(Sorry this post is late, I did find this reading quite hard to get into and understand fully. Nevertheless I got there in the end and have tried to make a good blog to make up for it.)
The problems mentioned within Hapke’s article outline Gold’s difficulty with was that he “could not yet render urban ghetto life artistically”. This was due to the lack of models around. There were only a few ‘leftist’ articles that had been translated from Russian to English, for Gold to get influence from during this time. Furthermore proletarian magazines hardly ever published American authors and were non existent. In addition, Alfred Krymbourg and Elmer Williams his colleagues from the Liberator held the “old Progressive Era trope of the bestial, wordless worker” which was prevalent amongst its time.
Gold became the only writer producing ‘proletcult’ literature whilst his other colleagues wrote fiction that was irrelevant to their workers revolution views. Therefore he struggled to make a convincing narration and characterization of his fiction whilst the success of the movement was also doubted by Lenin and Trotsky and the writers of this movement therefore felt alienated.
The resolution that Hapke suggests represented within ‘on a section gang’ which is a well adapted piece of leftist writing. Hapke states it “blurs the boundary between short story and reportage” and the Marxism references made are witty. The story is full of humour, which makes it enjoyable for a wider range of readers, such as Gold’s correlation between comparing the workers being paid, to it having an effect as an addictive narcotic.
Bernstein highlighted Gold’s intention of displaying “racial oppression [as] merely a subset of class oppression”. With the influential character of Nigger who is portrayed and seen by the boys as a heroic figure. He is also loathed against by the adults of the tenements on Christie St. Where Beinstein suggests that Gold has portrayed that the reason behind Nigger’s adopted name that the boys call him, is because of his fearless and plucky characteristics he holds. “This pejorative nickname is assigned because …. The boys feel he resembles a stereotypical African American man”. This nickname however was common to be used against “darker skinned Jewish criminals during the Depression”.
The adults of the tenement however would be torn between crossing racial boundaries as there would be pressurised to become Americanized and assimilate to the white supreme ideals of the time, as Beinstein expresses: “Facing nativist pressure that would assign them to the dark side of the racial divide, immigrants Americanized themselves by crossing and recrossing the racial line”. Such an example of the adults dislike towards the Nigger character is represented when Mikey is scorned for upsetting the prostitute. Her mother demonises his influence from the Nigger character, as addressed by Beinstein “His mother uses the word as an epithet (that Nigger) rather than as a name”. However Gold’s prime belief was that !in the working-class movement there is not race problem; that is a problem made by capitalism” and therefore by advocating the working class towards socialism it would alleviate such discrimination.
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
Monday, 22 March 2010
Hapke And Bernstein
Hapke suggests that the main problem with Gold bringing the ideas of proletarian fiction from Russia to America is the fact that noone was doing the same thing at this time and so there were a lack of models for Gold to get an idea from.
Gold was seen as the only member of this culture of 'workers' in America who wanted to copy the Soviet's idea of making 'art' dedicated to the world of revoluinary labour i.e. through literature. Early 'alienated' authors who were like Gold, shunned these new ideas as they thought that they did not translate well for America. And so having no support Gold had a few failed attempts at making proletarian fiction as it was hard to make the depression that they were living in seem anything but joyless and dull.
But Hapke thinks that Gold picked this up through "on a Section Gang" by using humor and becoming a worker-correspondant, as if he were reporting to the world the ups and dopwns of life in this culture. He does this by mixing fiction with real life, adding humor and anicdotes and i think this is why he made Jews, only semi-autobiographical as to keep up with this proletcult art, he had to add somethiong different.
Lee Bernstein is suggesting that even though Gold is know for his representation of Class identities, Jews also has strong connections to racial ones. Bernstein says that Gold plays with the boundaries of race and class and that they always differ. He thinks that Race is importanat in Jews, and this is seen trhough the kids racism which wasn't something of white supremecy but more of a relation to power. The bad guys were racist and so they were tough. The book is about avenging anti-semitism and as said playing with racial stereotypes of which Gold does with the character Nigger. Even though Nigger is a Jew like the rest in the story, his name can give him the percepion of the African American. But saying that he is called Nigger becuase he has power, "bold, tameless and untouchable" is how is described which turns around racist views of white power. And so this is how Gold uses race beyond the physical.
Gold was seen as the only member of this culture of 'workers' in America who wanted to copy the Soviet's idea of making 'art' dedicated to the world of revoluinary labour i.e. through literature. Early 'alienated' authors who were like Gold, shunned these new ideas as they thought that they did not translate well for America. And so having no support Gold had a few failed attempts at making proletarian fiction as it was hard to make the depression that they were living in seem anything but joyless and dull.
But Hapke thinks that Gold picked this up through "on a Section Gang" by using humor and becoming a worker-correspondant, as if he were reporting to the world the ups and dopwns of life in this culture. He does this by mixing fiction with real life, adding humor and anicdotes and i think this is why he made Jews, only semi-autobiographical as to keep up with this proletcult art, he had to add somethiong different.
Lee Bernstein is suggesting that even though Gold is know for his representation of Class identities, Jews also has strong connections to racial ones. Bernstein says that Gold plays with the boundaries of race and class and that they always differ. He thinks that Race is importanat in Jews, and this is seen trhough the kids racism which wasn't something of white supremecy but more of a relation to power. The bad guys were racist and so they were tough. The book is about avenging anti-semitism and as said playing with racial stereotypes of which Gold does with the character Nigger. Even though Nigger is a Jew like the rest in the story, his name can give him the percepion of the African American. But saying that he is called Nigger becuase he has power, "bold, tameless and untouchable" is how is described which turns around racist views of white power. And so this is how Gold uses race beyond the physical.
