20th CENTURY EVENTS

WWI (1914-1919) First foreign conflict for the US in significant numbers. President Wilson said
that USA needed to be involved to make the world safe for democracy. It came out of the war with
reinforced values: patriotism, heroism,... typical American values.

Economically: America was much more prosper. War was a good business. Economic prosperity for
the USA. People improved their conditions of life in the cities above all. Production of goods in the
cities for the war. People emigrated to the cities. Strengthen of the economy.

Art and Literature: Artists disappointment, disillusion. They perceived that America was being
corrupted by the money made in the war. Cultural migration, writers specially, moved to Europe
specially France. They are known as the "Lost Generation", because they felt they had lost their
values and because they felt they didn't have a literature in America to be based on. They didn't
have precedents and related to Europeans. We see American literature produced outside America.
View of America totally different from the ones who write inside America.

The Crazy 20s: Excess, consume, crime, corruption, beginning of the stardom, celebrities,
monopolies (Rockefeller), skyscrapers. Charleston dancing, cultural rebellion in part of the women
(short hair, dresses). Jazz time - blackness showing to the world. It is also known as "the decade of
the no tomorrows". CARPE DIEM.

Negative connotations of the war. People trying to forget about the war. Soldiers traumatized by the
war (In Britain Mrs. Dalloway in 1925).In USA The Great Gatsby by F.S. Fitzerald.

1929: economy "crack" + the Great Depression

Wall - street crack. Beginning of huge economic crisis. Millions of dollars were lost. People lost
everything and killed themselves. Migrations again moved to California to look for a job. Moving
West to California, dream land at the time. Literature related to social problems, working classes,
situation of people in society and, formally, react to experimentalism and went back to realism
"neo-realism"". Most writers related to political and social compromise (Ruland and Bradbury)
Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath.

A challenge to the American Dream. A crisis of the American dream. They talk about radical issues,
explore the language of decay. Respected writers were allowed to criticise the system. They
accepted that literature could criticise and they were not antipatriotic.

WWII + the Cold War

Involvement again in the war (Second World War). Prosperity economical and political. Again
many values came back. Involvement of the writers. There were journalists during the war. Fear of
communism: the Red Scare. Arthur Miller was investigated. The birth of the "Comitee of
Unamerican activities". Many intellectuals were asked and persecuted.

The tranquilized 50s. People had money and bought things. Double moral, people being punished
for being different but people were at home with cars, etc. Postmodernism in literature and art.
Difficult to classify because of the fragmentation

The Vietnam War - Civil Rights Movement (black, gay, women...)

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Big failure economically, politically the first national trauma divided America in two against and for
the war. Protests. Related to the Civil Rights Movement. Lots of the activism in the whole of
America.

New voices, minorities coming into the landscape: Asian, American, Black, gay, women,
Jewish,...Literature again politically and socially involved. New genres appearing Truman Capote In
Cold Blood. "Non-fiction novel" mixing journalism and fiction.

1980s conservative backlash

Politically activity went down and foreign policy became important, and very conservative inside
the country. Literature: two sides following the conservative or against it.

1990s AIDS "epidemic". Gulf War, birth of Internet, multiculturalism and globalisation.

Clinton + George Bush father ruled America. AIDS, a big shock - presenting homosexuals and
homosexuality topic in literature. Gulf War - a success for American people. Not a big issue in
literature. Internet and globalisation, new ways of promoting literature. Discussion about
globalisation.

9/!1

Big shock, big trauma. Totally changed the political and economical landscape in America. New
enemy: Islamic fundamentalism. "The Axis of Evil" - echoes of Reagan. Changes in literature and
new topic (although it is still too close. We still don't have a big corpus of literature about the topic
e.g. Don Delillo The Falling Man.)

OUTLINE CANON ARTICLE

- Canon: definition. It implies authority

- Each generation changes the works and voices that create their literary models.
- Until the 60s traditional authors such as Franklin, Irving
- 60s onwards new voices appeared: women, black, chicano, natives,... they reflected the limitations
of the typical voices studied - revisionism
- Reaction universities: conservadurism. They decided the representative voices of America but
limited and selected.
- The Universalism of the canon was broken.
- Universalism linked to ideology and power.
- Rift still alive
- "Literature" understood as something that is taught inside the classrooom so we have to do it with
responsibility, plural and integrated.
- Comparative perspective as the best solution.

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THE AMERICAN DREAM

A brief history and some versions.

It is present in all works we are going to read. Miller touched it. Salinger criticised it and the Beat
Generation destroyed it.

Why 'American'? It is a collective construction. The idea of “we” is very important. It is the idea
behind the Puritan impulse (settlement, Manifest Destiny) The Idea is already there although not
explicitly. The idea that they can change things – transformation., that life can be better, to find a
better country. Improvement and change – Concepts important in the American Dream, implicitly in
the Puritans. The idea was developed later in Franklin and the Founding Fathers. Collective feelings
important [in contrast to Europe – fragmented and old].

Associated with the 'self-made man'. First to mention this concept was Henry Clay in 1832.
American Dream term was coined by James Truslow Adams in The Epic of America (1931) First
one to use the expression and developed it explicitly. American Dream summarized as a “better,
richer, happier life” for everybody. (related to the Declaration of Independence).

Idea based on the idea of reform: things can be different... and better. It is a common language;
shared ground for centuries, binding different people together. It is a way of uniting them in difficult
moments. It helps to create stability in the American society.

There ain't one dream: Versions // variations

1)The most familiar: upward mobility (from rags to riches).

Idea of a process, always moving. What matters is the pursuit. Idea present in the film
starring Will Smith The Pursuit of Happyness (spelt wrong, related to the flaws in the
American Dream).

2)The most unsuccessful: unequality.

“All men are created equal” flaw from the very beginning (slavery, minority,...) I was meant
for WASPs.
“All” - it was an inclusive idea. Lincoln differentiated freedom from equality. You don't start
from the same position, but different positions (it is not the same if you start as a white or as
a black or chicano) People are not equal. Unsuccessful many differences.

3)The most widely realized: home ownership

Land from the very beginning present and important in America. Breaking the frontiers even now:
space, world.

1862 Homestead Act. Any citizen in the US was entitled to 160 acres of land only by paying
a small tax and staying for five years. Ways to populate the new areas that were being
conquered.

50s birth of the suburbs. Residential areas.

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4)The most alluring: fame and fortune.
Las Vegas (Casinos, quick money) / California (Hollywood, LA to be famous)

THE FIFTIES: CULTURAL, ECONOMICAL AND POLITTCAL CONTEXT.

Period after the Second World War of economic prosperity and patriotism.

President Truman (1945 – 53)

President Eisenhower (1953-61)

WW II – Moral element behind the war: to protect democracy.

Economic (it was a business)
Pearl Harbor (direct attack of the Japanese on American soil)

Korean War (1950-53) also called 'The Forgotten War' or “The Silent War”. It wasn't officially a
war. They got involved when the North (communist) invaded the South. 50,000 Americans died. It
was illegal because there was no Declaration of war. Today, there are still troops in South Korea.

Positive atmosphere in general: Consumerism culture. People bought things. The car is one of the
symbols as well as home appliances. WASP: Good moments for them as a model. White middle
class as a model to look up to.

Emphasis on youth, having fun, live quickly. 1950s is the teen culture (like the 20s after the WW I –
kind of a cycle). Image of youth in the 50s different from Salinger.

Politically, time of anxiety and fear (The Cold War: USA vs URSS) “Red scare” → scare to the
expansion of communism. It was the second red scare the first was in the 20s.

Senator McCarthy (McCarthyism) → Face of this red scare. Concept of “witch hunt”, in pursuit of
all communist defenders. At the end, persecution if you do something different from the
mainstream.

Literature – shift to individual conscience. Focus on individuals, specific people.

Holden Caulfied in The Catcher in the Rye (1951) and the absolute invisibility of The Invisible
Man Ralph Ellison 1952 are responses to the complex nature of mass society from which
conformity, materialism and lack of communication surface as major themes - Townsend Ludington

Critique of consumer society in novels, poems, etc “Superman” 1958 John Updike.

I drive my car to supermarket,

The way I take is superhigh,
A superlot is where I park it,
And Super Suds are what I buy.

Supersalesmen sell me tonic -

Super-Tone-O, for Relief.
The planes I ride are supersonic.
In trains, I like the Super Chief.

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 Supercilious men and women
Call me superficial - me,
Who so superbly learned to swim in
Supercolossality.

Superphosphate-fed foods feed me;

Superservice keeps me new.
Who would dare to supersede me,
Super-super-superwho?

(John Updike, 1954)

Idea that everything is big in the USA and criticism at the times the idea of the excesses of society.

Different sides: literatures reflecting the times / literature responding to it.

DEATH OF A SALESMAN

Realistic play. “Tragedy of the common man” A big impact in American drama. Question of the
man and the system and the struggle to fit into the system and how it could destroy the man.

Nuclear family – typically seen in the mainstream. Willy Loman, the father, is under the burden of
his own existence because he has lost so many things in his life.

ARTHUR MILLER (1915-2005)

Very productive and politically active man.

