Phase Four- Taking Stock and Moving Forward- Nightingale

I have been working with Nightingale all throughout these exercises and have grown very interested in her texts. I have now had several opportunities to look at her "Notes on Nursing" and "Notes on Matters" and would like to use these two texts in developing my final paper. Previously, I had tried to uncover her use of audience construction in these texts, but her texts contain such profound arguments and ideas about medicine of her time that I would like to turn my focus to other issues.

To find out more about the ideas and topoi of the time, in order to possibly develop a better understanding of Nightingale, I looked at a different text from the Classical Works in History of Medicine and Surgery collection, William Charles Wells' "An Account of a Female of the White Race of Mankind..."; This text, published in 1818, uses a comparison of the races to demonstrate that evolution of the human species exists, involving natural selection of the most favorable traits, or in other words, "survival of the fittest." His ideas coordinate with those of Darwin, but he came before Darwin's time. However, Darwin then published his famous ideas in the 1860s, right around the time that Nightingale wrote many of her texts. A question that came to mind was, would Nightingale support this theory of survival of the fittest, or would she be more likely to support that everyone has an equal opportunity to survive, as long as they take the proper measures necessary for good health. Would Nightingale say that we, not nature, decide our health and our survival? I thought it would be interesting to investigate how she would respond to these ideas since she was writing right in the midst of this time period.

Overall, I am still yet to uncover some of Nightingale's deeper and more significant beliefs about human health and good healthcare. Is the goal of her texts simply to pass on her knowledge in order to create a healthier society? Clearly her ideas were effective, judging by her lifespan, which was unusually long compared to others of her time (1820-1910, lived to be 90 years old). I would like to investigate all of these ideas in my final paper to find out how Nightingale's beliefs corresponded to other beliefs of the time, and to gain a better idea of why she wrote her texts in the first place.

Phase Four: Gordimer

I have been working with the Gordimer collection all along, and have developed a question that I would like to turn into my essay.  I wrote down three possible things to explore, and I will share them with you since you might have more feedback and may persuade me to change my mind. 

1. How did Gordimer affect/change apartheid in South Africa? 

This would involve a lot of historical research about how it was before she began writing and what it is like now.

2. How were Gordimer's writings about apartheid influenced by other South African writers?

She began so early that there must have been someone who influenced her as a writer

3. Which piece from Gordimer's collection most greatly influence her winning the Nobel laureate prize? Why was it so effective?

I feel a little iffy on this question, but it would be interesting to know if there was one particular work that stood out and why it did. I could gather critics essays on her as well. 

After talking briefly with Dr. Graban, I believe I will try to elaborate on question number two. Obviously Gordimer is a leader in the field of writing, but some of her early works were from when she was 12. Prodigy yes, but someone somewhere influenced her writing then, and I am sure now as well. I know this from the correspondence I found between her and another playwright in South Africa whose manuscripts are also in the Lilly. Fugard had a wife who was an actress who performed in many plays about apartheid as well. They were not merely acquaintances but good friends--which you can see from the letters. She thoroughly enjoyed his work, and was equally upset when it was not given the attention she believed it deserved. She wrote one play that I read, and wonder if this was influenced by the playwright. 

Gordimer also wrote (for a class I believe) about all the things she read in a particular year. She was quite young and read  many things. She rated them, and I think it would be interesting to take a look at what she was reading. Maybe those are the clues to how she was influenced, and to also see if she had any types of relationships with those authors as well. 

*Gordimer is still alive and when this is all over I am writing her and telling her about it!

Phase Four: Hapgood

For my archival research project, I have decided to utilize Hapgood's work over the Sacco-Vanzetti trial. Though only two chapters of "No Tears for My Youth" are on hand, she explores a tremendously wide variety of ideas that extend beyond the trial. Some of the things that I feel would be most interesting for me to concentrate on in my paper would be the stance that she takes while she presents the information and how she positions herself to be a persuasive author while still presenting the facts. Also, I feel that really looking into her version of what "crime" really means would be a very interesting topic to explore. I feel that this woul be interesting because of the fact that the Sacco-Vanzetti case is so controversial and it seems that their guilty verdict depended mostly on their immigrant, poor status rather than their actual guilt. I think that exploring the class systems and what those social standings infer during that time period could be very enlightening.

