that the historic hindrance placed upon the love that can be shared between an African American male and female is what the backdrop is for the love that is shared between them now, but the article also states that while slave breeding and other methods helped to sever the love bonds between African Americans it was still possible to find an African American couple who were truly in love with one another. Within a different article published in the Journal of American Literary History, the writer claims that while slavery did hurt the institution of family and marriage among African Americans it also strengthened their longing and desire to be with those who they loved and to be with their families.

 These findings are significant because they can show the backdrop for both of the Zora Neale Hurston stories that we read in class. The aspect of oppression is explored in the story “Sweat” in the form of the oppression dealt out by Sykes onto Delia. This is an extension of the oppression that Delia would have felt from the white community around her and a way for Sykes to bolster his masculinity after his oppression also from the white community. Also the independence that is displayed by Delia within this story shows the ability for African American women to adapt and be able to take care of themselves. The fact that Delia is the main provider for her family and that she was able to make the purchase of their home is an amazing feat at the time in the story is set. In the story “The Gilded Six-Bit” the love between Joe and Missie May is one of those that has transcended the bounds that had historically severed the bonds between man and woman during the days of slavery. These two characters are examples of a couple that were able to fall in love in a society where historically it was very difficult to fins and hold onto the one that you love. The story of the love between Joe and Missie May is also one that supports the idea of the longing for love that was felt within the African American community in this time period and the longing to have an intact nuclear family. This desire was strong enough for Joe to forgive Missie’s infidelities and remain with her after the birth of their son.

After learning more about the historic context of marriage and family relationships, does this information alter your perception of the stories in any manner?

Work Cited

duCille, Ann. "Marriage, Family, And Other "Peculiar Institutions" In African-American Literary History." American Literary History 21.3 (2009): 604-617. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.

Lawrence-Webb, Claudia, Melissa Littlefield, and Joshua N. Okundaye. "African American Intergender Relationships: A Theoretical Exploration of Roles, Patriarchy, and Love." Journal of Black Studies 34.5 (2004): 623-39. JSTOR. Sage Publications, Inc. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.

A Satirical Writer?: The Many Influences on Mansfield

            Katherine Mansfield’s writing style was very unique and interesting for the format of a short story. She used the inspiration of previous short story writers and seemed to have felt obligated to discuss the difficulties and tribulations of the upper middle class. Some of her stories often showed a great similarity to her Russian counterpart.

            She was greatly inspired by her Russian role model Anton Chekhov. Elisabeth Schneider, in Katherine Mansfield and Chekhov, says “the influence of Chekhov and Katherine Mansfield has often been remarked. She herself freely expressed admiration and a feeling of kinship for her Russian predecessor. Chekov’s story “The Lady with the Little Dog” talks about the sadness and dull life of the bourgeoisie society. Even though the characters in his story find the happiness they are looking for, they cannot enjoy it to its fullest extent due to the fact they cannot get away from their loveless marriages. This is very similar to some of Mansfield’s writing techniques.

            In her story “Miss Brill,” Mansfield describes a woman who cannot find happiness in a middle to upper class society. Miss Brill does find happiness, however, only in a fantasy world, and when she realizes her fantasy isn’t real, she loses her happiness. The way Mansfield describes Miss Brill’s life is almost comical and could be categorized as a bourgeoisie satire.

            One of Mansfield’s most common writing styles is satire. Jack Garlington, in Katherine Mansfield: The Critical Trend, says “there is a large group of stories that are satirically turned, that are frequently flippant or caustic in treatment, and that deal with a rather restricted group of themes, usually a portrayal (and a hostile one) of bourgeois home life.” The satire that could be presented in Miss Brill is when she talks to the homeless man every week and says how she was an actress. I think that Mansfield was making fun of Ms. Brill because she is a strange character trapped in a fantasy which is the place she can find happiness. Mansfield’s tone provides a light hearted and comical feel. In most cases, a story like this would have a dark, eery, and saddened tone.

            Mansfield has another often used writing style that deals with more emotion. Jack Garlington, from Katherine Mansfield: The Critical Trend, says, “the second group is directed not at satirical dissection, but at the eliciting of some more sympathetic emotion-pathos, nostalgia, or the tragic sense of life.” Mansfield’s story “The Fly” tells a story of a saddened boss from the death of his son and the tragic sense of life. Jack Garlington says “the burden of the story is the cruelty of life; the side issue is the Boss’s factitious desire to summon up grief for his dead son.”

            As a reader, I was more affected by Mansfield’s "The Fly" and the emotion behind it. I thought Miss Brill was a satire and I did not take it seriously. I enjoyed her emotional writing better because she seemed to put more into it and really let the readers know the true emotion of her characters.

            It is evident that Mansfield has two prominent writing styles, one that is influenced by Anton Chekhov, and the other which is based on the raw emotion of her characters. Her two styles have affected the short story literature and could possibly affect the styles of other short story writers.

            Do you think "Miss Brill" could be categorized as a satire and can you make any other connections between the style of Chekhov's "Lady with the Little Dog" and Mansfield's "Miss Brill"?

WORKS CITED 

Schneider, Elisabeth. "Katherine Mansfield and Chekhov." Modern Language Notes 50.6 (1935): 394-97. 

           

Garlington, Jack. "Katherine Mansfield:The Critical Trend." Twentieth Century Literature 2.2 (1956): 51-61.

Mansfield: A Feminist of Modernism?

by William Griffin

Over the years, the term Modernism has been defined as meaning many different things.  This is surprising because modernism is a vital part of the basic literature we read/enjoy today.

  Like many other significant movements, there are influential people behind the movement.  I would consider Katherine Mansfield as being the “unsung hero” that helped make modernism, specifically female modernism, what it is today.

            Modernism is most often defined as “The combination of revolt against Victorian fathers, recognition of the artist’s alienation, pursuit of the contemporary in language, psychology and behavior, creation of dynamic forms in which to contain a newly awakened sense of present reality” (Kaplan 6). Basically, it was a new movement which introduced new views on art, social behaviors and language. (It’s essential to know that these views contradicted the old “Victorian” views.) 

            I think it’s very important to emphasize that literature is one of the most notable things which was influenced by modernism.  As you can imagine, if modernism had failed to become what it is today, we would still be living in the Victorian Era and have a different way of interpreting stories.