Professionally know for Death of a Salesman, much more famous personally because of his
marriage to Marylin Monroe.

He discusses the contradiction inherent in the American Dream, Interested in social issues / postwar
capitalism. Along with Tennesse Williams, he is one of the best-known playwrights after II WW.

He is specifically an American player, very rooted in his context.

He was born in Harlem, NY. He was from a family of immigrants. His father was a Jewish from
Poland (he usually talks about immigrants, clash of religions,..) His mother was born in NY but also
from Polish origins. Traditional family. His father worked, his mother was a housewife. In 1929 his
father was ruined and they moved to Brooklyn (his house in Brooklyn was taken as a model for
Death of a Salesman / the degradation of the city is also present in the play).

Education.

Middle class he had access to High School education. He graduated in 1932. He worked in a
warehouse. When he read The Brothers Karamazov, he decided to become a writer. Early decision
in high school.

He worked in a warehouse. He had contact with the working classes → their condition, experiences

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he will reflect them in his plays.

University of Michigan (relevant to the theatre connection). He graduated in 1938, returned to NYC
and joined the Federal Theatre Project and wrote for the radio (experimenting with language).

Federal Theatre Project – It was part of the New Deal in order to give jobs to the artists, who were
unemployed, and a way to entertain and raise the conscience and self-esteem of the working classes.
Writing plays to the working classes and the poor. Way to put Miller into contact with the problems
of the working classes. He started to become a public figure thanks to the radio (other theatrical
initiatives at the time as the Living theatre (or Newspapers) used to communicate with the working
class, pass information, using real materials from the press)

First big on Broadway: The Man who Had All the Luck (1944). Not very successful (only 4 nights
on) but it opened doors to him.

1947 All my sons. A success (New York Drama Critics Circle Award + 2 Tony Awards)

1949 The big moment Death of a Salesman. It brought him International fame; one of the major
achievements of Modern American Theatre.

In the 50s, the House Committee of Un-American Activities denied him the passport to attend
Brussels premiere of The Crucible (1953) a play that absolutely criticised what was happening in
the 50s but contextualised in the 17th century. Brutal criticism to McCarthy. He admitted he was
politically active but that he was not communist. Very intense critique. He is not in Broadway
because of the persecution.

In the sixties, After the Fall (1964) symbolic title. Reaction to what was happening to him in the
fifties, own feelings of guilt … (there was a lot of political activism during the period – mayo del
68)

1965: Elected president of the Pen Club.

Continued to produce theatre for the rest of the century. Several of his works were filmed.

1987 autobiography Time Bends published.

2002 – Principe de Asturias. Prize for Literature. Better known here, plays again in Stage in Spain.
Speech interesting and related to Spain, his political values and things like the Spanish Civil War
(You can see it in fundacionprincipedeasturias.org )

He died of heart failure at home (feb 10th 2005).

Ny Time “ A grant of American Theatre” (he was recognised as this) “deeply American Man”
(Americanness is always in his plays) “Social dramas with the power of Greek tragedy).

Main titles

1947 All my sons

1949 Death of a Salesman.
1953 The Crucible
1955 A view from the Bridge

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1964 After the Fall
1977 The Achbishop's ceiling
1985 Danger: Memory!
1994 Broken Glass
2004 Finishing the Picture (self-conscious author)

Last plays were not overtly politically but still very conscious. Always a politically component in
his plays.

Movie about Death of a Salesman.

Setting: long stage directions.

Space – very fluent changes of settings (realistic) Novelty in American Theatre.

Addition of the road in the movie – relevant, idea of a man tired, honking, doing something wrong
or in danger. Road image → he spent most of his life there, positive at the beginning, earning,
moving and meeting people. But also image of danger: getting tired, danger visual and symbolic.

House also realizations of the American Dream. Paradoxical / ironic play. He is gonna die the day
he pays the last bill of the mortgage.

Characters:

Loman, tension going down and up, totally happy and being totally down the next moment. Smaller
man, huge burden on his back. Symbolic burden (job, mortgage, lies...) seen in the actor. How small
and tired he usually looks. Colours grey, brown nothing joyous around him everything is saying
failure.

Biff is going back opportunity – Willy can be successful through him but it doesn't work.

Linda is always there, no matter what happens. Port where he always can come back. Always
behind him, correcting what he does, she is the one who stops him to make mistakes. Conciliating.
She is the mother an she is the wife. She chooses to be the wife, to be there for Willy. Novelty.
Opposite of the happy housewife. No house appliances. Complement of Willy. He needs her and she
is always there.

Biff and Happy. They are thirty something but they look like children. Small room, small beds,
topics about sex, girls. First image they are like children, lack of maturity. They are thinking already
in the past (repeating Willy) Not presented as the success the father is thinking they are but quite the
opposite.

Car connection of the family. Problematic relationship with the father.

Light of the film:

Darkish – Play a lot. Yellow light with this kind of colour look of decay. Separate scenes present
and past (the light change) Visions and onerous scenes signal by light and music (a flute) which was
played by the father, Ben, people who are not there anymore.

Dialogue also well adapted.

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STUDY QUESTIONS

1)Is this Death of a Salesman a tragedy?

It has some elements of tragedy: death of hero, catharsis (pity+fear, identification of the readers
and affect them) Universal topics, serious topic, dramatic form (changes)

“Tragedy of the common man” - people who lost or could lose their jobs, people thinking to end
their lives. All the things that happen in the play are common to us, even nowadays people
understand it (because of the crisis).

Present / Past (mixing reality and dreams). Present: realistic side. Past: onerous, dream-like
atmosphere.

If he had shown only the Present (being tired, lost his job) it would be a dramatic situation but not a
tragedy. In order to be a tragedy you have to see the process, his fallen)

“hubris” - flaw. The hero of a tragedy has a flaw (his mistress)

The 'turning point” → getting caught by Biff (the error). He betrayed the values he was trying to
pass to his son. The son discovers his lies (he had a mistress) and the fall begins.

Traditional tragedies: they are heroes or people from the top classes (nobles, aristocracy). The fall
of the powerful. Miller made it common to all classes, everyday life.

“anagnorisis” acknowledgement.

Salesman – condition basic. Time of consumerism, sell and buy. It is the beginning crisis of the
period. He sells woman stockings which he gives to his lover. He is caught because of the lady.
Linda is always mending them. Two models connected to the stockings: Linda is mending them and
the other woman consumes it happily.

Salesman: - name
stockings
car.

He is constructed as the salesman. It is not 100% a classical tragedy.

2.Happy and Biff.

Happy as a relief of the tension, change in the tone.

In the Past Happy & Biff seemed popular, good at sports,..

Present: Biff knows everything, he is the only one facing Willy. Biff is the problematic one. He
knows that their life is a lie, because he knows of his father's mistress. Linda is the innocent,
protecting Willy. Happy ignorant.

System: capitalism, materialism but Biff is trying to go back to Nature, looking for himself.

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Happy is following Willy's steps. He promises he is going to continue his dad's job, following the
system.

They help to the characterization of Willy. Biff complement to Willy, he is the reality, what
happened. Everything of the play spins around Willy, everything is construct around the character.

3.Linda

Mother and wife. Not a typical Angel in the House. She is the support, complement, pillar of Willy
but she is wife more than a mother. Willy Loman's wife.

She is necessary. The one who protects, reduces the conflicts, brings back Willy to reality. Linda is
going after him. Stops him from reminiscing when it becomes dangerous.

At the end total irony, last payment of the house when he dies. She says 'we're fee' or 'I can't cry!'
though she is in pain. She closes the play. The final voice. Why? Nobody let her talk during the
play, this is the only moment she is free to talk (when the love of her life is dead, now she is
liberated). Representative of the old times. The rest is going to move away. Moment of dramatic
justice (not let her talk but at the end). One of the most tragic monologues, all the tragedy lies in her
words “we're free” Very relevant in her characterisation.

4. Context in which it was written:

The play is one of the first criticisms in the middle of prosperity, happiness of the 50s. Miller does a
critique to the system (Challenge to the system). We are Artificial well -being (superficiality and
materialism), having but not being.

5.Criticism

To capitalism, materialism, superficiality, technology (fridge)

One main criticism: People are phony folks (superficial and fake) Everybody is superficial.
Miller: Be careful!

6. What do you think makes it contemporary?

Due to the crisis and the same values (materialism, superficiality) it could happen to anyone.

How to make it more actual? Maybe make it more closer or more actual when staging (or making
Biff gay)

7. Comments:
What about Charlie?
Charlie – support Willy (supportive)
- Similar life but the other side of the coin.
Biff is angry because he swallows all the frustration. Sportsman, popular (fulfilling the
dream of the father) but everything breaks. Willy sells his life (he commits suicide) to get money for
his family but it doesn't work (no insurance pays for that).

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JEROME DAVID SALINGER (1919-2010)

He wrote about personajes que no encajan, salen de la opulencia pero no encajan. Todo es phony or
nice, bueno o malo. La línea entre Holden y la Beat Generation es una línea contínua, sin
separación.

Autor misterioso. No existe como figura pública.

