Scarica Pearl Buck and the Declaration of Independence: Democracy and Early American Experience e più Appunti in PDF di Letteratura Angloamericana solo su Docsity! 3° lezione 15.10 Democracy and early American experience Importance of the Declaration of Independence: foundational and essential document. It was drafted by Thomas Jefferson, politician and intellectual. Pearl Buck considered Jefferson as the ideal example the American pursuit of democracy. 1776: 4th of July sign of declaration. SLIDE quotes Important elements: consensus becomes the source of government and the only thing that can legitimate the use of power. The words that Jefferson chose are important; Buck devoted an entire speech to Jefferson in 1943 which delivered public engagements that were extremely frequent throughout the 1940s when she was at the peak. The foundation for freedom is in the US and nowhere else in the world we can find this kind of approach EXCEPTIONALISM of America. The US as the place where democracy was first adopted and chosen as a way of governing people, deriving its just power from the consent of the governed. The problem that she detected was the issue of racial discrimination. SLIDE (quote) she said very controversial things during the WWII. She detected in the race prejudices the major weaknesses for American democracy. She was concerned that fascism was spreading its ideology also in the US. She perceived American democracy in a phase of difficulty because of the war. The idea that even in a democracy people chose him/her absolute command. SLIDE She was disturbing for the political establishment. Because she linked the American notion of freedom to freedom from Empire and Imperialism and from slavery. She wrote a book “What America mean to me” argued for a certain vision and perspective, interpretation of America. What was the precious qualities of American people? Power of human understanding. She was worried that the US could be compromised by the reluctance to go beyond racial prejudice. SLIDE She was criticizing the American war effort. In her perspective this was the only way to be an American patriot; she was tackling several issues that were extremely complex. She was popular and her essays were then published in major newspapers and she could do that. And then she disappeared from the American literary canon. There was a silencing of her public figure and the attempt to erase her contribution from the history of American literature. She was criticizing in a direct way the American culture, government, attitude towards race, and that made her an outsider in the 1940s. But we now move to contemporary readings of Buck to notice the shift in the perception of her work through two essays. 1. Lye’s essay SLIDE Lye notices the fact that Buck is still embracing notions of American exceptionalism and she argues that what we find in Buck is a notion of orientalism. It is rooted in the idea that there is American moral superiority. Buck is tackling American racism, highlighting the fact the widespread racism that shape American culture prevents the US from being a real democracy. Quote She asks the US to take the lead improving their democracy making it true. Lye reads it as an example of Buck’s persuasion that the US were morally superior. Attempt to underline the contradictions of Buck in the description of Chinese society, focusing on the notion of orientalism. Close reading of BOOK “THE GOOD EARTH” narrative strategies implied by Buck that contributed to her huge international success. - Chapter 1. “It was Wang Lung’s marriage day… Until wooden hinges...” Her way of writing is easy to read, simple both from the lexical point of view and in terms of the structure. Her style was a mixture of the Bible (pace and tone) and Hemingway, which was responsible for a new way of writing which placed simplicity, straightforwardness, and economy. She describes a lot of things and enables us to see a different world. She does throughout the first chapter. Description of his wedding day. We start learning things of the house. References to the seasons SPRING Vision of life which has a cyclic time and not linear which goes forward. The emphasis is on things that come back, like the seasons. References to natural elements: air, wind, rain, fields.
