First Longer Essay: Henry James, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Me

James and Hawthorne present us with two very different characterizations of artists in their stories. What do each of these artists represent in the world of their stories? What do they represent as ideas in the world at large? Which of these two artists most closely resembles you? If both of them do, explain. If neither of them do, explain. Feel free to address related questions. Be sure to have a clear central argument (a/k/a thesis) that you present in the first or second paragraph. Can you point to it? If the answer is no, keep trying. 

Due: Noon on October 10. Upload to Populi. 

This assignment is our first longer and layered one of the semester. Please pay close attention to the directions. Close knowledge of Henry James's "The Real Thing" and Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Artist of the Beautiful" will be necessary for a successful essay. In other words, you'll need to read the stories more than once. Please use the Hathitrust links that I have provided, not ones that you have found on your own. 

You are required to incorporate textual evidence directly from the stories. It is recommended that you use short quotations rather than long, and that you embed the quotations in the middle part of your paragraphs. Don't forget to include the page number. You, the author of the essay, should finish the paragraphs. Remember: The quotations don't speak for themselves. You are also free to read secondary criticism about these stories and their authors, but it's not required for this assignment. If you choose to incorporate secondary sources, you need to cite them correctly. We'll be talking about this next week, but you can go ahead and consult the Purdue OWL's MLA formatting material to get a head start. 

Your double-spaced "standard" college essay must have at least ten developed paragraphs (between 5 and 12 sentences is a good but not ironclad guideline). This should result in approximately 4-5 double-spaced pages. Be sure to give your essay a meaningful title, and proofread it carefully before uploading it.   

Questions?  csmith@dcad.edu

Humorous Summary of "The Real Thing"

 

I think this video is funny. Do you agree? Why or why not?

Reading Assignment for Thursday, September 28: Hawthorne's "The Artist of the Beautiful"

Here is a Hathitrust link to a 1894 edition of Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story collection, Mosses from an Old Manse. "The Artist of the Beautiful" is the second to last story.

Read this story for our next class meeting. No writing homework this week. 

Here is a link to the Librivox audio recording of the story. 

Lastly, here is the link to the paired scholarly article.

Chat GPT 3:5 "Writes" an Essay

Below you'll find the output of my Chat-GPT prompt. What do you think of it as an essay? What are its strengths and weaknesses? Does it have a main point? How would you describe its style? 

Maybe it's lousy as an essay but not bad as an idea-generator that would later lead to an original essay. Remember, even the company that created this technology "Open AI" admits that its output doesn't produce reliably truthful results. Click here. 

Write a college-level essay about the role of the artist in Henry James' story, "The Real Thing"

Title: The Role of the Artist in Henry James' "The Real Thing"

Introduction

Henry James, renowned for his intricate exploration of human psychology and social dynamics, often delves into the lives of artists and the challenges they face in the pursuit of their craft. In his short story "The Real Thing," James provides a compelling examination of the role of the artist in society. Through the characters of the unnamed narrator, the struggling artist, and the idealistic Miss Churm, James presents a nuanced portrayal of the artist's struggles, aspirations, and the tension between art and reality. This essay explores the multifaceted role of the artist as depicted in "The Real Thing," highlighting how James scrutinizes the artist's quest for authenticity and its impact on personal and societal dynamics.

I. The Struggling Artist: Aspirations and Limitations

The central character of the story, the unnamed narrator, is a successful writer who grapples with the dilemma of finding authentic models for his illustrations. He represents the artist's aspiration to capture genuine human experiences and emotions in their work. The narrator's artistic endeavors are underpinned by a desire to transcend mere appearances and access the real essence of his subjects. However, his struggle to find suitable models who possess both the aesthetic qualities and the depth of character he seeks highlights the artist's limitations in translating life into art. This struggle mirrors the inherent challenges artists face when trying to represent the complexities of the human condition.

II. The Idealistic Miss Churm: Artistic Objectification

Miss Churm, an aspiring actress who models for the narrator, embodies the tension between art and reality in the story. She is idealized by the artist as the "real thing" he seeks to capture, and yet, she is objectified through the process. Miss Churm's role as a model underscores the artist's tendency to reduce individuals to mere subjects of their work, reducing their humanity in the process. James, through Miss Churm, critiques the artist's propensity to exploit the lives of others for the sake of their creative pursuits.

III. The Artist as Observer: A Critical Lens on Society

James also uses the artist as a perceptive observer of societal norms and values. The narrator's keen eye for details and his awareness of the social hierarchies and pretensions that surround him position him as a critical commentator on the world he inhabits. His role as an artist enables James to scrutinize the façades that individuals present to the world and the disconnect between appearances and underlying truths. Through this lens, James illustrates the artist's capacity to reveal the complexities and contradictions of society, making them a mirror through which society can introspect.