Salinger was born in Manhattan NY, prosperous family. Upper-class. European descend.
Education: several schools, Valley Forge Military Academy, Ursims college. New York University.
He did not fit. Several problems with institutional sides of learning or church. He likes to learn but
he had problems with institutions (same as Holden).

1939. Course on short story writing at Columbia University. Very good short story writers.

War experience: drafted into infantry, involved in the invasion of Normandy. He spent some time in
Europe. He was in contact with the cultural elite in France, with the most innovative writers. He
wrote in Paris and met Hemingway. He was deeply affected by the consequences of the war. He
suffered for the Worst side of war: shell-shock or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). He
started to see American values in different ways. He wrote a famous short story “For Esmé – with
Love and squalor” in which he reflects the shock of the battle- He writes about a soldier with
correspondence to a British girl. Through his letters he recovers his energy.

Onwards he will write about in-between characters.

1945- First marriage. In 1955 Second marriage to the daughter of an art critic and he had access to
the cultural elite. 1967 he divorced and retreated into his private world + influence of zen
Buddhism. He disappeared.

He opened the door that the Beats will explore to the maximum later. Connected to Orient. Turning
toward traditional views of Eastern world. Alternative views of life. He was the first one to do that
(Beat Generation will continue)

1946. he devoted himself to write full-time. Early short stories in newspapers and magazines. “ A
Perfect Day for Bananafish”. He introduces Seymor Glass, the character. Later continued with The
Glass cycle. The Glass family were used continuously. At the end Glass kills himself. He is a misfit,
does not find a place in the world and ends killing themselves.

“Hapworth 16, 1924” → Glass cycle in several collections

Franny and Zooey 1961

Carpenters 1963
Seymour: An Introduction 1963

Masterpiece: The Catcher in the Rye 1951

Book-of-the-Month Club Selection. Internationally acclaimed. Still sells around 250,000 copies
every year.

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Holden, the main character is a Seeker- Buscadores permanentes siempre en movimiento.

Contracultural. Insumisión continua. Elemento rebeldía del adolescente una crítica implicat a los
valores americanos.

Holden is a modern Huckleberry Finn. He is always the focus in the book.

50s- important postmodernism (question of the role of the reader). Reflection on his own process of
telling the story. He constantly analyses the process. Self-conscious narrator.

Holden is talking to somebody. He needs to be listened. He has a perspective so he can judge.

Retrospective narrator. Holden is not a hero in the traditional, conventional view, but he is the
constant focus. A precedent of the following generation of the Beats. There is a line of
communication with teenagers.

In the first chapter he mentions an Emily Dickson's poem. Conscious choice. “The poet of the
Death” He is dead (Allie, his brother). As well as Holden, he imagines his own death as Dickinson.

Innocence – No, lot of troubles. Holden is constantly bitter, sardonic, sarcastic like a growing
person. He wants to catch the children. He wants to protect their childhood, his sister,... He wants to
protect their innocence. He is losing the childhood, a teenager. He is in-between (between childhood
and maturity). Self-conscious body, sexually, waking up to different things. Sex constantly talking
about it. Talk and talk. Immature side. Struggle between being innocence and enter the adult world.
Prostitute: sexual woman but also corruption his brother is selling himself as a writer in Hollywood.

Mr Antolini → Homosexual? He thinks he is a pervert (related to the context of the 50s).

Physicality – part of characterisation as a teenager- Very conscious of your body and the others.
No direct approach but he uses things to talk about other big things.

Communication – It fails for several reasons. Constantly fails.

Form: 'beads-on-a-string technique' Also used in Huckleberry Finn. Episode after episode. All make
sense separately but also all together.

The text becomes an artistic weapon (J. Steinbeck)

Social and artistic – Salinger is in between. (New contraculture / from the 30s neo-realistic author.)

Holden is an American product, creation. Cultural, social preoccupations shaped by the American
society. Vernacular. Also the way he talks (like in the 50s) time and place urban NY. The only
person who listens, understands, communicates with him is Phoebe.

The novel is created as a journey, a quest. He is looking for something. Part of the structure (beads-
on-a-sting).

When the book was published it was banned. Because its language (obscene)- From the 50s to 2007
banned.

It is an oral story (that's why the register) to someone outside his environment (probably a doctor)

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selection of information. Not a mad boy story. He has a problem but he is reasonable enough to
make an analysis. Teenager state of in-betweeness. Gives the author freedom. Vulnearbility of
someone struggling between two world and he is constantly negotiating.

Position someone vulnerable but not mad. Make own conclusion and deductions.

STUDY QUESTIONS:

1,2 and 3 in the photocopy.

4. Phony or Hypocritical?

'phony' Someone artificial and hypocritical. When he is talking with his classmate's mother- is he
hypocritical? Is he being hypocritical? Or is he following the rules?

Pointing the defects of the system. He is beginning to do little things. What you have to do –
criticism to these rules.

Responsibility? Your own (individual 50s) or society's? How far can you go into your rebellion?

50s focus on the individual basic.

60s – 70s common identity as a group no 'I' but 'we'
'game' – metaphor of the game in the novel. “Life is a game” Mr Spencer-

“Game, my ass” - Game implies competition rules. Win-side is good, losing side it sucks. In the 50s
is applicable. If you are in the winning side WASP, middle-class but the other side no game, poor
man, communist, black.... He is double faced sometimes but part of society? Children are corrupted
to become phony (adults)

5. Dialect:

Language: oral, colloquial, strong words. He has one limit the F word. There is a limit of the
amount of evil and don't want children to use this word.
Two levels – thinking – interior monologue.
what he says to other people

Similar to today's teenagers. Swear words, repetitive. He knows what he has to do → Good at
English, he writes formally but orally different. He knows the rules. He knows them. Academic
different to day-to-day. Very realistic.

Other Comments:

>Death of his brother → physically (scar in his hand hurts)

→ psychologically.

His brother ideal character. Death. Never did anything wrong. The way he related to the memory.
Nobody is going to do like Ally. He is fixed in time. He could not do anyhing wrong. Emily
Dickinson Poet of Death. References to Suicide.

>Mr. Antolini. Role of the teachers – Substitutes of the parents, a figure of authority. He respects the

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teachers.

50s his sexuality is not relevant. Holden hides a perverted vision of affection. He doesn't trust when
he comes close to anyone. He is looking for it but he is scared to death when he is closer to get it.

His function is to show that Holden is afraid of affection. Touching, even sex. To show – he really
has a problem. Go through it and ends up in hospital. Scared or afraid of affection.
Mr. Antolini would be kind a mentor.

Maladjustment. 50s. A Middle-class boy, he was supposed to fit in the world. Maladjustment. It
makes sense in the context, class, origin. Domesticated to make him abide to the rules.

The journey is a process. The pursuit is what matters.

The catcher in the Rye 1951

> Complex, rich novel, banned due to language--

> “Dammed” book.
> Holden is a modern Huck Finn-

Holden as narrator:

Teenager, rebel/neurotic. Misfit, perspective (youth), distance (in a hospital away from NY). Free to
say certain things.

He is not telling as ti happens but afterwards (retrospective). Unusual Youth (that's why Huck is the
constant reference)

As Character:

overdeveloped compared to Phoebe, parents,... they function to complement him.

Search for: American Dream, place, identity.
Urge to communicate.
Torn: involvement/detachment, escape / return home; childhood/adulthood. He is divided – his
problem is that he is divided.
Search for virtue and goodness vs phoniness.
Social criticism in conflict with society. The double faced 50s. Big creation of Salinger.

Holden at the end he is a good boy: protect children, innocence. Final intention is to protect. He is
one of the remains of virtue.

“Catcher in the Rye” – the title taken from a poem of Robert Burns.

Language!!! Big issue – vernacular teenage language. Strong language but with a limit.

Themes:

Death
Fall
Truth

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 Loneliness and depression
Physicality and sex
Religion (he likes it, but doesn't like the institution)
Education (he likes it but again he doesn't like the institution)
Materialism – corruption (his brother as a prostitute)

Form: journey (quest; neopicaresque (young boy who cheats people) bildungsroman (process of
maturity). Very present in the beats: going out to the road.

COMMENTARY

Title:

The Catcher in the Rye. (title extracted from a 18th century Scott's poet called Robert Burns. Holden
wants to be the catcher in the rye. Cross reference.

Author:

Jerome David Salinger. Holden and Salinger share some elements: urban , class, mental health
(shell shock or PTSD), inability to adapt, expelled from different institutions. Short stories training
area for the Cather in the Rye.

Approximate Date: 1951 (50s)

Literary Genre:
Novel, Bildungsroman, quest, neopicaresque, journest because of Holden maturity.

Literary movement:

Mixture of neorealism (some elements ) counterculture (some elements). Focus on the individual.
Typical 50s one individual and mental process.

Regional / culture context of the author:

Urban NY
40s – 50s (McCarthyism, post WWII, materialism, corruption)
Criticism of the time
American Values? He questions the American Values.

Summary:

Holden's story during one nights. It is the beginning of the journey (bead-on-a strip)

CORE

It is chapter 1. Beginning of the story. He introduces the narrative.

Division in two parts. 1) Introduction [...easy] ?I'. 2) Digression brother D.B 'He' different person.