            Katherine Mansfield has been said to have helped spark the movement of “Female Modernism.”  While Mansfield’s good friend Virginia Woolf is mostly credited for developing the underlying principles of this type of modernism (Kaplan), Kaplan argues that “Mansfield’s contribution should not be underestimated. Although she was six years younger than Woolf, Mansfield was the more innovative writer at the beginning of their friendship” (7). Mansfield’s writing career lasted from 1911 until she published her last work in 1922 (Nathan).  This timeframe was a period of great significance for women and their quest for equality.  In 1913, The National Women’s Party was formed.  In 1919, the League of Women Voters was founded.  And only a year later, the right to vote was granted for women.  This was a crucial time for women’s history because they finally were able to feel like individuals and not just the property of men. It is important to notice that all of Mansfield’s writings were published during the times of these great changes.  This was possibly one of the greatest times of change this country has experienced and Mansfield’s writings were in the center of it all.  One would think that Mansfield planned this and purposely started releasing stories at this time so she would be known for this movement, although that theory couldn’t be more false.

            It is said that it was never Mansfield’s intent to become a “feminist theorist” and she even wanted to separate herself from this subject.  According to Sydney Kaplan, “she (Mansfield) neither allied herself with the suffrage movement nor studied the ideology of feminism. In fact, unlike those of Virginia Woolf, Mansfield’s critical essays and personal letters curiously lack much discussion of women’s role in literature” (Kaplan). Kaplan then goes on to say how it was Mansfield’s “personal struggles, as well as her insights into the lives of women” that were the cause of her feminist consciousness. (I found it rather amusing that Mansfield has gotten the recognition of being part of this movement for women (and women writers) but this was never her intent in the first place.)

            Katherine Mansfield didn’t live a very long life; she died when she was only thirty-four.  Yet her writings are still around and she is still considered one of the best short story authors of all time. When asked about Mansfield’s writing, famous scholar Ian Gordon said, “She had the same kind of directive influence on the art of the short story as Joyce had on the novel.  After Joyce and Katherine Mansfield neither the novel nor the short story can ever be quite the same again.” 

            After reading “The Fly” or “Miss Brill”, do you get a sense that Mansfield incorporated Female Modernism into either one of these stories?  If so, what affect did this have?

Works Cited

Kaplan, Sydney Janet. Katherine Mansfield and the Origins of Modernist Fiction. Ithica: Cornell

University Press, 1991. Print

Nathan, Rhoda B. Katherine Mansfield. New York: The Continuum Publish Company, 1988.

Print

Puritanism vs. Sexual Desire

by Kelsey McBain

In class we read Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown.” During our discussion, we talked about symbolism and allegory.  Dr Shaup presented to us the idea that some critics view this short story as a representation of Young Goodman Brown coming into his sexuality in a Puritan society where these desires are expected to be suppressed.  This view of the short story got me to think about the role sexual desire played during the Puritan Era in writing and art.  Nathaniel Hawthorne was a prominent writer during and I think his work is an example of an internal and moral battle many young people were feeling. 

            Children are naturally experimental and courageous.  They have wide imaginations and in exploring their environment they are able to learn and grow.  In the Puritan society this was not the case.  Puritans believed that the original sin was in childhood.  “Sin gains ground as ‘The objects of lust by occasions of life are multiplied’ although the conscious is awakened by god” (Watkins 56).  This already begins to show that any desire that one may have must be concealed as life is only to be lived in order to serve god.  Children prayed and sang psalms instead of playing outside; it was expected “that they thought upon God at every breath they drew” (Watkins 55).   Early in life people are expected to suppress and hide their desires and wishes. This creates a struggle in adult life trying to fill the gaps that they were not able to achieve in childhood.  

            When it came to adulthood, desire was still to be suppressed and kept hidden.  It was said that “Good Puritans controlled their affections even in love letters” (Morgan 50). In the Puritan society as adults, love and affection was seen as a job or business, and although it was unacceptable to express desire, many did not feel deprived because they could not love enough to feel the need to direct it immediately to the person.  Hawthorne writes of the feelings that one would have toward desiring the one that they love and he expresses the feelings that many are expected to keep hidden.  According to The Puritan Family Experience, “Ministers hastened to warn husbands and wives that their love for each other required moderation” (Morgan 48).  Even when being married a couple must follow strict guidelines of the Puritan way and restrict their feelings toward each other.  This creates a great struggle in the society for all people.  I think that in Hawthorne’s writing he questions these ideas and morals of the Puritan way.
            I think that when we read Nathaniel Hawthorne’s work we should take the approach that some of these critics have rather than just finding the simple meaning of the symbols created.  Knowing that much of his writings share a similar theme of Puritanism vs. Desire we should use the knowledge that we have on basic Puritan ideology and convey those thoughts into our comprehension of the text.  Before reading any text it is important to look into the background of the work to fully grasp what the author is trying to suggest through their writing. 

            Do you agree that religion vs. desire was a common issue during the Puritan times?  Do you think that Nathaniel Hawthorne attempted to demonstrate this struggle in his writing? 

Graham, Judith S. Puritan Family Life. Northeastern UP, 2000. Print.

Morgan, Edmund S. The Puritan Family. New York: Harper & Row, 1966. Print.

Watkins, Owen C. The Puritan Experience,. New York: Shochocken, 1972. Print.

Ziff, Larzer. Puritanism in American. New York: Viking, 1973. Print

 

  

A Biographical Look at Chekhov's "The Lady with the Dog"

by Carlos Rivera-Pratts

Anton Chekhov has been considered an artist with a unique gift for creating mood in his collection of stories. Many people see “The Lady with the Dog” as a romantic story of a couple of married people who both go on vacation and end up falling in love after an affair. Most readers see the reformation of the main character, Gurov. Many casual readers miss are the parallels between the life of Gurov and the life of Chekhov, the author.

R.F. Christian believes that the entire story mirrors Chekhov’s life. He says “The first two chapters of the book deal specifically with Chekhov’s alleged misogyny and his attitude to sex” (Christian 953). Christian goes on to talk about Chekhov’s ideas of women calling them “a threat to a man’s happiness because of her sexual power” (Christian 953). This mirrors the disrespect that Gurov shows to women in “The Lady with the Dog.” For example, Gurov compares the lace of women’s underwear to scales, something foul and reptilian. He also refers to women as pathetic and generally speaks down to them throughout the first few acts. 