Sam W on Hapke and Bernstein
Hapke suggests that a problem encountered by Gold in his writing were “trying to work out problems of characterization and narration”. It is also suggested that there was a lack of mediums through which to convey proletarian literature in America without appearing to be too soviet-leaning; the “protecult” was seen as communist; with an estimated 450,000 members in the USSR expressing worker and revolutionary arts. The solution, expressed by Hapke, and seen in “on a section gang” is the blurring of the lines between fiction and non fiction, the lack of distinguishing between storytelling and reportage; and also a use of humour to keep the interest of the reader. Hapke argues that Gold even mixes wit with his Marxism by playing with the old adage “Payday is the opium of the people”, showing that within proletarian culture money is substituted for religion.
Bernstein argues that race is important in Jews Without Money. Whilst the character Nigger is “attractive and daring to the young boys, he serves as a reminder to the parents that their own place in the racialised hierarchy remained unclear”. He also discusses how the parents see articulating with white supremacy as a means to being assimilated as an “American”, and see “nigger” as the embodiment of all things bad in America, both in his behaviour and negative characteristics, despite not actually being African-American. Gold ultimately believes that race problems are created by the capitalist structure and that socialism would help to alleviate both racial and class issues in the United States.
Bernstein argues that race is important in Jews Without Money. Whilst the character Nigger is “attractive and daring to the young boys, he serves as a reminder to the parents that their own place in the racialised hierarchy remained unclear”. He also discusses how the parents see articulating with white supremacy as a means to being assimilated as an “American”, and see “nigger” as the embodiment of all things bad in America, both in his behaviour and negative characteristics, despite not actually being African-American. Gold ultimately believes that race problems are created by the capitalist structure and that socialism would help to alleviate both racial and class issues in the United States.
Hapke & Bernstein on Gold
The problems that Hapke suggests Gold encountered with proletarian fiction:
a) A lack of models of this sort of writing - in the 1920s there were only a few texts which had been translated from Russian to English and virtually nothing in modernist American magazines
b) 'Liberator' colleagues colleagues Kreymbourg and Williams work of the 1920s retained the progressive era's "trope of bestial, wordless worker" - hardly inspiring.
c) A question of authenticity - were artists providing this type of work genuinely working class?
According to Hapke, Gold was unsure how to articulate his writing. So far, his work showed the joyless defeatism of the Jewish garment workers. It was bleak, pessimistic and oppressive which provided no alternative to making money. 'On a section gang' - as a combination of short story and reportage - was witty even when being political (for instance the comment about pay being the opium of the masses and "the gang spent most of it by the next morning"). Gold also learnt not to try and adhere American worker art to concepts of Russian cultural production, since they were culturally different and it didn't work in America. Instead, he decided on more American populist and sentimental models.
Hapke sees Gold as individualising and humanising Jewish worker culture. Mikey's father story of his labour (and failure to succeed) and his bourgeious psychology is a rememberance which is put to and assessed by his son who then ultimately has his own political awakening in realising collectivism is the answer. Both Hapke and Bernstein demonstrate a certain retaliation in the text, a small 'revolution' if you will, with Hapke highlighting Mikey's 'argument with God' and a realisation of the victims of competitive individualism, and the Christie Street gang retaliating against parental bourgeious dreams for them and, to a certain extent, 'society.' Bernstein revises Hapke by linking class oppression with racial oppression - more collective then individual. The boy gang identifies with black masculinity as personified by the heroic 'Nigger.' Rather tellingly Bernstein says, "Rather than African Americans being 'one of us' the Avengers of Christie Street want to be 'one of them.' " In performing blackness they reject the hopes of upward mobility that their parents have for them and 'thumb their nose' at authority, demonstrating their oppoisition to class expolitation and anti-semitism. They also 'colonise' the Italians as identifying them as Indians to protect their own Jewish collectivism. According to Gold, socialism would be the answer to both class and race problems. As he wrote to Dreiser, "In the working class movement there is no race problem; that is a problem made by capitalism."
a) A lack of models of this sort of writing - in the 1920s there were only a few texts which had been translated from Russian to English and virtually nothing in modernist American magazines
b) 'Liberator' colleagues colleagues Kreymbourg and Williams work of the 1920s retained the progressive era's "trope of bestial, wordless worker" - hardly inspiring.
c) A question of authenticity - were artists providing this type of work genuinely working class?
According to Hapke, Gold was unsure how to articulate his writing. So far, his work showed the joyless defeatism of the Jewish garment workers. It was bleak, pessimistic and oppressive which provided no alternative to making money. 'On a section gang' - as a combination of short story and reportage - was witty even when being political (for instance the comment about pay being the opium of the masses and "the gang spent most of it by the next morning"). Gold also learnt not to try and adhere American worker art to concepts of Russian cultural production, since they were culturally different and it didn't work in America. Instead, he decided on more American populist and sentimental models.
