I love your work, Revolution and the Word! We met when I was a first-year graduate student, taking a seminar in early American literature. As I have told others, that class was like trying to drink out of a fire-hose turned on full blast. My mind was blown by encounters with novels I had never heard of before, such as, The Female American, The Coquette, The Power of Sympathy, Secret History, and Wieland. These were texts that were varied in their stories, style, and structure. But what made the class even more fascinating was reading your book and thinking about the novel as a subversive tool for women readers. It lead me to think about my own reading practices and literary history -- and how novels have empowered me to go places I might never have gone. As a child, I discovered my own American identity through novels like Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder. And through her stories of pioneering on the North American prairies, I came to know my family's own pioneering legacy of being early Anglo settlers in Connecticut, Georgia, Texas, Utah, and Arizona. I began to see myself as part of the story of the United States.
I also learned early on that if I wanted to know anything, I just had to turn to a book. When my mother's answers to my precocious questions did not satisfy me, I went to the family reference books or pedaled my bike down to the public library. When I became curious about love and romance, I turned to novels on our family book shelves like pride and prejudice and little women. I even tried to find answers in novels like Judy Blume (not intellectually satisfying). But what lesson I learned best of all was that girls and women could do anything they want, no matter the obstacles in their way (thanks to Caddie Woodlawn, Anne Shirley, and the Pevensie sisters). The daughter of first- generation college students, I saw the financial security that education brought But most important for me, novels were the key to power because they allowed me to understand and create knowledge outside my idyllic suburb of Pleasant Hill, California. When I had chances to visit other places and even live outside the USA I wasn't afraid because I had traveled so far already via novels.
Now here I am, 3/4 of the way throughout my PhD program, and novels have taken me beyond what any other woman in my family has done. And much of that is due to the empowerment of the subversive novel. Thanks, Ms Davidson, for showing me how to see a novel as a revolutionary tool. Now the challenge for my future is seeing how I can teach the novel and show students how the novel can empower them.
~Sincerely,
Larisa Asaeli
Your blog posts are the BEST! Love the epistolary form, plus they are chock full of good insights and food for thought.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jen. I should have added to the post that I have also learned lately how novels allow groups like women and people of color to subvert the dominant power structures and get their voices into the conversation about what it means to be an American. I can think of examples like, The Curse of Caste, The Squatter and the Don, Iola Leroy, Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta, The Half Caste and Other Stories (just to name a few).
ReplyDeleteDear Ms. Asaeli,
ReplyDeleteAnother most-welcomed epistolary posting from you--how I have waited weeks, hoping another should appear! Perhaps you might consider writing your memoirs one day in epistolary form--it seems so well to suit the powerful, insightful voice you have, particularly in regards to women and American novels.
On that note, I must say, I feel empowered and inspired upon reading the influence and impression American novels penned by a woman's hand--in recent years the early American novel--have had on you. Certainly throughout my own girl and womanhood, I have experienced similar awakenings, moments of enlightenment, etc. through the books of American women writers, but I never *really* thought about how much I owe to the American novel (as well as poetry and theatre) for taking me so far in life, in so many ways.
It makes me that much more thankful for where I am and for the existence of so precious an art form in the first place, and I sincerely thank you (and Davidson) for reminding me never to take for granted the existence of the American novel again.
Your humble admirer,
Ms. Couchon
Thanks, ma'am. So glad to know someone else has been empowered by novels! I expect we all have been in one way or another or we would be in more lucrative careers. (ha ha)
ReplyDeleteHi, Larissa! I love that you referenced Little House on the Prairie. I grew up reading about a life that quite possibly resembled that of my heritage. When I got a bit older, I fell in love with Christy, and I can most certainly see how my love for American literature developed out of my exposure to novels at an early age. What I have realized in personal reflection, as well as in your post, is that novels can truly influence our perception of the world, especially as young girls. I loved Little House on the Prairie books because of the strength of the Ingalls women. I didn't want to be like Nellie; I wanted to be Laura. I think that this says something about our - or at least my - desire for strong female role models, especially in the novel. Thanks for sharing your reading history!
ReplyDeleteI love the Christy books, though I did not find them until college. They are such great stories. Thanks for reminding me of them.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that you, like me, have been made into who you are by the books you read. Aren't you glad we had such great ones to choose from and didn't have to decide between "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" and _Poor Richards Almanac_?
Hi Larisa, These are such interesting exchanges I almost hesitate to barge in. But I also love your witty epistolary messages. Come to think of it, I have Davidson's email address. Why don't we all write her letters? I guess my early reading experiences were different, in that I did not read -Little House on the Prairie- or -Little Women-. I remember once when I was rather young my mother read -Tom Sawyer- to my brother and me, but she would not read from -Huck Finn-. When I asked why, she said it was not appropriate for young children, but of course that made me go out and grab the novel as soon as possible, and now I have probably taught the book a couple dozen times. dw
ReplyDeleteYou blog prompted my blog :)
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