Imagine a 230-year-old scandal so controversial it is still grabbing prime-time TV headlines!
E48 Additional Recommended Reading
Gary Scharnhorst: Bret Harte: Opening the American Literary West (Oklahoma Western Biographies)
Emily Dickinson: Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson's Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson
David Haven Blake: Walt Whitman and the Culture of American Celebrity
David S. Reynolds: Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural Biography
Douglas L. Wilson: Lincoln's Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words (Vintage)
Paul Collins: The Trouble with Tom: The Strange Afterlife and Times of Thomas Paine
Jennifer L. Weber: Copperheads: The Rise and Fall of Lincoln's Opponents in the North
Joseph J. Ellis: After the Revolution: Profiles of Early American Culture
Nathaniel Philbrick: Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War
E48 Online Resources
James Earl Jones reads Frederick Douglass
Independence Day Speech at Rochester, 1852
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tTkHJWxfP0
The Battle of the Books
This article does a great job of laying out both sides of the Great Debate over what is, or is not, truly American Literature.
Announcing the Norton Anthology Student Recitation Contest!
In addition to the prizes, this would look really nice on your transfer resume!
Huck Finn N-Word Controversy on 60 Minutes (CBS)
In-depth coverage of the controversial new sanitized 2010 edition of Huckleberry Finn.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-20044765-10391709.html?tag=contentBody;housing
Whitman's Leaves of Grass
Excellent short PBS documentary segment on how Whitman's Leaves of Grass first took shape in the author's own notebooks.
Equiano Videos
Student Dan Lander is at it again. Here's some great vids on Equiano:
Rip Van Winkle Cartoons
Thanks to Dan Lander for finding this classic Claymation for Rip Van Winkle.
Dan has several other Rip Van Winkle classics on his blog -- including the Twilight Zone take-off from the 1960s!
Fall of the House of Usher--1928 and1960 Films plus Comic Book Version
Thanks to Dan Lander for finding this graphic gothic version:
Fall of the House of Usher Graphic Novel
Here's a scene from the classic 1960 Hollywood version starring Fright Film icon Vincent Price...
Note the vast differences from the original!
Fall of the House of Usher 1960 film
Finally here's the original 1928 silent film -- made in France.
La Chute de la Maison Usher 1928
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wimNsfqbqkw
Uncle Tom's Cabin Cartoon
This is one of the (painfully racist) Uncle Tom's Cabin cartoons I told you about from the 1930s. Many thanks to our classmate Dan Lander for tracking it down online!
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Bartelby at the Movies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPBPRovfeRE
Hal Holbrook "Mark Twain Tonight" performance from "Letters to the Earth"
Holbrook was by far the greatest Twain impersonator ever (there are legions of them) His one-man show, Mark Twain Tonight, was a hit for years and years in the 1960s. But note how well Holbrook captures Twain's anti-religious-dogma sentiments and anti-war sentiments perfectly. Not to mention those famous pauses. Here's a few more clips
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHSlyyzUR78&feature=related
Rogues' Gallery of All-American Racist Stereotypes
Anti-Mexican Stereotypes
Anti-Chinese Stereotypes
Anti-Indian Stereotypes
Anti-Negro Stereotypes
Anti-Italian Stereotypes
Anti-Irish Stereotypes
Anti-semitic Stereotypes
Anti-Arabic Stereotypes
Anti-Swedish Stereotypes
Behind Them All: The Ku Klux Klan
Timeline of Anti-Chinese Laws in California
It's shocking and discouraging how incredibly long this list becomes -- and it's not even complete.
"The Heathen Chinee" by Bret Harte
"Plain Language from Truthful
James"
By Bret Harte
The Overland Monthly Magazine (September
1870)
| Written as a parody of Swinburne's "Atalanta" and
published under the above title in The Overland, this
poem was soon being reprinted and republished across the
country as "The Heathen Chinee." Its sensational popularity
made Bret Harte the most celebrated literary man in America
in 1870. |
| Here, in addition to Harte's text, are the illustrations from three different paperback republications of the poem, all titled The Heathen Chinee. The first, with drawings by S. Eytinge, was brought out by Harte's official publisher: James R. Osgood & Co, Boston, 1871. |
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| Next, an "edition" of the poem that consisted of 9 loose pages, printed on stiffened paper, sold in an engraved envelope and perhaps suitable for framing. Tellingly, Hull's penultimate drawing elaborates what the poem refers to as "the scene that ensued" into something like a race riot; mob violence against the Chinese was a recurring event in western cities like San Francisco and Denver. Harte wrote sentimentally about the victim of a white mob in "Wan Lee." These illustrations are by Joseph Hull. Chicago: Western News Company, 1870. |
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| This third set of illustrations is from a pocket-sized blue paperback pamphlet that is using Harte's popular poem to advertise both "the West" and the ease with which you can get there on the "Rock Island Line." Chicago: Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, 1872. |
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Which I wish to remark, And my language is plain, That for ways that are dark And for tricks that are vain, The heathen Chinee is peculiar, Which the same I would rise to explain. Ah Sin was his name; And I shall not deny, In regard to the same, What that name might imply; But his smile it was pensive and childlike, As I frequent remarked to Bill Nye. It was August the third, And quite soft was the skies; Which it might be inferred That Ah Sin was likewise; Yet he played it that day upon William And me in a way I despise. Which we had a small game, And Ah Sin took a hand: It was Euchre. The same He did not understand; But he smiled as he sat by the table, With the smile that was childlike and bland. Yet the cards they were stocked In a way that I grieve, And my feelings were shocked At the state of Nye's sleeve, Which was stuffed full of aces and bowers, And the same with intent to deceive. But the hands that were played By that heathen Chinee, And the points that he made, Were quite frightful to see, -- Till at last he put down a right bower, Which the same Nye had dealt unto me. Then I looked up at Nye, And he gazed upon me; And he rose with a sigh, And said, "Can this be? We are ruined by Chinese cheap labor," -- And he went for that heathen Chinee. In the scene that ensued I did not take a hand, But the floor it was strewed Like the leaves on the strand With the cards that Ah Sin had been hiding, In the game "he did not understand." In his sleeves, which were long, He had twenty-four packs, -- Which was coming it strong, Yet I state but the facts; And we found on his nails, which were taper, What is frequent in tapers, -- that's wax. Which is why I remark, And my language is plain, That for ways that are dark And for tricks that are vain, The heathen Chinee is peculiar, -- Which the same I am free to maintain. |
text and illustration from http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/roughingit/map/chiharte.html
November 2011
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Recent Posts
- Jefferson and Hemings on PBS Front Line
- James Earl Jones reads Frederick Douglass
- E48A Fall 2011 Student Journals
- Award-winning Student-produced John Brown Video
- The Battle of the Books
- Sample Quiz and Sample Summary
- Announcing the Norton Anthology Student Recitation Contest!
- Huck Finn N-Word Controversy on 60 Minutes (CBS)
- Whitman's Leaves of Grass
- Winter 2011 Student Journals
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