Hapke sees Gold as individualising and humanising Jewish worker culture. Mikey's father story of his labour (and failure to succeed) and his bourgeious psychology is a rememberance which is put to and assessed by his son who then ultimately has his own political awakening in realising collectivism is the answer. Both Hapke and Bernstein demonstrate a certain retaliation in the text, a small 'revolution' if you will, with Hapke highlighting Mikey's 'argument with God' and a realisation of the victims of competitive individualism, and the Christie Street gang retaliating against parental bourgeious dreams for them and, to a certain extent, 'society.' Bernstein revises Hapke by linking class oppression with racial oppression - more collective then individual. The boy gang identifies with black masculinity as personified by the heroic 'Nigger.' Rather tellingly Bernstein says, "Rather than African Americans being 'one of us' the Avengers of Christie Street want to be 'one of them.' " In performing blackness they reject the hopes of upward mobility that their parents have for them and 'thumb their nose' at authority, demonstrating their oppoisition to class expolitation and anti-semitism. They also 'colonise' the Italians as identifying them as Indians to protect their own Jewish collectivism. According to Gold, socialism would be the answer to both class and race problems. As he wrote to Dreiser, "In the working class movement there is no race problem; that is a problem made by capitalism."
Sunday, 21 March 2010
Sam B's blog on Laura Hapke
According to Hapke, Gold struggled with his project to write "proletarian fiction" because he was primarily, for the first decade, distracted by his left-sided communist politics. He struggled to express urban ghetto life artistically attributing this in part to the lack of relevant models, these being hard to attain. Hapke believed he found characterization and narration as the largest problems; problems which could have been solved with increased levels of self involvement using his own experiences and observations. Gold struggled to see U.S. working deprivation through soviet culturally centred eyes.
Solutions to this, suggested by Hapke, are found within "On a section gang" where Hapke comments on how Gold blurs the line between a short-story and a report and how this works to add an element of witty Marxist humour into the piece, that these almost layers of anecdotes form the correct level of individualism needed to give his work success. Not to create a solution to the workers problem or to create a false yet successful end, a "workers revolution" but to simply show how the workers do what they do day in day out to try and make their existence as enjoyable, well bearable as possible.
Solutions to this, suggested by Hapke, are found within "On a section gang" where Hapke comments on how Gold blurs the line between a short-story and a report and how this works to add an element of witty Marxist humour into the piece, that these almost layers of anecdotes form the correct level of individualism needed to give his work success. Not to create a solution to the workers problem or to create a false yet successful end, a "workers revolution" but to simply show how the workers do what they do day in day out to try and make their existence as enjoyable, well bearable as possible.
Tuesday, 16 March 2010
Michael Gold Biography
American Jewish Fiction by Joshua N. Lambert (p.38)
http://books.google.com/books?id=08QctHhKdcgC&pg=PT54&lpg=PT54&dq=michael+gold+jews+without+money+bio&source=bl&ots=m7LpbqXI-X&sig=VH9tZCVnTG-A5wkZSR2lM20TDlk&hl=en&ei=jtSeS9T1L46i0gTNmcWlDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CCkQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=&f=false
Chapter 12 entitled “The Gangster’s Mother” I felt was quite interesting in how it used the character Aunt Lena to repeatedly emphasise how immigrants felt when they had arrived in America. Her gaily attitude and excitement towards arriving in America is set up for a massive contrasting downfall on the harsh reality of America’s poverty within the East Side of New York. Therefore, setting up the reader in the introduction of her character:
With Lena’s youthful naivety she soon finds out that she has to work to support the family to pay rent and her dreams of seeing New York city with thrilled eyes become deteriorated as she loses the energy and eagerness from when she first arrived. Constraint to the working life she becomes entangled in the long, tedious hours of manual labour at a clothing shop and no longer has time or willingness to go ‘see the boats at night’.
Additionally, not only does this chapter introduce the disintegration of an immigrants hopes and dreams in what they expect from the ‘promise land’, it also notes the dangers of the city for Lena, as she is pursued by the most feared gangster on the tenement, Louie One Eye. Here, there is a scene of him forcing himself on her and the mob of neighbours saving her.
http://books.google.com/books?id=08QctHhKdcgC&pg=PT54&lpg=PT54&dq=michael+gold+jews+without+money+bio&source=bl&ots=m7LpbqXI-X&sig=VH9tZCVnTG-A5wkZSR2lM20TDlk&hl=en&ei=jtSeS9T1L46i0gTNmcWlDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CCkQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=&f=false
- Poverty forced him out of school at the age of 12 but briefly attended Harvard in later years as a young man
- He published Jews Without Money as his only novel, and wrote hundreds of essays and polemics against capitalism and corruption
- "He was a communist first and a writer second"
- "Gold’s novel is an expression of communist thought, it reflects the a major trend in the politics and ideology of early Jewish life in the U.S"
- Part of Gold’s novel appeal to internationals is within the final pages of the book in its “call to revolution… (O workers’ Revolution… You are the true Messiah)”
Chapter 12 entitled “The Gangster’s Mother” I felt was quite interesting in how it used the character Aunt Lena to repeatedly emphasise how immigrants felt when they had arrived in America. Her gaily attitude and excitement towards arriving in America is set up for a massive contrasting downfall on the harsh reality of America’s poverty within the East Side of New York. Therefore, setting up the reader in the introduction of her character:
“Everything was wonderful to my Aunt Lena… [she] was afraid of nothing, she laughed and all of us laughed with her. She was so happy at first, it made us all happy. Then everything came to an end”.
With Lena’s youthful naivety she soon finds out that she has to work to support the family to pay rent and her dreams of seeing New York city with thrilled eyes become deteriorated as she loses the energy and eagerness from when she first arrived. Constraint to the working life she becomes entangled in the long, tedious hours of manual labour at a clothing shop and no longer has time or willingness to go ‘see the boats at night’.
