Charles Brockden Brown Biography

http://brockdenbrown.cah.ucf.edu/biography/


Take a look at this website to learn a bit more about the author of Wieland, I think his life puts the book into a historical context. Separation of religions in the colonies, the Revolutionary War and how that affected his life during and post war times. He was born in 1771, five years before the beginning of the war. He grew up in a time of rapidly changing socio-political entities in the world. If you don't have time to read through the entire biography this paragraph I think would make a decent discussion for a classroom setting.
"Love of debate may have prompted Brown's initial interest in the law, but the young intellectual soon became disillusioned. "[I] was perpetually encumbered with the rubbish of the law," he wrote to a friend, "and waded with laborious steps through its endless tautologies, its impertinent circuities, its lying assertions and hateful artifices".³ As representations of the law in his later fiction indicate, Brown viewed the law as a "tissue of shreds and remnants of a barbarous antiquity patched by the stupidity of modern workmen into new deformity" (Ormond 16). He was especially critical of the ways in which, even after the Revolution had attempted to dismantle the American class system, the Constitution had through its restricted franchise continued to limit women's, non-whites' and the poor's access to power and wealth. In 1793, the same year the French monarchy was abolished and political stability replaced by the Reign of Terror, Brown abandoned the law to attempt a life of letters."

Its interesting to notice his rejections of the law, and the similarities between Clara's father and his father, being in an extremist religious group for the time in history. Brown's father was a devout Quaker in the colonies and rejected the war resulting in an 8 month incarceration when Brown was young. I think knowing an author from a biographical standpoint can be useful for deciphering all the meaning behind a text. Or at least what situations lead them to write the novel, in this case I did a little more deep searching and the murders were based on actual events, which for me gives it more depth knowing that these atrocities happened to real people in the world and not too long ago. 
James Yates was the name of the man who originally committed the murders in 1781, when Brown was just 10 years old, this story was publicized heavily in the following months, and probably had some sort of impact on Brown, or enough that he remembered from the newspaper articles to write a novel dramatizing the events.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Yates_murders
Yates interestingly enough was part of another interesting sect religious group called the Shakers, The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing is a religious sect, also known as the Shakers, founded in the 18th century in England, having branched off from a Quaker community." Just thought this was some intriguing information that helped conceptualize the author in terms of his own life experience and how that shines through the literary work. 

Wieland: Clara, Embodiment of 18th Century Woman

The novel hides the identity of the narrator, knowing as progression of the plot takes place the identity of the narrator will be known. I thought from a literary perspective that it was interesting that the narrator turned out to be a woman, however I think Brockden knew exactly what stereotypes he was challenging. However I think that Clara is still treated as a women throughout the novel, however she seems to have some advantages over other women in America at this time period. She is raised and allowed to question and challenge religion and politics. One thing that I thought was interesting that for me separated Clara as in between man and women, is that she inherited her fathers farm, which generally would have given to Clara's brother or another man in the society. Women didn't own property in the 18th century America, therefore I thought that Brockden made her be able to transcend both genders because it gave her an advantage as the narrator to intersect between both male and female emotions in the plot. However Brockden still makes her suffer from disillusionment, anxiety, hysteria, and extreme emotional swings and her farm is also located on her brother's land. Brockden goes through the novel maybe to exemplify some changes about gender, but quickly goes back to the 18th century where women are second class citizens, proving that the devout institutions will always prevail, being the law and religion because even though Clara can challenge those things at the end of the novel they are still just as apparent as they are in the beginning, it helps explain the context of time. For another blog I want to look into the body politic in this novel, and how it was put together in the 18th century. 