It is a Personal narration no biography. He establishes himself as a narrator of the story self-

conscious narrator. He limits the narrative, he establishes them and he does not tell all the truth.

14
Themes:

Corruption 'prostitute' D.B sells himself. He was a good writer but he stopped being good. Highly
symbolic (post war values). He mentions Hollywood, jaguar, etc. He hates movies, as Salinger. He
respects literature but the fact that his brother stopped being a good writer mean corruption. From
the very beginning critical to materialism.

Adulthood
“Truth” (reliability? Can we trust him?)
Madness
Dislocation
Family

Setting: Hospital(? We don't know but there are hint (end part of the novel also hints) L.A.
Hollywood
Formal: Holden character
Holden Narrator
Intertextuality
Orality. He is talking to somebody.

The way he introduces his family: parents, brother.

Problem of communication already present with his own family.

Hyperbole related to orality “hemorrhages apiece” exaggeration of the language. One of the main
characterisation devices.

Language “goddamn” “it kills me” part of his rebellion also typical teenager repetitive. Vernacular
elements-

Setting “last Christmas” retrospective. California (now)– NY (then) He has been moved away from
his context. Isolated somewhere and treated about what happened during last Christmas.

Time and place give him some perspective about what happened. He is talking about the past.

He presents himself as a narrator although he is already inside as a characters. First person

intratextual narrator.

Why Holden character, why Holden as a narrator? Roundest character in the novel the others
complement him. (one of the most important characters in American Literature)

Importance of the extract ? It is shown from the very beginning that Holden has the control: “I am
in control, I am the narrator” authority in the dialogue, the voice. Teenager with mental problems as
the narrator.

We should relate it to other works that deal with the criticism, American dream or the Beat
Generation.

15
 BEAT GENERATION

Documentary Film

PEOPLE

William Burroughs Yonkie Confessions

Naked Lunch

One of the fathers of the Beats along with Jack Kerouac (the father of the beats and author of the On
The Road)

Gregory Corso – Openly gay author. Public transgressor

Eddie Parker Kerouac – first wife of Jack Kerouac– different role. She is a member of his love life.
Not positive. She sold his love letters for $1

Jan Kerouac – also poet as her father, tormented and also killed herself.

John Clellon Holmen Author of the first Beat novel Go (On the Road is the bible)

Laurence Ferlinghetti Owner of the “City Lights Bookstore” Also a poet. Going to the bookshore
and reading aloud their poems was a way to make people know them.

Annie Charters First reading in the “6 gallery.” Jack Kerouac's biographer: alcohol was important
for them. Kerouac a loner,he didn't like to be at the centre. Sidelines. Allen Ginsberg was the focus
that night and “Howls”

Gary Snider – drinking with Kerouac. Buddhism spiritual question.

Neal Cassedy – Jack Kerouac's alter ego. Inspiration for On the Road. He went searching for his
father. Public face. Womanizer. Male muse.

Walt Whitman and Tom Wolfe Inspiration and Models

Jack Kerouac – father of the Beat Generation and author of On the Road. Autor de la Prosa
instantanea.

PLACES:

6 gallery
NY – Frisco (SF)
Landscape (red bricks, buildings, urban landscape)
Night
Lowel (a growing town, appears in the earlier novels)
Train > car. Vision of America from a 'speeding car'
Speed – fluidity in his spontaneous prose.

ATMOSPHERE:

16
Alcohol
Clubs
Drugs (He wrote On the Road under the influence of Benzedrine)

LITERATURE:

Vision – originality, creativity, drugs

Desperation
Act of courage
crisis
imagination (fact and fiction mixed) Subjectivity (No objectivity) Totally subjectivity
cut-up: new way of organising
Style experimenting
Prose experimenter
Poetic prose

3 levels according to Corso:

1) Talent (good technique)

2) Genious
3) Divine (the top= Kerouac) related to the Sublime
Going to live experimentation in every sense of the word.

“Howl” by ALLEN GINSBERG

FALTA COMENTARIO

Autobiographical elements “I saw”

Religious tone, thematic clash (“Heaven under El”, “Pardise”/ “alcohol” and “cock”)
Repetition of “who”
Depressed, negative, bleak.
Descriptive: plenty of adjectives (no finite verbs) and description of the situation, decaying of his
generation.

DIANE DE PRIMA NY (1934-)

This kind of Bird flies backwards (1958)

NY Poets Theatre; Poet Press
Memoirs of a Beatnik (1969) talks about orgies.
Recollections of my life as a woman

Autobiographical. Recollection as a Beat and as a woman coming of age in the 60s and 70s.

She was very active in the Ny poets theatre. Dedicated his resources to stage poets, Beat poets.
Open door to mix of genres (postmodernism).

Also accused of obscenity. No final sentence (no se la juzgó) – trial for obscenity. Mixed of genres.
Active also as editor, printing. Poets press. Also spirituality, Buddhism, etc.
Rant (despotricar) related to tone.

17
Holistic view of the world. Whole thing to understand the world, the life..

Related to the Philosophy of transcendentalism.

People being labeled after 60s → civil rights movement destroyed all that. Most beat women poets
defend to see everything as a whole, all human beings. They vindicate in the line of
transcendentalism is to look at the whole and to understand it resort to the imagination, creativity.
She is ranting to that monolithic society that wants to destroy imagination.

Published in the 90s but can be applied to other contexts. Interconnections.

Beats vs capitalistic construction. “You're not your job”. We are complex human beings.

“everyman / every woman carries a firmaments inside” Same idea in Whitman every person has a
world inside them. Whitman optimistic but beat whole world and society is trying to destroy it.
“we are people with an inner life an unlimited potential” related to transcendentalism

What really matters is imagination.

“History” You choose. It is partial but part of a continuum “the dream of what can be” “what if”
key postmodern idea. No history, but histories and we choose.

What if = uchrony (alternate possibilities open).Many things we don't know – we can create a whole
new story. Decompose and by creating alternative histories. Applying gaps to this history we don't
know using imagination. Sea of possibilities (partial, very subjectivity, but part of history as well)
also happened or could have happened.

She adapts transcendentalism and vindication of the whole.

Form of the poem:

Contractions, slashes, capital letter, little punctuation.

Repetitions

Pattern anaphoric stanzas

The poem is divided in stanzas. Which “Howl” isn't

Internal structure but also a continuun relations between the stanzas 'run-on lines'

Minority writers, poets that do this to vindicate a language of their own. e.g Ntozake Shange black
English and political position of the language. Breaking traditional patterns.

Different to Ginsberg. She organizes and she writes consciously. More divided stanzas.

Main idea: Complaining about the system which wants to destroy our imagination, labeled us and
destroy our wholeness. More abstract than “Howl” More rooted in reality. Also fully postmodern.
Ginsberg was the beginning.

18
 CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENTS

Groups: Gay – Harvey Milk

Black – Malcom X
 Martin Luther King
Chicanos

Black – free but not equal

Antecedents:

 Universal Negro Improvement Association (Marcus Gavey Jamaica 1887 – USA 1940)
Marcus Gavey started the idea of 'black is beauty'. The glorification of black ness: he denounced
America as racist. Insisted on the African connection + cultural identity.
 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) formed by WEB
Dubois in 1909 (www.naacp.org) Above all, legal actions, more formal.
 First successful black labour union (A. Philip Randolph 1925) (before they were segregated
because the professions were divided). Brotherhood Sleeping Car Porters and Maids. Origin
of the political struggle. Class conscious relation.
 Integration of the US Army (Patton in WW2, Korean War onwards). Patton only one who
accepted African American people. Very conscious of the representative value of the people
(your race is looking forward for your success)

Landmarks and Main Name

1954 Supreme Court's decision against segregation in schools (National decision but some states'
constitutions still keep segregation)

1955-56 Montgomery bus boycott / symbol: Rosa Parks (1913 – 2005) She refused to move to the
black part of the bus. She became a symbol. She was already a leader. That gesture began a boycott
with serious economic consequences for the bus company. Finally it was declared segregation
abolished. Economic pressure.

Martin Luther King's (1939 – 1968) doctrine of peaceful resistance and focus on the ballot.
Minister, religious man – peaceful resistance. Voting – exisitng as citizens. We need to exist as
citizens to vote (connected to Gandhi, to Thoreau: civil disobedience, peaceful resistance)

1960. First sit-in by students in Greensboro NC Communal movement. Not admitted in a white
dinning room. They just sit there peacefully. Became a group thing.

1961. Freedom rides. Groups of people riding buses and stopping at cities to talk about equality,
civil rights to make people think, to see the problems.
Concentration on the South. Later, national and then successful.

1962. JFK establishes the Committee of Equal Employment opportunity and appoints black for
federal posts. Involvement of the government. A lot of effort to convince him. Easier to develop in
other areas.

'Free by 63' Campaign by NAACP. March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (more than

19
200,000 ) Vindicating real freedom and equality. Big national success.

1964 “Long, hot summer” Of the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi. KKK reacted. Campaign of beating,
killings and linkings.

1966 riots all around the US political measures accelerated (Open Housing Act, Elementary and
Secondary Education Act, economic measures to help black entrepreneurs,...)