Additionally, not only does this chapter introduce the disintegration of an immigrants hopes and dreams in what they expect from the ‘promise land’, it also notes the dangers of the city for Lena, as she is pursued by the most feared gangster on the tenement, Louie One Eye. Here, there is a scene of him forcing himself on her and the mob of neighbours saving her.
Monday, 15 March 2010
Sam B's blog on "Jews without money"
A link to a biography of Michael Gold: http://www.jrank.org/literature/pages/4174/Michael-Gold-pseudonym-Itzok-Granich.html
Five biographical facts about Gold that readers of Jews Without Money should know:
· He was born to a poor immigrant Russian-Jewish family.
· He was educated at New York and Harvard Universities.
· He was brought up in the Lower East side of New York but became politically active from an early age and through his work met the likes of Eugene O’Neill so therefore kept himself partially outside this bottom rung of society enabling him to understand its intricacies better.
· His Anthology Proletarian Literature in the United States (1935) was an important source-book for radical writing in the USA in the inter-war years.
· He co-founded the New Masses and was its editor; through this journal Gold promoted a proletarian, neo-Stalinist view of the place of literature in society. He remained one of the most influential members of this left wing intellectual group between 1916 and 1930.
I chose paragraph 17 titled “Two Doctors”
This chapter has examples of people who have the same advantages as each other when younger showing one more successful than the other, it also has an example of how quickly a man’s work can change either for better or for worse. The chapter starts off by talking about the two doctors and how a job like that holds them as some of the most important people in the area, “In the old country the Jews worshiped their Rabbis. In this country the doctor was the community idol”. This helps to indirectly show how disease ridden the streets within the novel are, with many people falling ill, for example the father of the house is currently ill from the lead in the paint. Both doctors are mentioned at the start but one of them, even as highly valued as a doctor seems to struggle labelled as growing “thinner” and that “his eyes were sunk for want of sleep” over the winter.
The doctor and the father then speak about when they were younger and how they both used to go to the same school in “Roumania”, the doctor comments on numerous occasions about how the father could be the doctor if he hadn’t acted in such a way when he was younger. This shows an example of how people could get out of their difficulties if only they had realized what state they would be in when they had a chance to change it. This is supported by the father’s “But I am a man in a trap” quote after he attempts to go back to work, fails and then discusses how if he could buy a shop he would be fine although he needs $300 to buy that shop.
Michael Gold
Short Biography-
http://www.jrank.org/literature/pages/4174/Michael-Gold-pseudonym-Itzok-Granich.html
Michael Gold
1. Real Name Itzok Granich
2. Jews Without Money has been translated in more than fourteen countries, including Germany, where the novel was employed against Nazi propaganda.
3.Graduated From Harvard
4.was one of the most important and influential members of the group of left-wing intellectuals associated with such publications as Masses, The Liberator, and the New Masses between 1916 and 1930.
5. Also a playwright and his anthology Proletarian Literature in the United States (1935) is an important source-book for radical writing in the USA in the inter-war years
Like the others i also think that chapter 2 "how babies are made" is significant in how the street kids first learned about work, from the most popular job in their surroundings. And also how we get the perspective of different pimps, the kids and the mother on how they view the girls.
Throughout these early stages of the book i thought soem notable factors were-
How the descriptions of the summer were to the kids in the tenements just like the descriptions of the night in sister carrie, were to the adults. There is a sense of magic and in sister carrie the lights are likened to fairytale where as the kids in Jews, play games out in an unused piece of land which is their fairytale.
Also the early stages in the book where there is a sense of realism through joey Cohen getting run over, and the pervert and the descirptions of the horrible conditions and decay i.e. the buildings, cats and "bums", i think sets up for the book to show the need of working and being successful to get out of these conditions.
http://www.jrank.org/literature/pages/4174/Michael-Gold-pseudonym-Itzok-Granich.html
Michael Gold
1. Real Name Itzok Granich
2. Jews Without Money has been translated in more than fourteen countries, including Germany, where the novel was employed against Nazi propaganda.
3.Graduated From Harvard
4.was one of the most important and influential members of the group of left-wing intellectuals associated with such publications as Masses, The Liberator, and the New Masses between 1916 and 1930.
5. Also a playwright and his anthology Proletarian Literature in the United States (1935) is an important source-book for radical writing in the USA in the inter-war years
Like the others i also think that chapter 2 "how babies are made" is significant in how the street kids first learned about work, from the most popular job in their surroundings. And also how we get the perspective of different pimps, the kids and the mother on how they view the girls.
Throughout these early stages of the book i thought soem notable factors were-
How the descriptions of the summer were to the kids in the tenements just like the descriptions of the night in sister carrie, were to the adults. There is a sense of magic and in sister carrie the lights are likened to fairytale where as the kids in Jews, play games out in an unused piece of land which is their fairytale.
Also the early stages in the book where there is a sense of realism through joey Cohen getting run over, and the pervert and the descirptions of the horrible conditions and decay i.e. the buildings, cats and "bums", i think sets up for the book to show the need of working and being successful to get out of these conditions.
Sam W's post on Michael Gold
sam123 said...