The disrespect Gurov has toward women leads him to have an affair on his wife in the story, just as Chekhov had in real life with his mistress Olga Knipper (Creasman 257). In “The Lady with the Dog,” Gurov begins to fall in love with Anna and consequently begins to see her as more of a person. Chekhov also goes to great lengths to describe his character’s misogyny early in the story, but then also pours detail into the reformation of Gurov at the end. Perhaps Chekhov wants the reader to believe in the power of people to change, and be less critical of his self-inspired character. The transformation is apparent when Gurov kisses Anna in front of the teenagers who are smoking nearby; earlier in the story Gurov would have only kissed her when he was certain no one was looking. Later, Anna begins to visit him in Moscow, a big city lifestyle, which one could expect to live with a famous author.

 As R. F. Christian points out, even the ending is fitting to the life of Chekhov. The story ends abruptly, with Anna and Gurov struggling to come up with a remedy for their situation. Chekhov died young, only being married a short period before he passed (Christian 953). His life also lacked the resolution that his story lacked. An ending without a solid conclusion warrants the question, what happens next? Creasman clarifies, “it is never clear in the story whether Gurov truly loves Anna or whether it is only the romantic fantasy”(Creasman 259). 

Was Gurov really experiencing love or was it just a progression of the games that he plays with women? 

Chekhov, Anton. "The Lady with the Little Dog." The Story and Its Writer An Introduction to  Short Fiction. Comp. Ann Charters. 8th ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/ St. Martin's, 2011. 266-77. Print.

Christian, R. F., and Virginia L. Smith. "Anton Chekhov and the Lady with the Dog."Oxford University Press (1973): 952-53. Print.

Creasman, Boyd. "Gurov's Flights of Emotion in Chekhov's "The Lady with the Dog"" Studies in Short Fiction: 257-60. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Feb. 2012

 

Gilman's Feminist Influences

by Alexis Hatch

            Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a leading American feminist author and poet during a time when the Feminist Movement was in full throttle. Today Gilman has many famous feminist works, but the most popular would have to be her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” which displays her own struggle with postpartum depression. Gilman was an inspirational and influential writer, but she herself was influenced by many other prominent figures during the time and in the Feminist Movement. One extremely big influence on Gilman was her great-aunt Harriet Beecher Stowe. Stowe was an American abolitionist and author that used her writings to influence social change for an anti-slavery America. Interactions with Stowe is what lead to Gilman’s concern about social injustice and the hardship of women’s lives at a very early age (Charters 461). Being related to such a major figure of the time is a significant relationship that heavily influenced Gilman. Along with being related, Stowe’s works influence Gilman to become a writer and poet of the Feminist Movement as well. Other influences of the time were the fellow feminist authors that were fighting her same battle, one in particular Bertha Pappenhem:

Gilman was not the only woman who suffered from hysteria for many years before      becoming an important feminist writer and crusader, Bertha Pappenhem, the co-founder and twenty-year president of the Judischer Frauenbund (the German Jewish Woman’s League) and writer of numerous feminist works, was also a hysteric, and a famous one at that. (Herndl 52)

The passage above mentions Hysteria the emotional disorder that both Gilman and Pappenhem were both diagnosed with during their lives. Pappenhem’s uncanny similarities to Gilman are what make her such a significant influence for Gilman and her works; both feminist authors and both diagnosed with Hysteria. Although during the time women diagnosed with Hysteria were considered emotionally unstable and were recommended to not do anything at all, both Gilman and Pappenhem dismissed this recommendation and continued to be major figures in the Feminist Movement with their writings. Pappenhem was not the only feminist Gilman can be linked to: "Blackwell was a founder, with his wife, Lucy Stone, of the suffragist periodical the Woman’s Journal. He his wife and their daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell, were close friends of Gilman, who stayed in their home in 1896,1897, and 1898, as well as in 1899—the year he reviewed “The Yellow Wallpaper” for the Woman’s Journal" (Golden 467). This quote is touching on the fact that Gilman was a close friend with two very significant figures in the Feminist Movement, and that also had founded one of the popular women’s journals Woman’s Journal. The relationship Gilman had with both Blackwell and Stone not only helped fuel her feminist opinions by being around other feminists so often, but also allowed her to get her works published in a popular medium more easily. Knowing that Gilman has is connected and influenced by other prominent figures of the time is significant because it tells her readers a little more about her cultural and historical background that lead to her being the writer we know her as today.

As a reader, did hearing these findings, that Gilman was connected to many influential writers of the time, change or alter your opinion about Charlotte Perkins Gilman and/or her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” at all?

Works Cited

Charters, Ann. "Charlotte Perkins Gilman." The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short             Fiction. New York: St. Martin's, 1983. 461. Print.

Golden Catherine, Hedges Elaine, Dock Julie Bates. “Charlotte Perkins Gilman” PMLA, Vol. 111, No. 3 (May, 1996), pp. 467-468

Herndl, Diane Price. "The Writing Cure: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Anna O., And  'Hysterical' Writing." NWSA Journal 1.1 (1988): 52.Academic Search Complete. Web. 7 Mar. 2012.

 

Searching for Home

by Kolby Maly
James Joyce was an Irish novelist and “was perhaps the most influential and significant novelist of the 20^th century” (Columbia).  He was very influential throughout his time writing and a lot of people enjoyed his work.  Joyce however was influenced himself from his childhood and different events that happened in his life, which affected his work.  He was born in Dublin and jumped around multiple schools to get his education.  Many of the stories he wrote were based from Dublin or had some connection to where he spent most of his time.  Also some of his works we read like “Araby” and “Dead Man” were from his collection of short stories called the “Dubliners”.

“His novel “Ulysses”, which is among the great works of world literature, utilizes many radical literary techniques and forms” (Columbia).  In this work he is criticized for what exactly “home” means in the story.  “The relation between language and home is resonant with issues of political identity, ethnicity, and national existence” (Law 197).  Joyce has these ideas due to the fact he has moved around a lot and has seen different places, therefore what exactly home means will differ from person to person depending where they have been and the things they have experienced.