Other voices in 60s – 70s movement:

1) Elijah Muhammed (1897-1975) Nation of Islam Promoted division between black and
white. Black supremacy. White Christianity corrupted. Mentor of Malcolm X.
2) Malcolm X (1925 – 1965) Use of violence 'the ballot or the bullet' Other side of the coin. X
– symbolic identification with the slaves who had their identity erased. Eager to use violence
when necessary. Not pro-violence per se.
3) Jesse Jackson (b. 1941) Continuing with the line of M.L. King

Women activists (erased by official history)

 Ella Baker. Female Union Leader. A Christian. Southern Christian leadership Conference
meeting African – American Christians.
 Septima Poinsette Clark. Educator. Educational initiatives.
 Fannie Lou Hammer. Founder of a party for Rights division.
 Coretta Scott King. Wife of MLKing. Continued with his work after he was killed.

Civil Rights Movement and Literature.

1. Antecedents

Songs sung by Negro slaves in the South (oral literature). They had their own culture. Songs (story
telling which was accompanied with music)

Black stereotypes in white written literature. Need for response of the Black people. 19th century
highly stereotype. Idealization of the situation of the plantations. Beginning of the 20th, there is a
twist in the stereotype. They become beasts, animal, hyper.-sexualization of black men and women.
Black men raping white women. Repeated in stories. Common cause of fear.
Black population needed to response and to use their own voices.

(Toni Morrison → bad black people and nice black people and a lot of different things in-between
because they are human after all. She tries to escape from the binary thought)

Booker T. Washington Up from slavery (1901) Models: Franklin and Frederick Douglass (one slave
writing his story). He was also a slave. Autobiographical work (up related to the self improvement
man)

WEB DuBois The Souls of Black Folk (1903)

Collection of essays about black culture, society. One of the earliest intellectual essays by an
African American.

Anna Julia Cooper. A Voice from the South by Black Woman in the South (1892) Focus on

20
education. She vindicates a need for education, specially black women (connection to M.
Wollstonecraft 1792) First example of black women vindicating their rights. Very militant work,

Ida B. Wells research journalist (lynching!). Not common a black woman journalist. She talks about
the phenomenon of lynching, a common problem in the South. A professional in a prestigious job.

The Harlem Renaissance (1920s -30s) Artistic movement of their own. James Weldon Johnson's
The Book of American Negro Poetry; Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes were watching God.

A question opens – Black people should be part of the canon? Accept their rules? Different canon?
Eliminate canon? They questioned the canon. Not only creation but criticism of the whole system.

Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man 1953 transition He is in-between he introduces political topics.

2. African American Literature in the 60s and 70s.

Black Arts Movement → reorganizing the canon. Introducing the black sensibility, making it bigger
and recovering reivindicating their history. Creating a genealogy of people who had worked in
Black Literature, arts,...

'Black is beautiful' Vindication of anything black. Black aesthetics (afro, music, slang,...)

Radical ideas (tension between artistic concern and political issues: tension constant) Toni Morrison
says both elements have to be there.

Dialogue between liberation movements (e.g. Black womanism? Constant communication with
other minorities groups. African American `+ feminism=Black womanism. Constant dialogue
between the two.

Some names and titles to explore.

Imamu Amiri Baraka Dutchman

(former Leroi James who belonged to the Beat Generation but moved because he thought they were
racists. He converted to Islam and changed his name)

Gwendolyn Brooks Annie Allen (1949 Pulitzer for Poetry). First winner an African American. She is
a separatist. She writes for Black people.

Ishmael Reed. Mumbo-Jumbo. One of the earliest experimentalists of the seventies in African
American literature.

Alice Walker The Color Purple 1982. Very commercial. Revelation. It showed things about African
American who were never had been showed in movies before.

21
 TONI MORRISON (b1931)

Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1988 (for Beloved) Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993.

Background and works:

Ohio, working-class family, widely read (she read Western classic above all) college education
Credited with helping to bring African American Literature into the mainstream
Personal influences (parents, grandparents) experience of migration, ghost stories, magic African
rhythms and spiritual traditions.
Heritage from previous black writers (Ellison, Wright) She acknowledges the previous (granny
stories, previous black authors)

Function of literature: artistic + political with a historical component (reader response basic for her)

Four main elements: the presence of displacement and alternation

A close relationship between author and reader.
Oral quality of the voice of the text.
A quality of music in the writing that is distinctively black.

General characteristics of her novels.

Characters: focus on women. Female experience of life. Mostly African-American women

(daughter – mother, friends, sex,...)

Recurrent themes: effects of white culture on black, interrelation class – race – gender, identity /
self, family, community, center vs periphery, history and mythology.

Beauty, race, gender, class – defined by dominant society.

Construction of the self through the eyes of the others (the gaze)

Family – extended family

Community – main nucleus

Centre vs periphery
Centre – gender, race

History and mythology – from the black perspective e.g. Slavery

'Identity is always provisional' related to Postmodernism, always in construction.

Structure: non-linear (postmodernism) usually avoids closure. She breaks with typical structure
cycles (seasons), related to storytelling.

Language: move away from patriarchal, western logos, oral tradition of Black English; language –
inclusion; linguistic reversal.

Linguistic reversal – taking the negative terms and vindicate them as positive. 'Nigger' politically
incorrect. Usually is temporary way of vindicating language.

22
Giving new meaning to pejorative words.

Novels published:

The Bluest Eye (1970)

Sula (1975) Friendship between women, sisterhood)
Song of Solomon (1977) Life story Macon “Milkman” Dead III
Tar Baby (1981) Magic realism- technique she uses in this book. Introducing the fantastic into
realism and still looking realist.
Beloved (1987) Revise different movements in US history.
Jazz (1992) A trilogy
Paradise (1998) Alternative memory of US

Love (2003) Focus on women, non-linear again.

A mercy (2008) Again revises question of slavery.

THE BLUEST EYE

The novel starts with a child text “Dick and Jane” Reproduction of texts for children. Black children
have to read it too Ironic. Subversion of traditional text, these people have to use to learn to read
and write. Inherited from the 50s. Pieces of the text will divide the novel.

Topics:

 Racism: breaks internalised racism. Inside the black community. in/exclusion

 Self-loathing: Pecola doesn't like herself. Gaze
 Chain of abuse. Binary idea victim/ perpetrator. She breaks the dichotomy.

Question of the Power important (the power flows → once you are the victim, but you can be also
the perpetrator)

STUDY QUESTIONS

1) Representative of a certain group.

Effect of white culture
Subversion of traditional family . She destroys the idea of the family as the idea of the “home”
(security). Big shock / big twist.
Exclusion (gender, class, race, physical place against her)
Religion. Questions traditional churches.
Breed-love. Ironic use of the name (also the middle name of the woman who introduced the straight
hair machine for Afroamericans)

2) Victim. The community destroyed her (nothing but a victim). Different model. Innocent.
Pity. Agency! (related to the voice) She cannot act, so you are nothing (like slavery).
Nothing she can't do except dreaming (childish imagination) Only mental imagination – she
looses and goes mad.
Very round character but she doesn't rell anything (marginalization)

23
 3) Experience. A product of his experience (violent and hypersexual – stereotype) Idea of
destiny assigned to race, Morrison questions it. Choice and responsibility both elements
introduced.

Idea of responsibility transplanted to the community. Not individuals only. He is a human

being (responsibility) We / I Important moral element. Victim / perpetrator (Foucault) Power
is not fixed it circulates, the situation changes.

4) Prostitutes – margins, love, equality. They see Pecola. They have some kind of agency.
Function inside the story is giving Pecola some kind of relief, a place to go, consider her a
human being. She has to go to the prostitutes for security (inversion of models-type bad
women but here positive) Are they victims? Or they chose? They are agents, they can
choose. They can negotiate their ways into the world. They chose, they condemn) Active
people and talk. Sisterhood and solidarity. Light into the novel, alternative voice.

5) Effective narrator. Perspective(s) polyphony (typical of postmodernism).

Involved inside the story, giving opinions. Emotionally, rationally. Very young person because they
still keep some kind of innocent and hope.
Two Claudias – child
- adult who knows that what happened was horrible.

6/7) English – standard

 black – vernarcular in the language (vindication and for characterization)

Images – physical sensual

 flowers (nature) we grow if we have the appropriate soil.
 Blue eyes (gaze) Blue = colour and sad eye: ojo and I. When Pecola has blue eyes she
speaks standard English.

8) 'Black is beautiful' White = beautiful / good

24
THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT(S): MULTICULTURALISM AND LITERATURE(S):
MINORITY VOICES II.

CHICAN@S

What is a Chican@? - Hybrid, living in the USA, Mexican Background, Political component (clue)

Political consciousness behind the term. Something conscious related to political component.

Other words related: latina/o – hispanic – Pocho/a.

Hispanic → widest term

Latina/o → insistence on the Latin root.
Pocho/a → Mexican – American person whose identity has been erased because she/he has been
totally assimilated. Very negative term

Chicano – empowering term insists on the conscious.