Charlotte Temple: Rowson

During the last week we have been reading Charlotte Temple by Susanna Rowson in which the main character is Charlotte Temple who becomes another symbol of the fallen women in this story similar to that of The Scarlet Letter.
Rowson writes this novel as a cautionary tale for women in England that are thinking about "eloping" away from their families, possibly to join another man in marriage or as a mistress. However Rowson wrote this novel and it was the most popular piece of literature in the new western world, until the release of Uncle Tom's Cabin in the mid nineteenth century. In class the discussion didn't get focused on Rowson as a person or author and the conventions of the novel and how that is an inlet into Rowson as a person, her values, and morals.
First learning more about the biographical content of her life helps Charlotte Temple hold more significance, and truth to the constructs of the novel."Susanna Haswell was the daughter of an office in the Royal Navy. She grew up from 1768 in Massachusetts, where her father was stationed, but the family returned to England in 1778 .In 1792 she went on the stage with her husband, whose business had failed. The Rowsons performed in Scotland and in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Boston. Rowson also wrote numerous plays and musicals and in the process helped promote the development of the performing arts in the United States. Then when She retired in 1797 she opened The Young Ladies Academy in Boston, which was the first all girls boarding school in the colonies.
Knowing the biographical content of Rowsons life helps understand the story, she lived on the cusp of the Western Frontier to the New World. She also lived poor and working class for the majority of her life, raising children with her husband who had a failed business. Charlotte Temple and Rowson's biography I think speak part into the conventions used and her life story to compare with Charlotte Temple. As much as this novel goes through the themes of suffering and misogyny towards women, this novel served as a cautionary tale to alter the perception of women thinking they need to find a husband. Rather that they should be content to stay with their own families, until they find a proper situation for marriage if that is possible.
This novel reads like a play, the narrator constantly communicates with the reader through the titles of chapters or just side notes when reading. For example chapter 33 title is "Which People Void of Feeling Need Not Read" which is Rowson talking to the reader summing up the novel and if the reader is not connected with the text than there is not point in continuing reading. Some other things from her biography that translated to Charlotte Temple were this novel was probably released serially through periodicals in newspapers. Where the conventions of keeping tension is more crucial to keep the readers reading, which communicates to the pace of the rising action in the plot.

http://www.britannica.com/biography/Susanna-Rowson (Biographical Content) 

Scarlet Letter, A Classic?

Throughout reading Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlett Letter, considered a classic in American Literature. The conventions of this novel are important to understand and the conventions of a classic work to see how they compare and contrast together. Or do the conventions of American Classic and global Classic novel differ?  A quote form Italo Calvino helps sum up his idea of a classic work,

“A classic is a work which constantly generates a pulviscular cloud of critical discourse around it, but which always shakes the particles off.”

Meaning that the content of the novel holds multiple conventions that change over time but still have a place for discussion in the context of time. A classic piece of literature must be able to transcend the generations so the reader can make connections to their lives today. Therefore looking at other classics of this era, such as Uncle Tom's Cabin or The Narratives of Frederick Douglas abbreviate what types of issues and tribulations American society was going through during the 1850's. These alternative two novels deal heavily with the American Slave Trade moving towards the Civil Rights Movement. Similarities between all three of these novels is the main theme of suffrage, overcoming obstacles, the main character find themselves throughout the rising action of the plot.

The themes that are identifiable in The Scarlet Letter relate to the American feeling of the 19th century. Hawthorne deals with issues that could be ahead of his time, during this time The Civil War was starting between the north and south. In the years where race and slavery were the main concern of the American public, Hawthorne writes the Scarlet Letter where issues of overbearing religion not separated from law, fallen woman, and overt sexism. Was he looking to the future? After slavery ends is the next totem pole of political thought going to be equality for women? This novel may have been before its time in the context of history, but maybe that is what makes this novel pulviscular is that it was an insight into then modern day America through looking at micro chasm of the Puritan religion in the beginning of the colonies.

Overall this novel does qualify as a classic in the scheme of the world, however this novel is not devoutly an American Classic but a Classic in the broad scope of world literature. The reason that this novel is a classic, is because the types of issues and building action that take place in this novel are issues that are seen in various other world literature. The common themes of questioning religion, fighting through problems to find a resolve, and suffering are all themes seen in The Odyssey for example the original hero's journey. I would argue that Hester Prynne has taken the hero journey to the point that the "A" which is supposed to promote scorn and negative depictions of her character changes and the "A" by the end of the novel stands for symbol of pride, heroism, and has picked herself up as the fallen woman.

Another qualifying factor to why this novel is considered an American Classic is The Scarlet Letter has been taught in so many different levels of education around the United States, this novel is polarizing and it has to be a classic because people can identify within the constructs of the written language of the novel.