One of his more famous works was the “Dubliners”, which were a collection of twelve short stories.  The idea of “home” is also used in this as well: “home as where we came from (thus home as return), home as what we are most familiar with (thus home as a kind of perception), and home as what we imagine we would feel most comfortable with (home as a goal)” (Law 198).  This may be why we see in “Araby” the boy has a crush on the girl even though he barely talks to her, and then asks her to go to the bazaar with him.  She doesn’t go and he gets to the bazaar late and doesn’t have much fun.  But you could say Joyce could have encountered a similar instance in his life growing up.  In “Araby” he seems to be bitter about love, there is not the fairy tale ending with his crush.  This could be because he never experienced that or had his heartbroken before.

Joyce did not have the best father figure in his life as “his father was not the man to stay affluent for long; he drank, neglected his affairs, and borrowed money from his office, and his family sank deeper and deeper into poverty” (Atherton).  This affected Joyce as he is always questioning what “home” actually is. He did not grow up in the best settings, he and his brother were admitted to a grammar school in Dublin due to the fact they did not have the money for them to go. (Atherton).  He questions “home” a lot because he doesn’t know exactly what it is like to grow up and not have to worry about the things he had to worry about.  So even though he was living at home it didn’t have the home feel to it.

Understanding James Joyce’s background will help readers grasp what exactly Joyce is trying to say in his stories and why his stories are written the way they are.  Growing up in not the best of conditions but still making the most out of it and writing his stories is something Joyce can be commended for.  Although not all of his stories were written with bitterness towards love there was definitely something he encountered that made him the way he is.

                     Works Cited 

Atheron, James Stephen. Britannica Biographies. Print.

Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. 6th ed. Web.

Law, Jules David. "Joyce's "Delicate Siamese" Equation: The Dialectic of Home in Ulysses."PMLA. Vol. 101. Modern Language Association, Mar 1987. 197-205. Print.

 

Not the Center of Attention, But Not Forgotten

by Morgan Pearson

            Ryunosuke Akutagawa seems to be remembered in two extremes: all the time or not at all!  Although Akutagawa is referred to as the “Japanese Edgar Allen Poe as a creator of powerful short stories that explore the darker corners of the human psyche” (Charters 28) by some critics, he is sadly one of the least discussed and least celebrated of the authors within the genre of short stories.  The Editor of the Online Magazine for International Literature puts it this way: “Try as I might, Akutagawa remains something of a mystery-man to me.  And though I'm generally not big on worrying about the author behind the texts I find myself looking for more of a hold here—in part because even after reading this collection, which comes after I've read quite a few different Akutagawa translations over the years, I still don't feel I know him or his writing that well” (The Editors).

His life has been anything but easy and there has been a lot of heartache and suffering that he had to endure in his short 35-year-long lifetime.  He is originally from Tokyo, Japan and was born with the last name of Niihara, and Ryunosuke was almost immediately adopted by his uncle, hence adopting his uncle’s last name of Akutagawa, when his mother went clinically insane and passed away (Charters, 28).  His father, who was occupied as a dairyman, was financially unable to take of his son, so he relied on his brother to raise Ryunosuke.  As he grew up, Akutagawa attended the Tokyo Imperial University where he studied English and this is where he first began writing short fiction when Japan was finally going through westernization and experiencing a coming of age (Liukkonen).  It has also been said that many of his stories have been lost because no one took the time to translate them for English-speaking readers.

Because of the western influence’s ideas on Akutagawa and his lifestyle, his writings began to reflect this change as well.  “At the time the most popular literary trend was naturalism—personal stories about everyday lives—but Akutagawa rejected the idea that fiction should be autobiographical, preferring the modernist qualities of detachment and irony” (Charters 28).  Most of his initial writings were very traditional and focused more  on the historical accuracy of these long-established stories that he was retelling, but towards the end of his life, “he focused more on his own emotional state and contemporary settings” (Liukkonen).  Because he became overworked from supporting his wife and three children on an author’s salary, his health started to diminish.  He was diagnosed with nervous exhaustion and chronic insomnia and what he turned to in order to help him cope with these symptoms was opium, especially after he had to adopt his brother’s family when his brother committed suicide (Charters 28).  As he continued with his addiction in 1927, he started having auditory hallucinations and his stories then started to have a darker feeling to them, most of them including a lot more deaths and suicides.  “In the Bamboo Grove” was a good example of his writings because it included different views into the human psyche, had a death occur, and made the reader think someone was to blame but the answer was never released, and this is the style that Ryunosuke Akutagawa adored.

As he became too overwhelmed with the burden of two families to care for, his career slowly becoming less successful, and his dangerous addiction, Akutagawa “poisoned himself with a fatal dose of the barbiturate Veronal” at the young age of 35 (Charters 28).  A friend of Akutagawa then established a short story award in his honor, the Akutagawa Prize, given to successful young authors in Japan.

           

           

Works Cited

"Akutagawa- The Writer, the Works." Words Without Borders: The Online Magazine for International Literature. (2007). Web. 10 Mar. 2012. http://wordswithoutborders.org/dispatches/article/akutagawathe-writer-the-works/

Charters, Ann. The Short Story and its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St.Martin's, 2011. 28-29. Print.

Liukkonen, Petri. "Akutagawa, Ryunosuke (1892-1927)." Books and Writers. 2008. Web. 10 Mar 2012. <http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/akuta.htm>.

"Ryunosuke Akutagawa." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition (2011): 1. Academic Search Complete. Web. 10 Mar. 2012. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=4&hid=119&sid=9ec10a07-e6c3-486b-8a78-01c5472ff805%40sessionmgr115&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=39042761

Historical Influences on James's "The Real Thing"

by Nikki Harding

           During the 1900s the lure of illustration was becoming more prominent. According to Brake and Demoor, “As is the case in the history of publishing, textual, and paratextual changes often involve technological and cultural developments” (4). Because of the printing press and other developments illustration was able to spread quickly and was accepted more often. Before artists were not taken seriously nor was being an artist considered a respected profession. Illustration was considered as “distracting from ‘higher’ matters” and “it involved a reversion of babyish perception” (Brake, Demoor 5). It was not until the “magazine revolution” that illustration became popular and respected.