Movement began in the 60s. One basic document: El plan espiritual de Aztlán. Alurista 1969. Insist
on question race+identity. Public vindicating. Foundational document,

Alurista: Roberto Baltasar Urista (b. 1947)

Declaración de independencia race: people, we, family, brotherhood
Revolutionary: Belic language.

60s-70s very visible active. 80S Reagan Conservative backlash. 90s. Huge way of migration from
Mexico to USA focus on law and legal becoming citizens. Emphasis legalization. Other focus:
education community. Constant struggle. Still minority but growing faster. Presence continuously.

Strike – most Chicanos loaded with politics

Alfred Arteaga (Chicano Poetics: Heterotexts and Hybridities. Cambridge UP 1993

Multiple identities (Postmodernism)

Hybrid subjects (bridge between different cultures)
Dialogue between cultures. Puente – gabacho + white and the Mojado (Espaldas mojadas. Because
of crossing Rio Grande)

Tensón entre las dos culturas una tira y la otra también.

“Lo pasado me estira p'atras

Y lo presente pa'delante”
Chicano plural identity

Luis Leal

The four presence in Chicano culture.

 Indigenous culture (mostly Aztecs) Native. Aztlán Mythical place in the Chicano mind. A

25
 place of Freedom and where Chicanos can be themselves whatever language or culture.
 Creole culture. Mexican + Spaniards after the conquest. Por mi raza, hablará mi espiritu.
(indios, religión very relevany in Creole culture)
 Mestizo culture. Spanish + native or Mexican + anglo.
 Anglo-American culture. White dominant (WASP) Language = many chicanos don't speak
Spanish) Religion = protestant religion.

Cherrie Moraga – Mestiza

Dismembering – destruction of identity (literal and symbolical) related to Coyolxauhqui Myth) She
also uses the Goddess Coatlicue a positive image.

Creole – Christian God

 Virgen de Guadalupe – also a mixed figure (normally dark skin) Model of submission
many rebelled against this image.

Malinche – the woman worked for the conquerors and betrayed the race and condemned (she
translated for the Spanish conquerors . Other interpretations, vindicated as a bridge between two
cultures. One interpretation she was the lover of Hernan Cortes and mother of the first mestizo.

La Llorona – She killed her child because of the revenge on a man. And she is around crying. This
myth mixes the woman + killer.

Mexican Medea. She mixes classical Latino and Mexican references.

Christian God and Saints. Very strong spiritual elements but very critical with the dominant culture.
All these things are present in Chicano literature

Cherrie Moraga

> lesbian + woman + Chicana = actively discussing these three aspects.

> code-switching She learnt Spanish when she was an adult. And she passed as white.
> Family – essential key reference. Nucleus for everything else.

Chican@ literature: themes, preoccupations, and recurrent formal elements.

 Postcolonial approach: gringo culture as dominant, issues of identity and subjectivity; language
and nationhood; political component – literature as discursive resistance deriving from
Chicanismo.

Postmodern connection: de-centering discourse, re-writing, re-reading the tradition;

fragmentation, identities in flux, mixing high with popular culture; link community –
academic world... (See E. Mermann – Jozwiack)

Centre / margins → being questioned-

Lots of fragmentation – things being separated / being cut / fragmented.
Mixture high + popular.

 Importance of the oral and the vernacular: storytelling, mixed heritage in history, mythology,
spirituality, folklore, etc.

26
Recurrent tropes: la frontera as a 'third space'(space in the limit between two others, in-
betweenness); la Virgen de Guadalupe; Malinche ( intérprete de Hernán Cortés y sus supuesta
amante asociada a la traición pero también vista como madre fundadora de una nación y una nueva
patria) and other myth/folk elements.

Formal experimentation and mixture of genres (postmodern quality of the writing, growing
importance of the artistic over the political). Code-switching: tension between English, Spanish
“Spanglish” and the vindication of a language of their own. They use both languages on the same
level (Moraga). Moraga doesn't mark Spanish as different. She uses it on the same level.

Some names and titles to explore:

Rudolfo Anaya, Bless me, última (1972)

Ronaldo Hinojosa Estampas del valle y otras obras (1973)
Ana Castillo The Mixquiahuala letters (1986)
Gloria Anzaldúa Borderlands / La Frontera (1987)
Sandra Cisneros The House on Mango Street (1991)
Denise Chávez Face of an Angel (1994)
Alejandro Morales Waiting to Happen (2001)
Julia Álvarez Saving the World (2006)

CHERRIE MORAGA

Very active writer. Most of her career related to the theatre.

Biography and literary achievements.

Born in California in 1952; Moraga is a poet, playwright, essayist, a teacher.

Chicano mother and Anglo-father: “La güera” (piece of evidence of the conflict with her own
identity) She used to pass as a 'white'.

Identity related to sexuality: she was a lesbian, she didn't find in the white culture what she needed.

Heritage: no Spanish (mother wanting her to 'pass') witness to Chicana struggle in the U.S. She
constricted her identity little by little.

Education: M.A. In Literature, with a major in Feminist Studies, at California State University, S.F.
(1980) Not common at the time that Chicanos graduated.

Mother of a son with her partner (experience recorded in Waiting in the Wings) Related to Medea;
she was doing a research on Medea while she was pregnant. Talking about maternity. (Medea:

Chicana, lesbian and feminist; all three elements visible in her work (autobiographical component,
politically vindicative, queer theory)

New American Play Award in 1990 and 1995.

1991 – 1997 Playwright in Residence at Brava Theatre (San Francisco)

27
Currently Artist in Residence at Stanford University.

She went to University during the 70sa lot of activism at universities at the time.

Main Works

This Bridge Called My Back: Writings By Radical Women of Color (essays edited with Gloria
Anzaldúa 1981)

Loving in the War Years: Lo que nunca pasó por sus labios (essays, poetry 1983)

The Lost Generation: Praise and Poetry (1993)

Heroes and Saints, and Other Plays (1994)

Waiting in the Wings. Portrait of a Queer Motherhood (essays 1997)

The Hungry Woman: A Mexican Medea (play 2001)

Loving in the war Years

Inserted in the tradition of Chicana Writing that develops from the 80s onwards (experimental,
hybrid, innovative narratives)

Result of the problems of double militancy in Chicanismo (ethnic / gender issues) Critique
traditional Chicano movement (women not included and particular problems not considered)

Revises the icons and myths that construct Chicana femininity and analyzes the institutions of la
familia and the academia from a very personal point of view.

Language and writing as instruments of empowerment – hope (Influencing your environment with
your writing). Actively trying to change the world around her.

“A long time of Vendidas”

Agynealogy - Genealogies of women. A line of women.

Generation of women devoted / serving to men.

Vagina related to church – sex / religion.

Journey – related to self-discovery

Sex + race + gender = dominant (male, white and heterosexual)

Servitude and maleness.

Male gaze important – women have no voice; treated as objects veing watched.

Cher' ann – Name related to your identity. Definition by who you are related to 'Joe's sister'

28
Penis – mark to be served or servitude (related to sexuality)

Alliance race + sex

Dichotomy their / our.

Basic pillar the family. Mother – Pilar

Reversion of the dream. Scent related to women. End journey reivindication 'No white man'

Introduction Loving in the War Years

SUEÑO

1) Dream, prison, unity (community), lesbianism

She begins with a dream. Facing the reality. Not being herself. Catholicism related to guilt
('sin','Hell')
Virgen de Guadalupe – Anecdote to make a certain political analysis) Way institution make people
practice her faith. They stayed despite the machinery. Objectifying the whole process.
Internal hybridity ( connected to the otherness) – Language 'War'
Education
Memories related to dreams.
Agynealogies – Genealogies of women. A line of women.

SEXUAL IDENTITY

2) Lesbian related to the process of writing. Hybridity also. Symbol of the gay community.
Representative of a movement?
Why the pain? Burden. Having to speak for others, for the rest of the community. Constantly on her
back. Responsibility.

Identifying her sexuality as the most relevant one (antes que chicana, etc.)
Principles / coherence – How to live up to the idea you defend?
Otherness: being in-between.
Dialogue ↔ language. Open a dialogue between both sides. Mixing of genres. Combining to be
understood.
Risking of writing – and act of commitment.
Reception – she wants to 'touch people'. No intellectual reception. Question of moving people.
Idea there is no one truth, but truths to move people through the right motion. Emotional
identification.
Self-loathing. Hate of minorities from majorities.
'Tongue' she speaks two tongues 'real language' what you actually use.
Chicano – language? English or Spanish? To be published but she won't accept any imposition.
Mixture politics and aesthetics.

No dreams, but a journal entry – self-conscious analysis on the process of writing. Immediacy of a
diary more personal.

3) (Dia que no vine)

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 VIETNAM WAR

'The episode was the worst stain on the national honor since slavery' (Hugh Brogan) Very critical of
the whole process.

'America's war in Vietnam was, it may be suggested, a consequence of fear, misunderstanding and
an optimism born initially of arrogance and later of desperation' (Mark Taylor)

1954 French driven out; division North (Ho Chi Minh) – South (Not Communist)

Ho Chi Minh decided to unify the country under communism – War

There was a colonial power before. It is relevant because it can be connected to the Americans.