IV. The Conflict Between Art and Reality: Sacrifice and Authenticity

The conflict between the artistic pursuit of authenticity and the demands of reality is a central theme in "The Real Thing." The artist's relentless quest for the genuine often comes at a personal cost, as it requires sacrifices and compromises. In the narrator's case, his commitment to his craft strains his relationships with his wife and even his own artistic integrity. James raises questions about the extent to which artists should be willing to blur the line between art and life in their pursuit of authenticity, and what they might lose in the process.

Conclusion

In "The Real Thing," Henry James presents a complex portrayal of the artist's role in society. Through the characters of the struggling artist, Miss Churm, and the perceptive narrator, James examines the artist's aspiration for authenticity, the objectification of subjects, the critical lens artists provide on society, and the inherent conflicts between art and reality. This story highlights the challenges, sacrifices, and moral dilemmas that artists face in their quest to capture the essence of the human experience, making it a thought-provoking exploration of the artist's multifaceted role in the world. Ultimately, James prompts readers to contemplate the price artists pay for their commitment to the pursuit of the "real thing" and the enduring significance of their creative endeavors.

Henry James, "The Real Thing": Audiobook link

 

Henry James' story "The Real Thing" is available as an audiobook at this link.

The reading takes an hour and five minutes. Please read along with the voice; you'll learn so much more. Or maybe gather together with classmates and read it together. Crazier things have happened. 

We're going to have a discussion and debate about ideas in the story next Tuesday. It will be obvious if you didn't read it or haven't thought about it. This is college. 

MLA In-Text Citation

 The only thing incorrect about this video is the use of the term "Bibliography." In MLA format, this is called "Works Cited."

Your essay for Thursday needs to include at least one direct quotation from each of the three stories. 

This page from the Purdue OWL is also helpful. 

Excavating (Mining) a Text: Dickens, Moore, and O. Henry

Today we are going to divide the class into three groups: one group for each of the stories.

Each group should choose one member to be the typist. Everybody is a detective collecting evidence. Or maybe it's better to think of yourself as a miner looking for rare gems or diamonds. Most of the "stuff" in a mine is not valuable.

Where in your story does the author write directly about art and artists? Capture this information and put it directly into a discussion board post on our Populi page. Make a list of these instances. Be sure to copy the excerpt exactly. In Latin, this is called verbatim.  Also, remember to include a page number in parentheses following your quotation.  Please post your findings no later than fifteen minutes before the conclusion of class. 

Related to the "Tortured Artist": The "Starving Artist"

The myth of the Starving Artist has existed for centuries. It's nothing new. In many respects, it's a sub-category of the larger classification of the Tortured Artist. M'iseu Fortier in Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson's story is a great example. He quite literally chooses art over money when he goes to retrieve his beloved violin.

What are the real facts about this? Why does the myth exist? A scholar of economics, way back in 1986, published an article that debunks this myth. 

The Tortured Artist: Myth, Reality, or Somewhere In Between?

 

We've read three short stories so far this semester. What do they have in common? Yes, they all feature art and artists, but what else do they have in common? The artist characters are all tormented in one way or another by their art or by how other people regard their art. The one exception might be Sue in O. Henry's "The Last Leaf." We will revisit this theme as the semester progresses. 

Here's a link to a great video from "The Art Assignment" that explores the history of the "tortured artist" idea over the last three hundred years. What do you think about this idea? Do your friends and family think that you're somehow different due to your passion for art and design? Do you see it in yourself? Think of other related questions and angles of approaching this idea. 

Short Assignment Two 

"Charles Dickens, O. Henry, and Alice Moore: The Artist as Tortured Genius" 

Now that we've watched the video, what do you think about this idea? Do your friends and family think that you're somehow different due to your passion for art and design? Do you see it in yourself? Think of other related questions.

Ingredients

1    introductory paragraph that introduces your essay's main idea

3    body paragraphs, each using textual evidence    quoted verbatim from the three stories, one story per paragraph

1    paragraph that applies the concept of the tortured artist idea in your life. be specific. you might choose to include an additional paragraph about your experiences. 

1    concluding paragraph that moves your ideas forward

This six-paragraph essay is due no later than noon on September 21. Even though you will be quoting directly from published sources, you do not need to include a "Works Cited" page for this assignment because we are all reading common texts. You do, however, need to incorporate in-text citations in MLA form. Proofread carefully before uploading to Populi. Please remember to single-space your text. 

Questions: csmith@dcad.edu

Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Dickens, and the Fog

 

Consider how Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson describes the fog of New Orleans compared to Charles Dickens describing the fog of London. How are they similar? Dissimilar? Which do you prefer and why? 

Good News!

You have the option of resubmitting a revised essay no later than noon on September 12. I'll be grading these essays on Wednesday, September 13. If you're happy with the essay that you submitted for today, great. Let it be. If you want to take what you learn in today's critique and apply it to a revised version of your paper, that's also great.

