Cultural Context to "The Yellow Wallpaper"

Published in 1892, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" predates Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own by over 35 years, and, unlike Woolf's British text, takes place in America. What historical, national and cultural conditions might help us understand the broader context that Gilman was living and writing in? To help you explore answers to some of these questions, I've posted a few resources below.

• "Why I Wrote 'The Yellow Wallpaper'": Here you'll find Gilman's own response to the "elephant in the room" question, especially given her own personal experience at the hand of mental health "professionals" like S. Weir Mitchell (mentioned in the story).
  
• What's going on in art? For a sense of how women are being represented in late 19th-century American art, check out The University of Virginia's American Culture pages on this very topic. You'll have to scroll down to the bottom to get to links to other related topics like women & domesticity, women in literature, etc.
• What is a "nervous disorder" anyway? At the turn of the 20th century, a condition called neurasthenia was determined to be the root cause to many cases of anxiety and depression, especially in the U.S. and especially for women. The actual medical validity behind such cases, however, was often suspect, creating instead what some have called a "culture of neurasthenia" in which women were often portrayed in nervous, weakened states. Women said to suffer from such conditions were many times prescribed rest cures or periods of severely restricted activity: no reading, no exercise, no sewing, reduced diet, strict bed rest, etc. The American Journal of Psychiatry has a helpful article, "The Rest Cure Revisited," explaining the history behind the supposed "cure" and the physician responsible for its use, S. Weir Mitchell (the same doctor Gilman references in her story, one she was herself treated by).
• Where was the story originally published and what did it look like? For links to images of the original pages from The New England Magazine, see Cornell's Making of America website. The image you see above was included in the initial publication.
  

Reading Questions - A Room of One's Own

Use the following questions as (optional) guides for reading and reflecting on Chapters 3 and 4 of A Room of One's Own.

• Who is Judith Shakespeare, and why is she so significant to Woolf's argument?
• What do you learn about the history of women writers in Chapters 3 and 4?
• What does Woolf seem to suggest about the importance of rooms? What sorts of rooms does she discuss?
• At the conclusion of Chapter 3, Woolf addresses the college women in her "audience," remarking that they have "got [them]selves to college and enjoy sitting rooms--or is it bed-sitting rooms--of [their] own" (56). As women in college, what are your reactions to Woolf's ideas about the importance of having rooms of your own? What are your own relationships to your dorm rooms, bedrooms, or campus study rooms? What effect do these spaces have on your mind?
  

Did I really post that early??

For those of you who haven't already figured out how to change the default time stamp on your blog (one that is set to West Coast time), go to Settings/Formatting (from the Customization screen where you can edit your blog) and select "Eastern Time Zone" from the drop down menu. All posts will automatically reset to our time zone after this.

Lecture of Interest - 1/28

The Aquinas lecture will take place next Wednesday evening, January 28th at 7:00 in the Student Center Lounge. Fr. John Jenkins will be speaking, and the title of the talk is "Faith, Inquiry, and Community." The talk will focus on the legacy of Aquinas as it relates to the challenges of 21st-century Catholic colleges, a topic that holds distinct relevance for students and faculty of Saint Mary's College. Please consider attending and blogging about your reactions to the talk (in lieu of a regular, class-related blog entry).

A blog of one's own?

As you read Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own and begin to consider her argument that "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction" (4), take a look at this blog post, "Blogs as Literary Devices," in which Paula Maggio links the freedom and empowerment of the blogosphere to Woolf's "room." Would you agree? Do you think blogs are an extension of Woolf's vision or something different?

For some historical context, check out this brief article, "Sisters of Suffrage: British and American Women Fight for the Vote," by Barbara Winslow from the online journal History Now. It sheds light on the moment in Woolf's text in which the narrator contemplates which is more important--the vote or the money--to women's intellectual independence (37). What were your responses at this point in the reading?

To blog or not to blog...or "What is a blog & why should I care?"

A blog (short for web-log) has many functions...and faces. We'll be discussing its definition in class on Tuesday, but there are two main benefits of using blogs -- particularly in classroom settings:
1. They are user friendly (no need to know programming languages).
2. Blogs encourage and support user interaction through the commenting feature--something you'll be using a lot in this class.

For class on Tuesday, I'd like you to do a little blog surfing on the internet. Using the links below, you'll notice blogs come in a variety of forms. There are personal blogs, professional blogs, community blogs, political blogs and educational blogs that range from musings on fashion to travels abroad to who should be the next president. Come to class ready to discuss features you feel are essential to what makes a blog different from a regular webpage, a chat room, a discussion board, Blackboard or even something like MySpace or Facebook.

To begin, you might want to check out the definition offered by Wikipedia (we'll be talking more about wikis later in the term). Also useful is an article, "What We're Doing When We Blog," written by blogger co-creator, Meg Hourihan. If you'd like to check out some sample blogs, try looking through the blogs listed on BloggerBuzz (see "blogs of note" on the right hand side) or on a site called technorati that keeps a list of the top 100 blogs. Also check out Google's blog search to find more that interest you.


Enjoy!

Discussion Groundrules

Below you'll find a list of discussion guidelines devised by Sections 3 and 4 of Lives and Times (Spring 2009). We'll use these throughout the semester to ensure that our class discussions are as respectful, vibrant, and thoughtful as possible.

DOs

• Ask questions....questions are where our best, most sophisticated ideas begin.
• Let people finish their comments and thoughts
• Recognize that everyone has their own point of view, and you may have a different one.
• Learn that revising your perspective or reading is ok, as is staying true to your initial instinct.
• Be prepared: have evidence to support your points, ask questions, come to class having read actively (close reading) and thought about what you might want to say.
  
• Try to use eye contact and other forms of feedback (nodding, smiling) to engage with the student who is talking
• Encourage each other by asking follow-up questions
• Step up and mediate between two students if a discussion "disagreement" arises, try to show them how they might be saying similar things or help them understand each other
  

DON'Ts

• Allow one person to run/dominate a discussion (all voices are crucial!)
• Hold back...everyone's POV is important.
• Suggest that someone's idea is invalid, wrong, or (even worse) stupid
• Interrupt, laugh, make faces or provide other disrespectful forms of feedback
• Repeat. Strive, instead, to build on the previous comment and make connections.
  
• Get angry/emotional. Use evidence to keep discussions about the ideas, and recognize that difference of opinion is what allows us to learn from one another.
  

Welcome!

Welcome to the Lives and Times blog for the Spring 2009 semester. You will receive detailed directions in class explaining how to sign up for your own blog through Google's blogging platform, blogger. You will also have the opportunity to learn more about blogs--what they are, who writes them, what power they have, how they can help you in college--soon with some online readings and in-class discussion.