U.S. Involvement: President Truman. He sent advisors, diplomats to dialogue and

discussion)
President Eisenhower. He sent weapons to the South.
President Kennedy. He sent troops and the involvement in the war
grows.
President Johnson. 500, 000 Americans are fighting.

Domino theory – If America let one country to fall under the communist system, many other would
follow like a domino.

'Once more the American people mastered by illusion went down the path to disaster behind leaders
even more darkened than themselves' (Hugh Brogan)

Government was making the wrong decision and people would follow these decisions.

Draft policy – men are enlisted at the time by force. There was no choice. Not totally true. Selection
for those with money, to continue studies, minorities as African – American no option no choice. To
escape to Canada was an option.

Domestic division in the US. People were divided for and against war. It coincides with peace
activism, civil rights movements. Moment of active participation and reaction of America to the
war.

Bob Greene Homecoming. Testimonies of Veterans.

Conflicting versions: Heroes of villains? What are the veterans? What are they really fighting for?
Are they winning this war?

One of the strongest narrative. Reinforce one side or the other.

Picture – smiling young men going around. Peaceful. Landscape.(precisely environment was one of
the worst enemies in Vietnam)

But there were also pictures of people hurt and dying. Journalist were embedded in the war. They
actually see the war. MyLai pictures one of the worst massacre by American soldiers. Villagers

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unfairly treated. Civilians killed.

'Official' intentions:

'The magnitude of what it is trying to accomplyish here can only be realised when you firmly
establish in your own mind that Johnson is trying to take 5,000 villagers living on a rice economy
with a 2,000- year-old Asian tradition of chieftain rule warped by 100 years of ugly colonialism abd
build a nation with an industrial base and a democratic tradition in the midst of a 20-year-old war”

(American officer serving in Vietnam in 1967)

Another way to motivate troops, to justify the war was the idea of progression. Make the country
progress.

'In country' experience:

Physical experience of being in the battlefield.

Initial patriotic impulse. Innocence and arrogance of the soldiers.

Hostile nature. Invisible enemies with guerrilla strategies. Excuse to kill anybody – 'search and
destroy' missions (MyLai). The main strategy was the use of Napalm to 'clear' the zone.

'We have to help the Vietnamese because inside of every gook there's an American trying to get out'
US colonel to a subordinate in Full Metal Jacket.

Manhood tested, innocence lost (death of a 'buddy') You don't leave a body. 'Body count' very
important. Symbolic war giving numbers to the press [Cristina Alsina 'body that counts']. The
'buddy' was the closest friend you have in the unit. Killing a 'buddy' is one of the turning points in
the Vietnam narratives.

'Fragging' and drug use. Fragging was a kind of rebellion against superiors. When they thought a
superior officer was taking unnecessary decisions they use grenades to kill them (with grenades
there was no proofs that they were killed and it had not been an accident). Internal rebellion.
Drug use was common use, seen in American gangster.

'Search and destroy' It served as a way of revenge, vengeance. Body count – number of (official)
victims.

Vietnamese civilians: around 350,000

Vietnamese soldiers + VC (Viet Cong): around 700,000
U.S. Soldiers: around 58,000 (Washington Memorial)
Victims in the 'home front'(wives battered by traumatised veterans, suicides, killings, etc):
unknown.

There is no counting of people hurt in Vietnam or many women were raped.

Home-front: division, alienation of the soldiers, problems of adjustment Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder. How to talk about it? Through literature and cinema.

Trauma - individual / collective. How they deal with the sorrow and pain.

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Key words:

Trauma, war
dichotomy
initiation
Vietnam war
Politics
Guerilla
sub-human
fight
literature
test
ritual
isolation

Kali Tal "Speaking the language of Pain" (1991)

Kali Tal Worlds of Hurt (1996) -- Nam

Trauma:

Negative toll.

remember (or not)

nightmares
shock
stuck, you can't go on with your life
Connection to PTSD - First used in medicine to biology - violent physical shock then transplanted
to psychology - physical trauma affected the whole system. Something in your hear but the whole
body pays.

Trauma collectively - whole society is affected by it. Holistic approach very important.

APA - American Psychiatric Association. Outside the range of the normal everyday life, human
experience

Something unexpected and psychology stressed. Overreaction or total numb.

To put pieces together - processing it. Healing process incorporate it to your life, making it part of
your experience.

1st story, narrative (that happens to me / if you cannot tell it, say it, you cannot get rid of it) The
need of telling a story to survive (O'Brien). Storytelling + trauma are deeply connected. Function of
the stories as healers.

"Disturbers of peace" Vietnam veterans.. They break the nation peace of mind by telling the stories.
(Therapist - Dorothy Laub)

Emily Mann Still Life Documentary play. A way to cope by alcoholism... because nobody wanted to
listen to him.

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Three conditions for a text to be considered trauma literature:

1) To give testimony, an urge to bear witness of what happened.

2) Authors or narrators show a sense of community with other survivors "we"
3) Authors in their writings gave importance between writer and reader. Filling the gap between
reader and writer. Sharing the language but not sharing the meaning. The word Vietnam doesn't
mean the same to a veteran or to a non-veteran. Consequence: self-conscious narrator. "Have to tell
a true story". Constant meta-literary references.

Tim O'Brien - author - he does not have a daughter

- narrator
- character - he has a daughter

War text
Hemingway's For who the bells tolls (?)

Documentary about Vietnam

STUDY QUESTIONS:

1) Euphoria first. Then mood changes to more pessimistic.

Aim, objective of the documentary: criticism / presentation of events. Active viewers
(understanding vets). We see the process. It makes the viewers to realize, understand. O'Briend:
metaliterature, active readership.

2) Music: not epic. No classical music but pop related to the context (60s)
Bob Dylan . voice of the peace
Springsteen - "Born in the USA"
Joan Baez

Committed authors to the war. The music conditions the mood.

3) Politically - withdrawal of troops (Nixon)

Kennedy - increased the troops in Vietnam (REF. Rethinking Camelot. Analysis of
Kennedy's role in Vietnam. Not as progressive as he looked.
Home front ( REF. : M.Faye Novak Lonely girls with Burning Eyes) The battle going
on in the USA
Civil Rights Movement

4. Consciousness Raising. (some of the media) Information. The amount of information radically
different from other wars. TV was new. The audience will be shock. Actually seeing what was going
on. The images said everything.

5. Tet offensive, a turning point inside the army in Vietnam. Big defeat. What are we fighting for?
Creation of "Veterans for peace" and "Veterans against the war" Reaction inside the army. Division.
Beginning of professionalisation (No choice in Vietnam)

6. Death of a buddy. Patriotism, heroism, loss of innocence, betrayal of the administration, soldiers
to veterans.

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7. LZ
KIA (Killed in Action)
POW (Prisoner of War)
AWL (Absent Without Leave)
The freedom bird
VC (Viet Cong)
Charlie
GI
Grunt
Many acronyms

8. Division obvious

9. Immediacy, honesty, realistic. Pre-internet time only phones and letters (main element of
communication, convey their feeling, telling things to make sense of them)

10. Manhood. 19-25 average age of the soldiers.

Humour to escape the horrors of the war.

LITERATURE ABOUT THE VIETNAM WAR

Thematic subgenre of its own (Vietnam war narrative). Probably the war which has the biggest
narrative and still coming out.

Debate about the possibility and usefulness of telling "a true war story". Importance of
representation and fictionalization for common understanding.

Ambiguity Victims/ Aggressors. People don't want to listen because they killed people. Soldiers had
the idea that war was glamour (images of Hollywood and the II World War))
Change in Hollywood when Oliver Stone started to release his films.

Two different approaches Veterans and non-veterans.

Kali Tal - specialist in Trauma Literature.

1) Veteran - testimonial, witnesses , very personal, very emotional involved.

2) Non-veteran - more distance.

Creative process - meta fiction and self-conscious narrative. Analysing his own problems with the
story.

War: ritual of passage.

Turning point to the soldiers, families and nation.

Themes:

Battle
duty . idea of duty very relevant
loss of innocence
bitterness

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remorse
guilt (survivor's guilt)
friendship: the buddy, close friend. You don't leave the comrade on the field
trauma
isolation (vets, we vs. the others)
problems of readjustment to civilian life.

Change in the moral code (no rules)

Crazed vets - psychological traumatized veterans
Anger, guilt, very strong.

Bobbie Ann Mason In Country Separation vets / non-vets

Some titles:

Journalism: Dispatches Michael Herr; War Torn. Stories of War from the Women Reporters who
covered Vietnam by Various Authors (2002)

Personal Testimonies: The Killing Zone by Frederick Downs.

Autobiographical works: If I Die in a Combat Zone by Tim O'Brien (mixing reality with fiction). A
Rumor of War by Philip Caputo

Fiction: Fields of Fire by James Webb

Documentary play: Still Life by Emily Mann

TIM O'BRIEN

Storytelling -connect memory to present (part of our reality incorporating trauma in our life), fiction
/ reality, experimenting, reaching out.

If I Die 1973
Northern Lights 1975
Going after Cacciato 1979
The Things They Carried 1990
July, July 2002

Vietnam as part of a traumatic memory of a nation.