Remember that we have new reading assignments for Tuesday, September 12. (See Files and Lessons) 

Also, I've posted the general rubric for this class on the Files tab. Scroll down to the bottom.

Questions?   csmith@dcad.edu

Alice Dunbar-Nelson: Wilmington's Most Famous Writer

 

Many people in Wilmington don't know about the work of Alice Dunbar-Nelson. Her Wikipedia page describes her time teaching at Howard High School. Here is a link to an online exhibition of her work and writing curated by the Rosenbach Library in Philadelphia. We're going to read a short story of hers from the collection, The Goodness of St. Rocques, and other stories, that features a musical artist and his trials, tribulations, and triumphs. 

This is your reading assignment for next Tuesday, September 12. Go to the Lessons tab on our Populi page to get the links. 

Pavement Art Now!

 Pavement artists still exist today. Sometimes they work the sidewalks for donations, kind of like a street musician. The same places in central London that Dickens mentions in 1862 are still in active use by pavement artists just trying to make a meager living.

And then there are street artists who make commissioned art on sidewalks, roads, parking lots, and other flat public places. Jeff Huntington is a DC-based mural artist who assembled a big team of volunteers to paint a portrait of Breonna Taylor and Black Lives Matter over two basketball courts in Annapolis, MD. Check out the video.

 

Kate Flint on Dickens, Pavement Art, and the Visual Imagination

 

The day concluded with a final keynote presentation by Kate Flint on the subject of “Pavement Art”. Flint began with a short story by Dickens, “His Brown Paper Parcel” (“Somebody’s Luggage”; All the Year Round, 1862 Christmas edition), in which the narrator is a pavement artist: why, Flint asked, would such a figure be so interesting to Dickens? In what followed, Flint offered a wonderfully rich exploration of pavement artists in the nineteenth century and explored the questions raised through this unique form of visual culture. Pavement art occupies an interesting, often contradictory, space: it is ephemeral yet immobile/immoveable; outside of institutions and the marketplace, yet necessarily public and invites the viewer to participate in a form of artistic patronage; often produces a copied image but never produces a definitive replica and depends upon being constantly reproduced; creates delight amongst its audience through the process of its creation more than in existing as a finished product. Pavement art troubles and challenges the definition of art and artist, and in turn raises complex questions about the relationship between author and art work, raising issues of ownership and authorship, creation and performance, and the position of art in the public sphere- all especially important to Dickens at a time when he was touring the country performing extracts of his own work in his final years. Ideas were raised here too about the mobility of the artist and the circulation of art, resonating with the rise in print circulation throughout the nineteenth century and Flint picked up on this relationship, as well as questions around the legitimacy of wandering and loitering.

Illustration of a pavement artist from The Graphic, September 1874

Flint’s talk provided a stimulating end to the day, and in its analysis of a different form of culture also spoke to some of the issues that Lynda Nead had raised in questioning the idea of the visual imagination: there was here an idea about how we might define the visual imagination as being, like pavement art, something transient, ephemeral and almost impossible to truly grasp, something forged and re-forged in different contexts and places, resisting (or defeated by) the permanence of the art forms that it tries to get a hold of, and always part of a process of creative transformation that evolves, adapts, and opens up new possibilities for interpretation.

Pavement Artists: A Real Thing

The authorities have always tried to regulate pavement art by any means possible; today, the high street is in danger of dying through lack of trade, and still, the artists, and buskers who bring life and vitality to our streets are having a hard time of it.

It was no different back in 1871, as this little article proves:

The wayfarer in London has doubtless occasionally noticed on the pavement some highly-coloured work of art—a mackerel, somehow or other, usually being a stock subject with the artist; and a beautifully chalked inscription, involved in some very complicated flourishes, has informed the looker-on that the accomplished artist, who crouches down behind his chef-d’oeuvre, is out of work, and has a wife and seven children; or something of that sort.

Poor fellow, the pavement artists’ occupation is gone, or going. The Metropolitan Board of Works has no feeling for such art, or for the artist; and the former is now declared a penal offence and the latter liable to punishment.

SUSPICION: Punch cartoon from 1872

At first glance this may be regretted; but if it be true, as I have heard, that man behind the pavement drawing was seldom the real artist, and that some other mendicant “did it for the trade,” why that lessens one’s regret. As for the advertisers who are henceforth forbidden to stencil their announcements on the pavement, one has no pity for them. This is not legitimate advertising. Moreover, it must be very annoying for a tradesman to have plastered all over the pavement in front of his shop the advertisements of a rival in the same trade—very!

Published in the Alnwick Mercury (Saturday 18th March 1871)

Dalziel's Illustration for "His Brown Paper-Parcel"

 

https://victorianweb.org/art/illustration/dalziel/57.html