            I found that during the magazine revolution illustrations played a critical role in the writing profession. It was debated whether or not illustrations benefited literature or whether it harmed literature. During the life of Henry James, “the crucial role of the illustrated press in the formation of the reading public and the writing profession” (Tucker xv) was a widely discussed idea. Periodicals of this century were considered to be “turn-of - the- century” (Tucker xvi). They were considered to be that because they consisted of illustrations, which literature did not before the nineteenth century. James may not have thought at the time that he was an advocate for the use of illustration in literature, but Tucker says “For all his ardent objections to illustration, the truth is that James himself, more than any other fiction writer of his time, repeatedly and at length made the case for a serious consideration of ‘the art of illustration in black and white’”(xix). Much of his works were comprised of illustration. Tucker says “two examples of James’s illustrated texts: the frontispieces he commissioned for the New York Edition of his collected works and the drawings that accompanied his short story “The Real Thing” in Black and White magazine” (xvii). The use of illustration in literature and in magazines made consumers more apt to buy literary works which made illustrated literature and magazines very popular in the nineteen hundreds. Brake and Demoor say, “Text and image, text alongside image, text as image- these are the combinations one is confronted with when one studies nineteenth century print and media and its rise in consumer culture” (12).  With this being said, the “magazine revolution” had a great effect on how artists and illustrations were viewed. Since illustrations were becoming more popular so were artists and careers as an artist.

            These findings are significant and can show us as readers why James wrote the story “The Real Thing”. This story was written in the 1900s, a time when illustration was beginning to be used with text. In the story, the artist is trying to find models to pose for him for a literary work. The artist wanted to be considered a professional and wanted art to be his career in the story. I think James saw this as a universal problem and during the nineteenth century saw this problem begin to unfold. Watching this happen, inspired and led him to write about the obstacles and barriers artists face. He also showed in his story that illustration was slowly becoming part of text. He had The Monarchs, and Miss Churm posing for an illustration for a literary work. Because of this it compels me to say that because of the “magazine revolution” this event is being discussed in his story. Tucker says “Indeed for evidence of James’s serious and sustained consideration of the competitive relationship of image and text, we need look no further than the author’s repeated thematizing of the subject in the tales of authors and artists he took up with renewed intensity through the 1890s” (xvii). This quote shows that in the 1890s, James did take up in interest in authors and artists and due to my research he did so because of the “magazine revolution.” Do you think that historical events and time periods influence an author’s writing?

Works Cited

Brake, Laurel, and Marysa Demoor. The Lure of Illustration in the Nineteenth Century. London:

            Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Print.

Tucker, Amy. The Illustration of the Master. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010. Print. 

War's Influence on Writing

by Katie Fuentes

                  Hector Hugh Munro, known as “Saki”, lived during a period that influenced his writing. With his father in the British army, a grandfather who was an admiral in the British Navy and, later, a brother in the police force, there is no surprise that Saki’s father gave him a position in the military police. After getting malaria he decided to resign and afterward in 1896 he became a writer in London. His writing led him to St. Petersburg, where he “was a witness to the Bloody Sunday massacre in St. Petersburg on 22 January 1905” (Modlish). Not only that, “On 10 May 1906 he reported on the first session of the Russian Duma, the newly constituted governing body of Russia, formed in the wake of the 1905 rebellion” (Modlish). World War I began and Saki enlisted but was later killed by a shot in the head. Interestingly enough, Saki’s “The Toys of Peace” was first seen after he was already dead.  It is safe to say that Saki was surrounded by violence and war.

                  “The Toys of Peace” is a work that obviously was influenced by Saki’s involvement in the war, and the surrounding violence of other countries. According to George James Spears, “S.P.B. Mais ventures the suggestion that Munro was so ardently engrossed in the art of being a soldier, at this time, that writing must have seemed but toying with life and a sorry substitute for ‘the real thing’’’ (73 Spears).  It is never really said when this short story was actually written, but if it were written before he had rejoined the army it would make sense. He has been so involved in the military and was always writing about situations involving violence, with a hint of humor, that he felt like he could make more of a difference fighting in a war.

Seeing as though Saki spent a good part of his career writing political articles in the newspaper, he knew the hardships that people had to go through. Knowing this, writing the short story “The Toys of Peace” was a good way of attempting to open the eyes of his readers and showing them how violent human nature it. Alexander Malcolm Forbes describes “The Toys of Peace as showing “Munro’s conviction that human nature is neither benevolent nor easily susceptible to change” (Forbes). Since Saki has seen how easily the world can become violent, he notices that it is just human nature to fight and this is an irremovable characteristic embedded in humans.

                  Understanding Hector Hugh Munro’s background helps readers grasp why these short stories were written. Saki’s military history helped him recognize the hardships of war, yet how inevitable war really is. All of his stories were not of war, but when the time came close to World War I, it seemed as though that was what was on his mind. Do you believe that the influences WWI would have had on Saki would have altered his opinions on war if he had survived it? Also, do you feel as though Saki would have continued to write about violence and how unavoidable it is, if he was not killed? Given the history of the world, is it safe to agree with Saki in believing that human nature is not compassionate and cannot be easily changed? Or that even as children, we are inescapably prone to some sort of violence?

Work Cited

  Forbes, Alexander Malcolm. "H(ector) H(ugh) Munro." British Short-Fiction Writers, 1915-1945. Ed.

John Headley Rogers. Detroit: Gale Research, 1996. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 162. 

Literature Resource Center. Web. 7 Mar. 2012

Modlish, Maureen. "H(ector) H(ugh) Munro." British Novelists, 1890-1929: Traditionalists. Ed. Thomas F.

Staley. Detroit: Gale Research, 1984. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 34. Literature

Resource Center. Web. 7 Mar. 2012.

Spears, George James. The Satire of Saki. New York: Exposition Press Inc. 1963

Edgar Allen Poe's Style

by Courtney Deppe

         Edgar Allen Poe was one of the world’s most famous and infamous American writers. He came from a troubled past and emerged to become one of the most eccentric, dark, and innovative writers of his time. He was not just an object of fascination, but also criticism, either way he used everything that came his was as inspiration for his writing. Since Poe’s writing is as unique as he was, it is often hard to understand what or how someone could have written these influential tales. In order to get a better grasp on the works of Poe, one should observe his techniques for writing over all. After all, Poe did manage to develop his own writing style and theories to go along with his out of the ordinary tales.

