1. Literature Review
The broad extent of criticism addressing materialism in Henry James is best summed up in H.G Wells's searing castigation in 1915 of We can note here the roots of an ongoing tradition of literary criticism regarding Jamesian materialism. Wells and other peers of James, amongst them his friend Edith Wharton, pointed out the incomprehensibility of certain passages of James and the often infuriatingly minute attention paid to detail, which was, certainly according to Wells, all to no effect. Wells cruelly compared James to a hippoptamus struggling to pick up a pea in the corner of its den; (Wells, 3:108). In Wells's vision of Jamesian materialism, the object itself is intensified to the extent where it becomes nothing, merely refuse. Wells sees James as simultaneously too materialist and not materialist enough, which presents the reader with a significant textual problem. If we are to take it that certain things are inherently Jamesian; cabinets and chairs, collections, portraits, the golden bowl in The Golden Bowl, which seems tenable, and therefore make the assumption that such material things are invested with nuanced meaning, we are then forced to answer certain questions. Is the destruction of such items of importance? In almost every James novel the object(s) at the centre of the novel is destroyed, erased. From that arise more questions - can we conceivably erase an image that has been so carefully worked into the reader's consciousness? The negation of an image leaves something of itself after all, and often an impression that would not exist where it not for the initial effacement. Such lingering images often serve only to highlight the immaterial aspects of a novel. Materialism in James is highly ...
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...heticism by conducting an investigation into cultural shifts in Britain which were later imported into America, most importantly regarding changing ideas of interior décor, particularly in relation to the increasing culture of acquisition and collection of art in the US.
Whilst Freedman's historical points are very attentive, his treatment of James is somewhat lacking in specificity – it becomes a rather vague critique of reification, and rather than paying due attention to the varying forms of ownership and means of owning, Freedman throws around the dubious term 'objectification', in effect robbing the object itself of the potential to be worthy of analysis itself.
Mark Seltzer wrote on The American in Bodies and Machines (1992), detailing a power-centered form of criticism conceptually dependant upon Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish. According to Seltzer,
Toni Cade Bambara addresses how knowledge is the means by which one can escape out of poverty in her story The Lesson. In her story she identifies with race, economic inequality, and literary epiphany during the early 1970’s. In this story children of African American progeny come face to face with their own poverty and reality. This realism of society’s social standard was made known to them on a sunny afternoon field trip to a toy store on Fifth Avenue. Through the use of an African American protagonist Miss Moore and antagonist Sylvia who later becomes the sub protagonist and White society the antagonist “the lesson” was ironically taught.
Toni Cade Bambara’s THE LESSON and David Adams Richards’s DANE stories each describe the lack of quality education and social inequality. Both these collections of stories focuses on children, and readers are able to see the effect of social and economic disadvantage to children and its long term effects. The author uses the paperweight to symbolize the importance of education in the story THE LESSON, the price of their future is going to be something that will have to strive for and look their past current dwellings. Each of two stories details the life and times of group of kids from the point of view of main characters. Bambara’s narrator is portrayed as a strong minded individual at the end of the story while Richards’s narrator, on the
In “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, the children who live in the ghetto in New York go on a trip with their teacher, Miss Moore, to another part of town .When they get there, they visit a toy store. Miss Moore hopes that the students learn a lesson from the visit and skills she tries to teach them in the store. The theme of this short story is Poverty and Wealth .The teacher wants her students to make inferences about ghetto life and the upper class people who can afford the high cost of toys. Despite the main character’s sarcastic attitude towards the teacher and the trip to the toy store in downtown Manhattan, she believes that there is more in life than where you come from; while the other characters don’t understand the theme in the “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara. The author gives credibility to the characters through their actions and thoughts in a way that establishes who they
...ow I would feel the same way if I were Sylvia. After spending the day looking at how the other half live, I would strive to become a self-made individual. I feel that is what the author is trying to accomplish in her story. She wants it to be known that you can become anything you want with a little bit of motivation, and that’s what Ms. Moore did when she took the kids to the toyshop. She gave Sylvia the motivation and drive to strive for something better then what she had. There are several different emotions and routes that Sylvia or anyone could have felt after her experience, and what she chose was to be angry. Her anger will drive her to accomplish her goals. “The Lesson”, will have several different meanings for different people, but what I took away from this story is that if you weren’t born with it you can still obtain it even if society is against you.
"American Cultural History." American Cultural History. Lone Star College, June 2012. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
93). Therefore it falls on the community to validate what is and isn’t knowledge, which results in what is and isn’t power. Thus power creates and is administered by what is accepted by society through learned discourses of truth (Foucault, Pg. 93). Foucault holds that the truth is always relative to an order of power, and that discourses of truth are a tool to attain power (Foucault, Pg. 93). Thus everyone is involved in and plays a role in the creation of power as discourses spread and produce, reinforce, and challenge power. Foucault articulates that the effects of truth that power constructs and transmits, in turn results in the proliferation of power (Foucault, Pg. 93). He argues that power cannot be attained except through the truth (Foucault, Pg. 93), thus in order to function we must speak the truth (Foucault, Pg. 93). Foucault is trying to argue that it is in fact not class status, nor economic or political power that drives power, but rather it is the truth that makes laws and thus produces true discourses that decide and extend the effects of power (Foucault, Pg. 94). Therefore, true discourses are the bearers and the invigilators of the specific effects and realms of power (Foucault, Pg.