Biography of Michael Gold –
http://college.cengage.com/english/lauter/heath/4e/students/author_pages/modern/gold_mi.html
Five interesting facts about Michael Gold –
1. Took his pseudonym from a Jewish civil war veteran he admired
2. Jews without money was published around just after the wall-street crash, during a time of economic turmoil; Barry Gross argues that had it been published a few years earlier it would have gone unnoticed, and had it been published later it would have seemed old – hat
3. in 1933 he became a columnist for the daily worker – a communist newspaper
4. Jews without money was circulated by German radicals as propaganda against the “Nazi anti-semetic lies”
5. Gold was a life-long Marxist; he never changed his views to go with the times throughout his life
Chapter 2 is a very significant chapter that looks at the attitudes towards work in Jews without money. Gold talks about the prostitutes and pimps that were so prevalent in the lower east side of New York City, and shows the darker side of life within the city. The chapter examines how people made money through the sex industry; although an amoral means to an end, the characters still became better off than people who worked in industries such as factories. Although Gold as a child found the act of sex disgusting and was horrified when it was pointed out to him that it was a part of life and “where babies come from”, he later accepts this. Whilst realising that sex is something that happens in life, he also recognises that selling sex is something which happens on a regular basis, symbolising an acceptance that pimps and prostitutes are big business in a metropolis such as New York; a part of the darker and seedier part of life.
Biography of Michael Gold –
http://college.cengage.com/english/lauter/heath/4e/students/author_pages/modern/gold_mi.html
Five interesting facts about Michael Gold –
1. Took his pseudonym from a Jewish civil war veteran he admired
2. Jews without money was published around just after the wall-street crash, during a time of economic turmoil; Barry Gross argues that had it been published a few years earlier it would have gone unnoticed, and had it been published later it would have seemed old – hat
3. in 1933 he became a columnist for the daily worker – a communist newspaper
4. Jews without money was circulated by German radicals as propaganda against the “Nazi anti-semetic lies”
5. Gold was a life-long Marxist; he never changed his views to go with the times throughout his life
Chapter 2 is a very significant chapter that looks at the attitudes towards work in Jews without money. Gold talks about the prostitutes and pimps that were so prevalent in the lower east side of New York City, and shows the darker side of life within the city. The chapter examines how people made money through the sex industry; although an amoral means to an end, the characters still became better off than people who worked in industries such as factories. Although Gold as a child found the act of sex disgusting and was horrified when it was pointed out to him that it was a part of life and “where babies come from”, he later accepts this. Whilst realising that sex is something that happens in life, he also recognises that selling sex is something which happens on a regular basis, symbolising an acceptance that pimps and prostitutes are big business in a metropolis such as New York; a part of the darker and seedier part of life.
Jo's post on Michael Gold 1
Jews Without Money (Gold) - 1st week
The biography of Michael Gold I chose is:
"Masterpieces of Jewish American Literature" - Stanford V Sternlicht
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=iutOijQDzNUC&pg=PA37&lpg=PA37&dq=Itzok+Granich+Biography&source=bl&ots=MSRHUvvgej&sig=0QzqXhsjJmgOfHD7DwPynIYciEY&hl=en&ei=1AWZS6KsA5aSjAfxxZH4Dw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CAkQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=&f=false
5 facts about Gold that readers of “Jews without Money” should know:
Characters understand capitalism and that morals of the old country can be put aside in the big American city: Ida the Madame ‘brags about the tenement houses she owned.’ Harry the Pimp is seen as a bit of a philanthropist, who teaches the girls he controls the value of thrift! ‘Rosie’ worked in a sweatshop until she became ill but on being rescued by a pimp, got on so well she could bring her parents over from Europe. The landlord Mr Zunzer ‘a pillar of the synagogue’ who appreciates in a truly capitalist way that the whores pay ‘3 times the rent you do’ (and promptly!) and was only too happy to fill his properties with them. All of these characters, no matter what their age, appear to have left the ways of the old country behind. They understand market forces and their niche in the market and the importance of becoming ‘American’ – or at least appearing to perform being one.
The biography of Michael Gold I chose is:
"Masterpieces of Jewish American Literature" - Stanford V Sternlicht
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=iutOijQDzNUC&pg=PA37&lpg=PA37&dq=Itzok+Granich+Biography&source=bl&ots=MSRHUvvgej&sig=0QzqXhsjJmgOfHD7DwPynIYciEY&hl=en&ei=1AWZS6KsA5aSjAfxxZH4Dw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CAkQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=&f=false
5 facts about Gold that readers of “Jews without Money” should know:
- His name was originally Itzok Isaac Granich. His gradual Americanization of his name growing up (and pen name of Michael Gold) reflects his having left his immigrant ethnicity (so prevalent in the story) behind. To get on, he has become more ‘American’ and English-speaking…something repeated in the story at least a couple of times
- Gold didn’t make it implicit that the story was fiction. It is in fact semi-fiction – a fictional interpretation of his own background in the Lower East Side of NYC
- Gold’s dislike of capitalism stemmed from this father’s failure to succeed and had to resort to being a handcart pedlar – although he had always worked so hard.
- Unlike some writers who flirted with Communism, Gold was a life long Communist. He had already been to the Soviet Union by the time he wrote JWM but was disillusioned by the country. His communism was more of the heart rather than cerebral adherence to theory. (This shows in his very heartfelt depictions of the conditions of the working poor in JWM)
- While Gold may have known the seedier side of the Lower East Side himself, when writing this book, he was part of the Greenwich Village set, being friends with fellow writers like Dreiser and Eugene O’Neill (which may be reflected in his lack of moralising).