            One of Poe’s main forms of writing was through short stories or tales. While he is typically more well known for his poems, his most ground breaking literary style is seen in his short stories. Poe used many commonly known writing techniques known to give a story a certain style such as repetition, alliteration, and symbolism. However, one of the things that really set his works apart his “narrative method”(Gargano 178). Many, if not almost all of Poe’s short stories and even poems are narrated. The narrator also happens to typically be one of the main characters or the main character of the story. This is an important writing style because allows one to see things almost as if the reader is experiencing it or as if the reader is sitting down and having a dialogue with this character. This can add depth and fits into Poe’s idea of using prose to write a short story. His main use of the narrative method is typically described as “often having an aesthetic compatibility between his narrators’ hypertrophic language and their psychic derangement”(Gargano 178). This means that there is something almost eerie about how settling and enticing it is that his main narrators use a lot of colorful language and off the hand references and on top of it all may or may not, depending on a reader’s interpretation, be completely mad. His narrators not only tell the story but give the story a tone, a feeling, and in some cases even helped better establish the setting. The part that many readers and critics both like and dislike about this most is that these narrators can even be described as relatable. This conflicting opinion on Poe’s work could be seen in the article referenced above. The author of it, while not a fan of Poe’s, can still not seem to criticize this unique and rather bizarre technique. An example of this technique can be seen in one of Poe’s more well known short stories, “The Tell Tale Heart.” In this story, the narrator spends the entire story speaking directly to the reader and trying to convince one he is not mad even though he killed an old man that he on occasion claimed to have truly loved. He also tries to tell the reader how perfect of a crime he committed and that he truly should not have gotten caught, but in the end it is hard to say whether it is just guilt or if it is his madness that allowed him to be caught.

            The other aspect of Poe’s writing style that one must analyze before full understanding his works is Poe’s theory of beauty. Beauty is a dominant characteristic in most of Poe’s poems, but can also be seen a much less direct way in his short stories. Poe saw beauty everywhere and sometimes in the most horrific of places or settings. This is why his theory is so groundbreaking. It looks past a basic concept of beauty and devolves into what beauty truly is. A good analysis of Poe’s work is “The fundamental construct in Poe’s theory is his hypostatization of beauty as transempirical and ideal entity. Poe is not very clear about the metaphysical status of this entity but it would seem that he thought of it as a kind of universal with a being independent of things in which it manifested”(Kelly 521). This means that Poe views beauty as a type of being in and of itself. It may decided to almost posses certain things, creatures, and people; however, Poe saw it as its own spirit in a way. He did not see it as anyone thing that a person possessed but rather people and things being a host through which beauty could reveal itself to the world. This is how Poe was able to describe beautifully horrific things because if you follow this theory then beauty can place itself anywhere and in any form. An example of this can be seen through one of Poe’s short stories entitled “The Fall of the House of Usher.” In the beginning of this story, the narrator appears at an old mansion owned by his friend from childhood. He describes its outward appearance in great detail and although he says that there is something about how it looks that makes him feel rather uneasy, there is something beautiful in this description. This is Poe’s favorite way of placing beauty in something that should in theory scare, unsettle, or even repulse a reader. Once these concepts are fully understood then one can finally understand Poe as a writer.

Works Cited

Gargano, James W. “The Question of Poe’s Narrators.” College English 25.3 (1963):177-81. www.jstor.org. National Council of Teachers of English. Web. 11 Feb. 2012.

<http://www.jstor.org/stable/373684>.

Kelly, George. "Poe's Theory of Beauty." American Literature 27.4 (1956): 521-36. JSTOR. Web. 22 Feb. 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/2922338>.

To Be a Man in a Man's World

by Erin Nooney

             In the late 1800s, America was a place where men held the power in society and women tried to find their independence within this masculine world. How were women supposed to compete in a man’s world? Men held power, “a word fittingly associated with a kingdom and one customarily gendered masculine” in this world (Stout 59). They were also not deemed to be intellectually compelling, nor have the capacity to hold intelligent conversations. Sharon O’Brien in Willa Cather: The Emerging Voice stated that “slaves to domesticity, women could not converse intelligently when they congregated because they could not ‘leave their family affairs behind them’” (123). Willa Cather tried to break the mold and compete against men and have power by trying to become a man.

 Cather cut her hair short enough to resemble a man’s and even wore trousers and ties. She embodied a man while still in a woman’s body. Willa Cather wanted to personify the male to such extremes that she signed her letters William Cather (O’Brien). But Cather was lying to herself while she tried to embody the man and become “just plain Billy” (O’Brien 121). Willa Cather was even known to have romantic emotional (never proven physical) relationships with women. She was a woman, a lover of the arts, possibly homosexual, and she just wanted to distinguish herself in society as an independent woman. Cather wanted to make herself known in a society that disregarded the individuality of women. So in order to establish herself, Cather felt as if she had to lie to become something in society. Cather was not the “man” that society was looking to accept, and neither was her tragic hero Paul in one of her most famous short stories, “Paul’s Case.”

            Paul was an effeminate boy who, like Cather, was a lover of the arts. He just wanted to experience the beauty of the world, but because Paul was a male, this was not deemed as acceptable. Paul can be seen as a parallel to Cather herself. He, like Cather, also had to lie about his “identity.” In order to be accepted in society, Paul had to pretend to like school, work with his father, and even arguably, women. Unfortunately for Paul, he could not accept living his life as a lie, so he decided to commit suicide. It makes sense that Paul was the fictitious voice of Cather due to the fact that she wrote “Paul’s Case” while she was experimenting with her male persona, William. “Paul’s Case” was an example of Cather’s fears in society. She feared non-acceptance in the masculine-dominated society and feared trying to be the theater loving, homosexual woman that she actually was while trying to gain respect as a man.

            Willa Cather was a complicated, complex individual, as was her character Paul. They were both trying to become men in a world where their kind of man could not exist. They were conflicted with their identities, and Paul unfortunately could not find acceptance with himself. But Cather became a voice for individuals and characters who were as conflicted as she, and for that she is a celebrated author of the uncertain individuals who are just trying to find their belonging in society.

