US Regional Mythology. “Wild West” and Southern Myth

Unit 6

American Dream” as a Dream of Enrichment

Theodore Dreiser, An American Tragedy (1925)

Аnd so, of all the influences which might have come to Clyde at this time, either as an aid or an injury to his development, perhaps the most dangerous for him, considering his temperament, was this same Green-Davidson, than which no more materially affected or gaudy a realm could have been found anywhere between the two great American mountain ranges. Its darkened and cushioned tea-room, so somber and yet tinted so gayly with colored lights, was an ideal rendezvous, not only for such inexperienced and eager flappers of the period who were to be taken by a show of luxury, but also for those more experienced and perhaps a little faded beauties, who had a thought for their complexions and the advantages of dim and uncertain lights.

…And the talk and the palaver that went on in the lobby and the grill, to say nothing of the restaurants and rooms, were suf­ficient to convince any inexperienced and none-too-discerning mind that the chief business of life for any one with a little money or social position was to attend a theater, a ball-game in season, or to dance, motor, entertain friends at dinner, or to travel to New York, Europe, Chicago, California. And there had been in the lives of most of these boys such a lack of anything that approached comfort or taste, let alone luxury, that not unlike Clyde, they were inclined to not only exaggerate the import of all that they saw, but to see in this sudden transi­tion an opportunity to partake of it all. Who were these people with money, and what had they done that they should enjoy so much luxury, where others as good seemingly as themselves had nothing? And wherein did these latter differ so greatly from the successful? Clyde could not see. Yet these thoughts flashed through the minds of every one of these boys.

(Th.Dreiser, An American Tragedy, M., 1949, p.51-52)

Assignment. Provide examples of American self-made men of late 20^th- early 21^st cc.

Main Idea: Specific conditions of the establishment and further development of Western and Southern US regions have given rise to potent mythology

Main Issues:

- The notion of “frontier” and the role it played in shaping American mentality

- American Westward movement aimed at domesticating “wild” territories for about a century (between the American Revolution and the Civil War) grew into a symbol of America’s ongoing movement to new horizons (manifest destiny)

- Expanding the concept of frontier beyond US boundaries (Imperialist expansion) and to space conquests

- Discrepancies between frontier’s actual life and its romanticizing in national consciousness and culture

- The emergence of the “plantation myth” aimed at idealizing the life in the South and justifying slavery

- Deconstruction of the Southern myth in the 20^th c. literature and arts.

Key Concepts:

v frontier – фронтир (кордон; лінія, що відділяла “цивілізацію” від “дикості” у західному напрямку і постійно пересувалася)

v Wild West – Дикий Захід

v westward movement – рух на Захід

v pioneers – піонери, першопрохідці

v men without women – чоловіки без жінок

v Cowboys and Indians

v force as law – сила замість закону

v plantation myth, Southern myth, magnolia myth – “міф плантації”, південний міф

v Southern chivalry – південне лицарство

v Southern lady/belle – південна леді/ красуня

v idyll – ідилія

Дата добавления: 2015-06-27