Characters understand capitalism and that morals of the old country can be put aside in the big American city: Ida the Madame ‘brags about the tenement houses she owned.’ Harry the Pimp is seen as a bit of a philanthropist, who teaches the girls he controls the value of thrift! ‘Rosie’ worked in a sweatshop until she became ill but on being rescued by a pimp, got on so well she could bring her parents over from Europe. The landlord Mr Zunzer ‘a pillar of the synagogue’ who appreciates in a truly capitalist way that the whores pay ‘3 times the rent you do’ (and promptly!) and was only too happy to fill his properties with them. All of these characters, no matter what their age, appear to have left the ways of the old country behind. They understand market forces and their niche in the market and the importance of becoming ‘American’ – or at least appearing to perform being one.
Michael Gold 1st session posts
Post a link to a biography of Michael Gold (sometimes known as Mike Gold).
List what are in your view five biographical facts about Gold that you think a reader of Jews Without Money should know.
Identify the chapter of Jews Without Money that you consider is the most interesting, and describe why.
List what are in your view five biographical facts about Gold that you think a reader of Jews Without Money should know.
Identify the chapter of Jews Without Money that you consider is the most interesting, and describe why.
Friday, 12 March 2010
Sam's blog on Seguin
Stephen Ross's review on Robert Seguin's Around quitting time located at muse journals http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/modern_fiction_studies/v048/48.2ross.html identifies Seguin's primary notion is that :
"we must adopt a dialectical perspective which analyzes class as a fluid process rather than a category with determinate content"
He identifies how a class labelled "middle-class" has become so broad that it both identifes everyone as belonging to this group of people therefore in effect removing all class systems. He additionally identifies two of his theories as "broad contentions"; one being the pastoral and the other being the frontier and the idea that the combination of the two concludes in a distictively middle class utopia of leisure. This basically means that by the American people percieving leisure as their Utopia they detatch themselves from work; work being labelled as one of the major signifiers of class.
Robert Seguin's study looks at the cultural context of the American middle-class during the modernist era; Seguin draws primarily from a Marxist and cultural understanding and study. The notion of middle-class is labelled as a fantasy one which is created by the reformulation of the past pastoral discourse that has ideological, material, and physical elements. The "updating or refunctioning" of such elements is what Seguin calls a middle-class space. This space suspends class itself, therefore creating "classlessness." In other words, there is no difference between being middle-class and being classless.
The article "the toil of labour" counters this arguement however depicting the view of the working man being a struggle, arduous and backbreaking. Work is something you do because you must but you loathe every minute of it, there is no reward other than the money which you need to survive, survival being the primary objective.
"we must adopt a dialectical perspective which analyzes class as a fluid process rather than a category with determinate content"
He identifies how a class labelled "middle-class" has become so broad that it both identifes everyone as belonging to this group of people therefore in effect removing all class systems. He additionally identifies two of his theories as "broad contentions"; one being the pastoral and the other being the frontier and the idea that the combination of the two concludes in a distictively middle class utopia of leisure. This basically means that by the American people percieving leisure as their Utopia they detatch themselves from work; work being labelled as one of the major signifiers of class.
Robert Seguin's study looks at the cultural context of the American middle-class during the modernist era; Seguin draws primarily from a Marxist and cultural understanding and study. The notion of middle-class is labelled as a fantasy one which is created by the reformulation of the past pastoral discourse that has ideological, material, and physical elements. The "updating or refunctioning" of such elements is what Seguin calls a middle-class space. This space suspends class itself, therefore creating "classlessness." In other words, there is no difference between being middle-class and being classless.
The article "the toil of labour" counters this arguement however depicting the view of the working man being a struggle, arduous and backbreaking. Work is something you do because you must but you loathe every minute of it, there is no reward other than the money which you need to survive, survival being the primary objective.
Tuesday, 2 March 2010
Christine on Seguin
The Review ‘Producing Middle classlessness’ by Amy L. Blair on Seguin’s article, at http://www.jstor.org/stable/30041934?seq=6 notes Seguin’s contended notion of ‘class as lifestyle’. Seguin finds the idea of middle-classlessness problematic in what he sees as a “symptomatic, unproductive, peculiarly ‘postmodern’ preoccupation with the consumerist element of class.” Blair expresses that middle classlessness is different to ‘classlessness’ as “it is not just a desire to weaken class structures but a utopian wish for the ‘felt elimination of these - a freedom from class altogether’”. Seguin thus proposes that once ‘class’ becomes synonymous with ‘lifestyle’ then anyone can conform towards a class society and therefore Seguin suggests in theory that the U.S becomes a ‘classless society’.
However, as noted by Blair Seguin’s most important interest is to emphasize that “class has not been treated with the kind of analytic power it deserves, and those who would downplay the material underpinnings of class risk adding to the suppression of the potential for class consciousness in American society”.
Dreiser’s extract of Toil of the Labourer contradicts Seguin’s notion of a classless society. In Dreiser’s view and experience he expresses how the labourer is constrained to his role as a manual worker. Usually worked hard, beyond his ability, Dreiser states “There is no provision made for the future of those who will be as tattered remnants when the things they laboured for have been accomplished”. With this negative opinion on the future of the working American, it contrasts Seguin’s optimistic look upon the collapse of class divide.
However, as noted by Blair Seguin’s most important interest is to emphasize that “class has not been treated with the kind of analytic power it deserves, and those who would downplay the material underpinnings of class risk adding to the suppression of the potential for class consciousness in American society”.