Works Cited:

O’Brien, Sharon. Willa Cather: The Emerging Voice. Oxford University Press: New York. 1987.   

            Print.   

Stout, Janis P. Willa Cather: The Writer and Her World. University Press of Virginia:

Charlottesville. 2000. Print.

Melville and Capitalism: More Than One Perspective?

by Scott McIntyre

Herman Melville will always be known as one of the great American writers of his time. During his lifetime (1819- 1891), he established his values and ideas on the world to be very different than most writers of his time, and it is very visible in his works and writings. Capitalism is a belief in free-trade, government free economic prosperity. This idea was influential in the founding of our nation, and in the mid to late nineteenth century, capitalism was booming with the industrial revolution and the creation of better and more technology.

One thing that makes Herman Melville unique to his time was that he criticized and outlined some flaws in capitalism, especially relevant in “Bartleby, the Scrivener” At a time where capitalism was booming in the United States, Melville continued to question the idea of capitalism, and probed reader’s minds with his writings. In this story, the underlying message has to do with Bartleby’s relationship with the narrator. According to Richard J. Zloga’s “Body Politics in ‘Bartleby’: Leprosy, Healing, and Christ-ness in Melville's "Story of Wall-Street,’” “Another interpretation focuses on class struggle and equates Bartleby with Marx's alienated worker, who grows increasingly discontented with his exploitation in a capitalistic society.”

As I began to read into Bartleby, who he is, and who Melville is, I found that I had differing opinions about this story. On one hand, I saw Bartleby as a hard worker at first, who just quit working after a while, and the narrator, (or provider) just handed him everything. This view is somewhat ironic because in a capitalistic society like America in the nineteenth century, one is supposed to be rewarded with hard work, and in this case, Bartleby was handed everything when he did nothing. I read more and questioned my opinion of the story. If Bartleby was rewarded for doing nothing, and he rejected everything that was offered to him, it makes no sense at all. With both of these arguments presented I have come to believe that it is one of two things. Either Bartleby is mentally unstable, or has some kind of personality disorder, or he is taking a stand against capitalism by proving that he can still do nothing and get rewarded for it. I leave the answer to this question with the readers: Was Bartleby taking a stance against capitalism, or was he just a mentally unstable as a person?

Works Cited:
Wiegman, Robyn. "Melville's Geography of Gender." American Literary History 1.4 (1989): 735-53. Print.

Zlogar, Richard J. "Body Politics in "Bartleby": Leprosy, Healing, and Christ-ness in Melville's "Story of Wall-Street"" Nineteenth-Century Literature 53.4 (1999): 505-29. Print.

Watters, R.E.,. "Melville's "Sociality"" American Literature 17.1 (1945): 33-49. Print.

Spirituality and Symbolism in Gogol's "The Overcoat"

by Max Levine

When Nikolai Gogol wrote “The Overcoat” there was a lot going on in his life. Many think that the influence of “The Overcoat’ is largely due to a religious and spiritual event that occurred in Gogol’s life (Hippisley 121). “The Overcoat” was written by Gogol in Vienna in the summer of 1840. Before that it is thought that Gogol wrote this story just after he fell extremely ill to the point where he thought he was going to die. When he survived he took this as a sign that God wanted him to fulfill a mission. V. Zenkovskij stated that Gogol’s religious beliefs were so bound up with his concept of aesthetics which led him to conclude that Gogol’s first stay in Rome attained his highest spiritual tranquility (Hippisley 122). He believes that Gogol’s tranquility is due to the fact that he was highly involved with the Roman Catholic Church. Gogol was impressed with how calm everything was inside the churches of Rome and the feeling it gave him due to the architecture and services. Sadly his tranquility shattered one day in 1839 when a close friend of Gogol’s, Count V’el’gorskij, was falling very ill. His perfect spirituality which he had in Rome was now gone due to this traumatic experience. It is thought that since this traumatic experience happened just before this book was written that it would leave a large impact on “The Overcoat” (Hippisley 123). Anthony Hippisley states in his article, that “a spiritual crisis is the real substance of the tale and that to express it the author drew upon the symbology of clothing with which he was familiar both through the Bible and through Orthodox Liturgy” (Hippisley 123). This brings us to the symbol of the overcoat itself. Hippisley describes that there is a parallel between the actual overcoat in “The Overcoat” and the clothing that is talked about in a religious work, “Meditation on the Divine Liturgy” which is also written by Gogol (Hippisley 123). In an excerpt from this story the parallel can be seen clearly:

The priest completes his vesting by putting on the chasuble (phelonion), the upper most vestment, convering all the others and symbolizing the all-embracing justice of God, and says: ‘Let Thy priests be clothed with righteousness; and let Thy saints shoud for joy, always, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen’ (Psalms 123:9). Thus invested with the divine instruments, the priest is now another man. (Gogol 13)

From this quote we can clearly see how similar this is to the character Akakij Akakievic because he exchanges his dirty old coat for a brand new coat and becomes a new man (Hippisley 123). This gives the idea that Gogol really has a connection with using clothing as symbols. Another idea about this given by Vladimir Nabokov, who says that “Akakij Akakievic’s clothing process is really a disrobing that brings him back to his original ghostlike state of nonbeing”(Hippisley 122). What this is really saying is that when Akakij is going around stealing overcoats from other people all he is doing is sneaking around where nobody can see him which in turn, is similar to how he was when he was alive, nobody really noticed him or the work that he was doing. In relation to what was just said, Cyril Bryner states that “The Overcoat” was less respected than many of Gogol’s other works mainly due to the fact that it does not relate to “his purely humorous or his purely fantastic stories.” She also states that it is less representative of Gogol’s style than “Deal Souls”, “The Nose”, and “The Inspector-General” (Bryner 499). The reason for this can be explained by the traumatic experience that happened to Gogol when he was first in Rome. It makes sense that “The Overcoat” might not be as good or even related to this other works due to this experience that may have altered the thoughts of his mind during this period in his life. With all of this said, the facts come together as to the symbols used, the direction of the story, and perhaps even the quality of the story which Gogol produced during this time in his life. As a reader, do you care if a work is based on a particular event in real life or would you rather have a story be entirely made up?