Toni Cade Bambara’s short story “The Lesson” is a story about a group of children living in the slums of New York City around the 1960s and 1970s. They seem to be content living in poverty in some very unsanitary conditions. Miss Moore, the children’s self-appointed mentor takes it upon herself to further their education during the summer months. She feels this is her civic duty because she is educated. She used F.A.O. Schwarz, a very expensive toy store, to teach them a lesson and inspire them to strive for success and attempt to better themselves and their situations. Although the use of language tells the reader a great deal about Sylvia’s background and environment, what is important is the use of foul language which takes us deeper and
Executing a close reading of the short story, The Lesson by African-American author, Toni Cade Bambara, there is solid evidence that the narrative represents a Marxism. The plot of the story constantly addresses financial possessions or the lack thereof with a number of mentions of the social economic status of each character although they are categorized within one race. Furthermore, one can argue that the narrative also displays a relationship between the psychological mentality of the characters as well as a biographical connection to the author. Evidence within the short story confirms that Toni Cade Bambara’s The Lesson expresses the existence of power and social class categorizations through the controlling of an individual’s emotional
When I first read the short story “The Lesson” I immediately was drawn to the character Sylvia. She is obviously the most outspoken and dynamic character in the short story, however, I saw more to her than a first glance read of an angry, bitter, and cynical girl. Partly I saw more to where she came from, because I understood that on a personal level. I also saw underneath and believe that under that hard facade is someone whose circumstances truly shaped their life whether they were aware of it or not. From looking at the sociological effects of poverty on children it is now even clearer to me that Sylvia’s less than pleasant demeanor was a result of the circumstances she was born into.
Problems with Foucault: Historical accuracy (empiricism vs. Structuralism)-- Thought and discourse as reality? Can we derive intentions from the consequences of behavior? Is a society without social control possible?
...for driving ambition, a lust for money and power. ¢ßAnyhow, Charlotte¡¯s shocked awareness and questions in the end of the story leave us readers much space to think. James ends the story like this, which may vaguely hint us on the one hand the betrayal of innocence on the other hand the hope of innocence. But this is quite ambiguous which is just a good example of Jamesian style. For James never tells us things directly by himself but let us readers make our own judge by ourselves
Sarah Snyder Professor Feola Gov’t 416: Critical Theory Assignment #2 On Foucault, “Truth and Juridical Forms” Michel Foucault may be regarded as the most influential twentieth-century philosopher on the history of systems of thought. His theories focus on the relationship between power and knowledge, and how such may be used as a form of social control through institutions in society. In “Truth and Juridical Forms,” Foucault addresses the development of the nineteenth-century penal regime, which completely transformed the operation of the traditional penal justice system.
...ional styles and instead used new and organic forms which emphasized humanity’s connection to nature. It was thus very heavily influenced by the Art Nouveau style that was widely gaining popularity at the time. The resulting combination of these two prominent movements served to revolutionise interior design for the better, as it saw a gradual increase in the quality and creativity of the decorative arts.
America over time has adopted and organized 27 amendments to regulate people’s actions as legal or illegal. The word “amend” literally means to change; therefore, the government is based off of amended rules and changes. Without activists, it is likely that America’s government would not have been amended to the ideals society follows today. However, these activists make it difficult to establish a national character without conflict. In the Stranger, Meursault becomes momentarily agitated with his lawyer saying, “He didn’t understand me, and he was sort of holding it against me. I felt the urge to reassure him that I was like everybody else, just like everybody else” (Camus 66). Meursault briefly feels pressured to conform; his lawyer persuades him to abandon his own ideas to better the outcome of his trial. Since the 1950s cultures have become accustomed to mass media and mainstream middle class, encouraging conformity. Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy in America, wrote, "I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America” (Barone). Tocqueville utilizes a negative connotation to emphasize his support for individualism over conformity. Supported by the first amendment, the freedom of speech is given to all American citizens; however, conformist ideals have oppressed individuals for many years. Americans are afraid to speak their mind or stand out, because they are condemned for it. Barone characterizes America by saying, “not only did insistence on a strict self-reliance soften as the 20th century progressed, but many came to fear our rugged individualism was melting into a mediocre conformity.” It is important for society and the individual that the focus transitions back to individual freedom so America, once a great prospering nation, is not characterized as “mediocre” in every day society.
The Aesthetic movement in Britain began as a reform impulse. It was a part of a larger critique of the Industrial Revolution, which had radically altered Britain following the Napoleon...