Pressure to go to the war of his family and people. He doesn't discuss the racism is very explicit.
Not a big part of his writings. He worked as a journalist after returning from Vietnam and then he
became a professional writer. His whole narrative corpus has Vietnam very present, as art,
characterisation, memory, background,...

Need to tell stories as a way to reaching out to people, to communicate.

"The Things They Carried" / "How to tell a true War Story"

"True war stories are never about the war"

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- official ending vs. real ending : no closure.
- Consequences / trauma: individual, national
- Focus not on battles.
- Before (II WW, patriorism, fighting, Korea) and during (not necessarily focusing on battle but
other things like relationships, etc)

"That's a true story that never happens"

- Therapeutic relief
- Unreliable narrator -- active readership - questioning!!!

Metaliterature (Production, reception)

Positive

Consciousness vets
readers to understand
Expectations
Personalize

Negative

Trust
Effort
Stereotypes
Missing something If you don't know literature

READING CARD

Author and Literary Movement

Tim O'Brien Vietnam War Narratives (War, Trauma Literature, Postmodernism also)

Publication date:

1990 Relevant for the question of perspective

Plot Summary

O'Brien as character / author / narrator tells the story of Rat, while analysing the process of
telling a story.

Settings:

Vietnam 1968-69 Battle "then"

America 1980s-90s After the war - "Now"

Key themes: PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)

Buddy - comradeship
Relationships - love

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 Storytelling
Silence from the homefront

Characters: O'Brien, Rat, Lemon, Lemon's sister, Michael Sanders (The Unit a collection of
characters)

Narrator: First person narrator - more and more involved.

Main conflict: War stories. A process of own creation. How to tell a true story

General mood: Disillusionment, pain

Literary devices: Irony, humour (Lemon tree song) Humour to confront the reality, Relief the
tension.
Metafiction - raising consciousness, callling for active readership. "People don't
listen"
Specific language - community, versomilitude (part of the impression of truthfulness)

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 LITERATURE ON 9/ 11
Effect of the Mass Media - Piece of history we remembered through the media (very postmodern)
Hyper-reality - We perceived things through media more than reality.
We assimilate things through the media. 9/11 hyper-reality

People fascinated by the images - irresistible. Shocked by what they were seeing. Mostly mediated
by television. They could not stop watching.

WTC attack + Pentagon + United 93

Other 9/11s - 1683 Battle of Vienna (Fall Ottomans) 1919 Invasion of Honduras (Us intervention to
impose political system) 1973 Santiago de Chile . Salvador Allende's dead by Pinochet's army
(behing US)

Individual trauma: survivor + witnesses. Narrative survivors + witnesses. Change? or not?

Compilation of individual testimonies in the form of poems. One of the first poems was 'first
writing since' of Suheir Hammad by a Palestinian American poet. She groups the experience of
different people. Testimonies of the lucky people because they didn't go. They feel shock, then
gratefulness and guilt.

National trauma

A) Culture of Commemoration

Snapshots and posters of missing people in NYC

NY Times "Portraits of Grief" series - patriotic icon.

B) Culture of Fear.

Bush administration + mainstream, mass media. Cold war fears reconceived. Us vs Them
(Islamic fundamentalists). You are with us or against us. Derrida the force of the specter: war on
"terror". Metaphor of 'air pollution'. Fear spread by an air of pollution. It covers everything. What is
terror? Abstract concept (terrorist concrete) It works because people are terrorised. People are
scared. What are they gonna attack next? They can attack anywhere.

c) Culture of Memory

We have to remember and show future generations. Press access to pictures of the dead in
Iraq. Constructions of new memories (2002 Tower of Light) "Freedom tower" plan.

One Nation American Remembers September 11, 2001 by Life

D) Culture of Celebration

Rescue workers, policemen, firemen (NY's Bravest/ finest)

Victims: All innocent, all heroes (United 93; True American Heroes Act → New law, all the victims
are national heroes; first conceived for the U93)

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New American Hero (icon – powerful symbolic legacy)

Different to Vietnam Veterans. They were regarded as aggressors (They were called “killers”
“rapists”)

Construction of the hero is not innocent (WASP → books, films,... they all are according to a WASP
model) Patriotism basic.

Collective trauma negotiate to all this kind of cultures.

9/11 literature

 Characteristics of the (developing) corpus (about this topic)

1) Sequences of genres: from short to long. First poetry, then short stories and then novels.
 Focus on World Trade Center attacks (Pentagon and Pennsylvania invisible). Different in
films. The WTC was a bigger vent, symbolism, icon, the impact was stronger.

Pentagon: loaded with political meaning while WTC full of common people.
 Time as an issue: e.g Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Formal experimentation with
time.
 Theatre committed only Off and Off Off Broadway pre-9/11 plays acquired new meanings
e.g. Homebody or Kabul by Tony Kushner

Main titles:

Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005)

Lynn Sharon Schwartz's The Writing on the wall (2005)
Don Delillo's Falling Man (2007)

Don Delillo's “In The Ruins of the Future” essay: bridges; public/private; global/seeing, feeling,
understanding (Rothberg 2008) Very significant text.

Don Delillo Life and Works:

Born in NYC (working-class, Italian-American area) 20th November 1936.

Formal education at high school, university (B.A. In Communication).

He worked for an advertising agency before becoming a freelance writer in 1964 (important
experience in communication). He got married in 1975.

First novel published in 1971: Americana.

First play published in 1979 (six novels already out) The Engineer of Moonlight.

1991 Screenplay for Game 6 ( ten novels written at the time)

2001: Essay “In the Ruins of the Future” (about 9/11) appears in Harper's.

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2007 Falling Man his 14th novel to be published.

Main awards and distinctions:

Guggenheim Fellowship (1979)

National Book Award for White Noise (1986)
Jerusalem Prize at Jerusalem International Book Fair (1999) For author who defend the
ideas of freedom and Tolerance.
Howells Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters for Underworld (2000)

Postmodernism at its best: Delillo's fictions.

“What makes Delillo one of the most important American novelists since 1970 since his fiction's
repeated invitation to think historically […] In his most important novels then, Delillo explores the
way in which contemporary American personal identity (as fragmented as it may be)”

Postmodernity as a theme

> Post-industrial America (national identity; consumerism)

> Mass media as dominant forces (hyper-reality: a copy of a copy of a copy) celebrity culture.
> Loneliness and alienation, problematic postmodern subjectivity.
> Language and the (im)possibility of meaning.
> Individual - history (versions History, history and story).
> Role of art and the artist in consumer cultures.

Delillo's fiction (mission and strategies)

Delillo is one of those writers 'who conceive their vocation as an act of cultural criticism'
Irony, satire and historiographic metafiction as narrative strategies.

'With pessimism of the intellect but optimism of the spirit Delillo continues to write novels that
prove American Postmodernity” (John N. Dwall) In spite of everything, the artist my still bring
change.

“IN THE RUINS OF THE FUTURE”

Description
Us/them (Us: Americans / them: Islamic extremists )
Technology vs religion
Power
Critical perspective
Survival how to be “normal” life goes on (clash between victim and survivor)
Mass media “It was like a movie”

Structure: eight divisions (some connected others not) related to fragmentation. Alternates different
point of view, perspectives.

Main issues: idea history as a narrative, the need to create stories “World narrative belongs to
terrorists”

40
He begins putting things in perspective, pre 9/11, acquiring certain distance. He uses time Past /
Present. They are the past 'in the past', we are the present 'today'. They (terrorists) want to bring us
back in time. He is very critical since the very beginning: language violent and negative. Maybe
something also not well in the US. Not a very good image (“the thrust of our technology”). We are
now in danger. A lot of people died, compared to Pearl Harbor. Novelty most of the time US is
fighting outside. Now in their own soil. He talks about what happened in the world. He mentions
antiglobalisation “the battle in seattle”

In the 2. part. Change of perspective “we” important. He talks about things from their perspective.
America invading their culture. Turning our own technology against us. Trained in the US but
barely noticed. Community of believers willing to die (religion vs technology) “Us /them” function
both ends. Deshumanization of the victim (also used in Vietnam) When talking about terrorists
always a “he”: a person, a human being.

Part 3. bush administration hadn't a clear enemy from the Cold War. Found a new enemy 'terror'
Narratives / counter-narratives. 9/11 truth movement strong counter-narratives: videos, pictures,
opinions,...) Polyphony. Commemoration many photographs. Many information. Chaos. We need to
articulate stories.

Each part is closer and close (beginning what happen in the world, terrorist and now particular
people) Part 4. Chaotic situation. Sharing their own experiences with other peopl. Positive side.
Rescue and heroes. Ordinary-life heroes. Taking over, life goes on: hope.

Part 5 Essay religion /technology; man-centered vs God-centered. Paradox Us very religious

country (Puritans) at the beginning. After the attacks a war-like atmosphere 'Ground Zero' It
received the name of the Epicenter of a Nuclear Explosion. Being in the middle of something
terrible. Big metaphor.

Part 6. Importance mass media. TV: hyper-realistic (too real it seemed unreal). Mass media creates
terror and hyperreality. Only option writers.

He ends calling for an exercise of integration.

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