Dreiser’s extract of Toil of the Labourer contradicts Seguin’s notion of a classless society. In Dreiser’s view and experience he expresses how the labourer is constrained to his role as a manual worker. Usually worked hard, beyond his ability, Dreiser states “There is no provision made for the future of those who will be as tattered remnants when the things they laboured for have been accomplished”. With this negative opinion on the future of the working American, it contrasts Seguin’s optimistic look upon the collapse of class divide.
Jo on Seguin
Seguin "Around Quitting Time"
The review of Seguin's book "Around Quitting Time: Work and Middle Class Fantasy in American Fiction" I have chosen is :
Producing Middle Classlessness
* Amy L. Blair
* American Quarterly, Vol. 54, No. 2 (Jun., 2002), pp. 341-348
* Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press on JSTOR.
(I personally found Seguin's ideas very difficult to understand but hopefully the I have got the general idea in the following summary!)
Robert Seguin is of the Marxist school of thought and seeks to correct a postmodern preoccupation with consumer culture whereby class and lifestyle are intertwined - you are defined by what you desire, therefore in a truly American way of thinking anyone can participate in class identity, making the U.S. a classless society (in theory, at least!) Seguin sees that there are differences which are not purely material. Middle classness rather than classlessness. People are identified by the question, "What do you do?" To understand middle class functions Seguin cites 'quitting time' as the crux of this, a shifting and variable state between working and not working as work prepares to end and leisure prepares to start. (Seguin also quotes Andre Gorz who identifies modern leisure with being solitary, compared historically to it being a group activity). While he says that class is at heart about economics, he also says it is about time and this shifting time at that part of the day is one which could be possibly understood in future as important in a non-alienated relationship to labour.
Seguin explains that Dreiser positions Carrie's arrival in Chicago (a big American city at the start of rabid consumerism)at 'quitting time' shows American middle classness with a synthesis of frontier ideology of forward movement and dynamism and pastoralism, citing the text where the street lamps stretch out further and further to the prairie, which can also be read in reverse. Seguin suggests that the twilight time which Carrie arrives at of finishing work is interpenetrated with the approach of leisure - it is a moving, interconnectedness of all these things; what Seguin says of Dreiser as a 'utopian breathlessness' moment.
In "The Toil of the Labourer" Dreiser explains how hard work is artless and thoughtless. It is hard graft with a taskmaster foreman and paltry wages with no humanity, and even when he is made foreman himself he has a problem with equating his ideals with getting the job done or losing it. However, when the work is completed he could see 'that this lovely thing might be' - that all the trials and tribulations of hard graft made something beautiful. As he finishes work in the end, he exhibits that 'utopian breathlessness' at all the incredible sights of the city around but knows the labourers will not get to share it. Ultimately seeing the contrast of this, watching the Italian workers trudge wearily home, he decides he does not want to be a part of it. Both "Sister Carrie" and Dreiser's own labouring experience reflect the time where there is a certain excitement at the end of the day in this transitional period, but of a time when consumerism was coming to the fore but working roles, although changing, were clearly delineated.
Posted by Jo Wrigley at 11:55
The review of Seguin's book "Around Quitting Time: Work and Middle Class Fantasy in American Fiction" I have chosen is :
Producing Middle Classlessness
* Amy L. Blair
* American Quarterly, Vol. 54, No. 2 (Jun., 2002), pp. 341-348
* Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press on JSTOR.
(I personally found Seguin's ideas very difficult to understand but hopefully the I have got the general idea in the following summary!)
Robert Seguin is of the Marxist school of thought and seeks to correct a postmodern preoccupation with consumer culture whereby class and lifestyle are intertwined - you are defined by what you desire, therefore in a truly American way of thinking anyone can participate in class identity, making the U.S. a classless society (in theory, at least!) Seguin sees that there are differences which are not purely material. Middle classness rather than classlessness. People are identified by the question, "What do you do?" To understand middle class functions Seguin cites 'quitting time' as the crux of this, a shifting and variable state between working and not working as work prepares to end and leisure prepares to start. (Seguin also quotes Andre Gorz who identifies modern leisure with being solitary, compared historically to it being a group activity). While he says that class is at heart about economics, he also says it is about time and this shifting time at that part of the day is one which could be possibly understood in future as important in a non-alienated relationship to labour.
Seguin explains that Dreiser positions Carrie's arrival in Chicago (a big American city at the start of rabid consumerism)at 'quitting time' shows American middle classness with a synthesis of frontier ideology of forward movement and dynamism and pastoralism, citing the text where the street lamps stretch out further and further to the prairie, which can also be read in reverse. Seguin suggests that the twilight time which Carrie arrives at of finishing work is interpenetrated with the approach of leisure - it is a moving, interconnectedness of all these things; what Seguin says of Dreiser as a 'utopian breathlessness' moment.
In "The Toil of the Labourer" Dreiser explains how hard work is artless and thoughtless. It is hard graft with a taskmaster foreman and paltry wages with no humanity, and even when he is made foreman himself he has a problem with equating his ideals with getting the job done or losing it. However, when the work is completed he could see 'that this lovely thing might be' - that all the trials and tribulations of hard graft made something beautiful. As he finishes work in the end, he exhibits that 'utopian breathlessness' at all the incredible sights of the city around but knows the labourers will not get to share it. Ultimately seeing the contrast of this, watching the Italian workers trudge wearily home, he decides he does not want to be a part of it. Both "Sister Carrie" and Dreiser's own labouring experience reflect the time where there is a certain excitement at the end of the day in this transitional period, but of a time when consumerism was coming to the fore but working roles, although changing, were clearly delineated.