Works Cited

Bryner, Cyril. "Gogolľs "The Overcoat" in World Literature." The Slavonic and East European             Review 32.79 (1954): 499-509. JSTOR. Web. 16 Feb. 2012.             <http://www.jstor.org/stable/4204570>.

Gogol, Nicolas. "The Overcoat." The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. Ed.             Ann Charters. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011. 474-96. Print.

           

Hippisley, Anthony. "Gogol"s "The Overcoat": A Further Interpretation." The Slavic and East             European Journal 20.2 (1976): 121-29. JSTOR. Web. 16 Feb. 2012.             <http://www.jstor.org/stable/305820>.

Gogol's Far-Reaching Influence

by Chelsea Stigile 

Nikolai Gogol, the author of “The Overcoat,” has been quite the challenge to investigate. This difficulty might be due to Gogol’s little manic episode of burning his stories which were never published and which have no proof of existence (Čiževsky 478). He remains a man of mystery from the few pieces left behind. Gogol seemed to be greatly influenced by Russian culture although he was Ukrainian. He did not dismiss Ukrainian culture, but chose to be greatly influenced by his Russian surroundings. Gogol was known for writing about realistic events; he tied Romanticism with Realism. Russian romanticism was a movement that transformed Russian art and literature by focusing more on nature than civilization, rebelling against authority, as well as adding romance into art and literature. A second way Gogol shaped his image involved his ethnic allegiance. Richard Gregg in the Russian Review states, “Gogol’s “Russianness” might, at first glance, seem to be self-evident. His formal education was in Russian; all of his letters—save one—and all his recorded conversations are in Russian; more important, his entire oeuvre, belletristic and other, is in Russian. Understandably Russia has from the start claimed him for her own” (Gregg 65). Gogol’s influence on others makes finding out who influenced him more difficult. The compelling thing about Gogol is not who influenced him but rather what did. Gregg seems to believe Russia had a huge influence on the types of stories Gogol produced. It is not as if Gogol was never influenced by other writers or philosophers, but his influence on those who followed was much more immense than those who influenced him. Clarence Manning mentioned in The Slavonic Review, “It w  was the tragedy of Gogol’s career that he had helped to initiate many of these changes. He had pointed out the path along which Russian literature was to move. He had painted the situation in Russia so strongly that he had led the younger men into the path of opposition, and then he had proceeded along he own way, which led him equally far from the past and the movement toward the future” (Manning 573). With this being said, Gogol raised the stakes for Russian literature at the time. He did not write about love or ideal situations, instead he placed his characters in challenging situations to teach a lesson or oppose mainstream thinking. “It is, indeed, this direct impact on the ‘uneducated man’ that made Gogol into such a powerful social force in Russia. He alone seemed to possess the secret of insinuating himself into the minds of his readers and…‘irrevocably undermining’ the Russian people’s respect for the Tsarist government” (Magarshack 16).  He defied the government and encouraged readers and other writers to become more abstract thinkers about the world around them. He paved the way for people to start to think more realistically which leads to mistrust of authority. Gogol’s influence on others may not be direct but that does not dampen the impact his literature has had on those who followed. Dmitry Čiževsky claims, “Dostoyevsky and others of Gogol’s younger contemporaries probably imitated him quite unconsciously. What is significant here is that these imitators belonged to a variety of literary schools. Later, realists and impressionists, symbolists and futurists, and still later, Soviet writers, were to claim Gogol’ as their spiritual ancestor” (Čiževsky 476). Not only did Gogol influence Russian authors, he had a great influence on many other ethnicities and genres of literature as well.  Čiževsky believes Gogol played a much larger role in literature than some may assume. Gogol’s influence was ultimately due to his brave movement away from popular literature. Do you truly believe that Gogol’s “The Overcoat” paved the way for literature at this time? Is Gogol’s way of blending romanticism and realism visible in “The Overcoat”?

Works Cited

Čiževsky, Dmitry. “The Unknown Gogol”. The Slavonic and Eastern European Review. Vol. 30, No. 75, Jun., 1952. The Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School of Slavonic and East European Studies. 476 &478. Web. February 16, 2012. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/4204347?seq=7&Search=yes&searchText=1840&searchText=Russia&searchText=Gogol&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoAdvancedSearch%3Fq0%3DGogol%26f0%3Dall%26c 1%3DAND%26q1%3DRussia%2Bin%2Bthe%2B1840%26f1%3Dall%26acc%3Don%26wc%3Don%26Search%3DSearch%26sd%3D%26ed%3D%26la%3D%26jo%3D&prevSearch=&item=3&ttl=399&returnArticleService=showFullText&resultsServiceName=null]

Gregg, Richard. “The Writer and His Quiff: How Young Gogol' Sought to Shape His Public Image”. Russian Review. Vol. 63, No. 1, Jan., 2004. Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The Editors and Board of Trustees of the Russian Review. 65. Web. February 16, 2012. [http://www.jstor.org.proxy-su.researchport.umd.edu/stable/3664691?seq=3&Search=yes&searchText=influence&searchText=historical&searchText=Gogol&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dhistorical%2Binfluence%2Bon%2BGogol%26gw%3Djtx%26acc%3Don%26prq%3D%2528%2528history%2Bin%2BRussia%2529%2BAND%2B%25281840%2529%2529%26Search%3DSearch%26hp%3D25%26wc%3Don&prevSearch=&item=1&ttl=1742&returnArticleService=showFullText&resultsServiceName=null]

Magarshack, David. “Gogol: A Life”. New York: Grove Press Inc., 1969. Book.

Manning, A. Clarence. “Nicolas Gogol”. The Slavonic Review. Vol. 4, No. 12, March 1926. The Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School of Slavonic and East European Studies. 573. Web. February 16, 2012. [http://www.jstor.org.proxy-su.researchport.umd.edu/stable/4201994?&Search=yes&searchText=historical&searchText=Gogol&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoAdvancedSearch%3Fq0%3Dhistorical%26f0%3Dall%26c1%3DAND%26q1%3DGogol%26f1%3Dall%26acc%3Don%26wc%3Don%26Search%3DSearch%26sd%3D%26ed%3D%26la%3D%26jo%3D&prevSearch=&item=4&ttl=3311&returnArticleService=showFullText]