Posted by Jo Wrigley at 11:55
Sam on Seguin
Seguin and Toil of the Laborer
The review of Around Quitting Time I have found is from http://www.amazon.com/Around-Quitting-Time-Middle-Class-Americanists/dp/0822326701. This site gives two reviews from academics, and is aimed at people who are possibly contemplating buying the book.
Seguin aims to look at the notion of Middle-classness in the united states, and juxtaposes this with the notion that America is a classless society; on page 2 he argues "the term "middle class" itself in effect becomes synoymous with "classlessness", an ideologico-practical inhabitance of the world wherein class has been putatively superseded, or at least temporarily suspended".
Seguin aims to outline that although America views itself as a largely classless society, most Americans describle themselves as middle-class, therefore showing how America is imagined as an ideological utopia by its residents.
The extract of Dreiser's Toil Of the Laborer counters this, showing how the working man is exploited, overworked and underpaid. He describes from his own experiences how manual labour is hard and boring and meagerly rewarded; the worker, he says, is treated like a machine and pushed to his physical limits. He also shows from the perspective of a foreman how the hierarchy is so powerful; although he wishes to ease the lives of the laborers in his promoted role, there are many constraints from above, showing how the world of work involves taking orders from superiors, and in Drieser's experience, is unfulfilling.
Posted by sam123 at 11:53
The review of Around Quitting Time I have found is from http://www.amazon.com/Around-Quitting-Time-Middle-Class-Americanists/dp/0822326701. This site gives two reviews from academics, and is aimed at people who are possibly contemplating buying the book.
Seguin aims to look at the notion of Middle-classness in the united states, and juxtaposes this with the notion that America is a classless society; on page 2 he argues "the term "middle class" itself in effect becomes synoymous with "classlessness", an ideologico-practical inhabitance of the world wherein class has been putatively superseded, or at least temporarily suspended".
Seguin aims to outline that although America views itself as a largely classless society, most Americans describle themselves as middle-class, therefore showing how America is imagined as an ideological utopia by its residents.
The extract of Dreiser's Toil Of the Laborer counters this, showing how the working man is exploited, overworked and underpaid. He describes from his own experiences how manual labour is hard and boring and meagerly rewarded; the worker, he says, is treated like a machine and pushed to his physical limits. He also shows from the perspective of a foreman how the hierarchy is so powerful; although he wishes to ease the lives of the laborers in his promoted role, there are many constraints from above, showing how the world of work involves taking orders from superiors, and in Drieser's experience, is unfulfilling.
Posted by sam123 at 11:53
Rich on Seguin
As I am late to post, I really couldnt find anything that wasn't sam or Jo's reviews but instead everywhere i looked i got the sort of "synopsis/review" from the publisher-
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Around-Quitting-Time/Robert-Seguin/e/9780822326755
I thought Seguins first chapter was as the others have previously said much about the idea of class in America or more so the lack of classlessness. He is comparing the idea of middle class in America in which is hard to define as it has become a mutual understanding for Americans, from low paid workers to the higher end, the majority feel middle class. So in some ways this works out well and does suggest a somewhat classless society. But what is happening in fact is that America considers itself classless and almost utopian as it does not follow the class system as Europe does.
It tries to deny class in its society by cutting off from the aristocratic European ways but in fact builds a class system through captialism. He talks about how middle classness is rooted in the mainstream of everyday life- capitalism and also has strong feelings about the link between capital and time. i.e. how capital does not exist withough human's time and labour. He calls America's class struggles "violent" and this is due to its sheer capitalised society.
One point which was unclear to me was the reference to the frontier and pastorialism as i couldnt figure out if he was being literal, meaning the sort of city vs the rural, or more like cooperation vs the small business but i guess both views are quite similar metaphorically.
In regards to Sister Carrie he is very interested in detailed descriptions of the cities visual elements, just like the book is and the idea of how the city becomes a different place at night, more alive and somewhat enchanted. This links to Seguins reference to labour and time, as he is saying that the night time is to be admired as it is when the worker can explore the night and the city. This is the Utopian element.
Posted by richt53 at
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Around-Quitting-Time/Robert-Seguin/e/9780822326755
I thought Seguins first chapter was as the others have previously said much about the idea of class in America or more so the lack of classlessness. He is comparing the idea of middle class in America in which is hard to define as it has become a mutual understanding for Americans, from low paid workers to the higher end, the majority feel middle class. So in some ways this works out well and does suggest a somewhat classless society. But what is happening in fact is that America considers itself classless and almost utopian as it does not follow the class system as Europe does.
It tries to deny class in its society by cutting off from the aristocratic European ways but in fact builds a class system through captialism. He talks about how middle classness is rooted in the mainstream of everyday life- capitalism and also has strong feelings about the link between capital and time. i.e. how capital does not exist withough human's time and labour. He calls America's class struggles "violent" and this is due to its sheer capitalised society.
One point which was unclear to me was the reference to the frontier and pastorialism as i couldnt figure out if he was being literal, meaning the sort of city vs the rural, or more like cooperation vs the small business but i guess both views are quite similar metaphorically.
In regards to Sister Carrie he is very interested in detailed descriptions of the cities visual elements, just like the book is and the idea of how the city becomes a different place at night, more alive and somewhat enchanted. This links to Seguins reference to labour and time, as he is saying that the night time is to be admired as it is when the worker can explore the night and the city. This is the Utopian element.
Posted by richt53 at
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