Some of the sources that I found that are directly related to the case include: The Case that Will Not Die by Herbert B. Ehrmann and The Untried Case by William G. Thompson. I am having trouble deciding what lens I could use to really discuss these details in depth. I could possibly utilize Ong to discuss how Hapgood fictionalizes her audience as she takes positions on certain subjects. I'm not sure if Addams or Harper would be beneficial or not, but I could possibly incorporate them as well? I also found an article on JStore called "Social Hierarchy and the Death Penalty: A social Dominance Perspective" by Michael Mitchell and Jim Sidanius. This article looks into the social aspects of why individuals are put to death at a higher rate than in other areas. I feel like this could be an interesting attribute to my paper.

Phase Four: Answers in Nightingale

For the purpose of the final paper I have decided to work with Nightingale's "Notes on Matters" and "Notes on Nursing", suplimented by our Anthology and a few other sources through the Lilly. Throughout the semester I have stuck with Nightingale's texts as I always was left wanting to read more about her findings and the accomplishments and respect she gained during her years as a nurse, this curiosity has also left me with some burning questions which I would like to get to the bottom of-in steps my paper. The primary question I hope to find answers to through the paper is, "What made Nightingale such a force to be reckoned with that Generals and other very important men of the time saught her out and listened to her suggestions?" Women still were not looked on as all that capable at that time, yet these men saught after her advice and took it readily, producing models after her ideas and findings.

In order to investigate this question I hope, through further exaimination of her texts and those secondary texts available I can acquire a good background understanding of where Nightingale came from, why she (of all people) would be asked to overhaul the military hospitals, and get the larger picture of the common medical beliefs of the time through pictures, texts and diagrams.

The main points I hope to address would include a short background of where Nightingale came from, the history of how she came to be a nurse, what accomplishments she made in order to be saught after by military officials, and perhaps delve into what made her do what she did (or find what made her "tick" so to speak).

Phase Four: Mulock-Craik in Conversation with Barlee

I have chosen to investigate Dinah Maria Mulock-Craik's A Woman's Thoughts about Women. Her view of the importance of the self-dependence and education of women for personal enlightenment and social advancement greatly intrigues me. I have also chosen to put part of Ellen Barlee's Friendless and Helpless in conversation with my primary text. I believe that Barlee will offer insight into the flaws of women's education and employment.

Some critical questions that the text has led me to ask are: How is the commitment to oneself, commitment to the community, and commitment to God related? How does the education of women affect their self-reliance? According to Mulock-Craik and Barlee, what are the components of a proper and practical education for women? I believe some of my main points will be how Mulock-Craik's concepts of women's education and independence disrupt the status quo and complicate the subject of gender.

Both Mulock-Craik and Barlee rely on Biblical references to disrupt constructions of the complete subservience or the complete equality of men and women. They focus on more of the notion that men and women were made for each other, rather than exactly like each other or one subservient to the other. I would like to further explore the importance of this balance in Mulock-Craik's definition of a self-reliant woman.

As for secondary sources, I have explored the possibility of using Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor. The Reading Room attendant could only find a more recent, edited version called Mayhew's London which has excerpts from London Labour and the London Poor. It offers excellent insight into the education-based reasons for the prevalence of poverty, but I would have to explore this text further before deciding on its place in my final investigation.

Mulock-Craik makes frequent use of "feminine style," especially in the concepts of empowerment, consciousness-raising, and arguments from expediency. I believe that Campbell's "Man Cannot Speak for Her" will prove useful as the primary lens in my investigation. I am also considering using Killingsworth's "Appeals to Time" and Ong's "The Writer's Audience Is Always a Fiction."

Phase Four: Taking Stock and Moving Forward-- Haldeman

During our time in the Lily, I've had the chance to look at a lot of the materials for Sarah Haldeman. The driving force behind the tasks I completed involved questions about "industrial education" for women during the early 1900s. For the final paper, I intend to further investigate what "industrial education" for women at this time really meant and what role Haldeman really played in this education. 

Many of the letters that I found in this collection will help me with this task. What I find particularly interesting is the dissonance of the values seen the letters that Haldeman received from various girls' schools and the letter she received from her mother. The letters from the different schools expounded on the way the girls learned how to cook, iron, sew, decorate, etc. All of these letters seemed to be giving Haldeman advice for how to structure the curriculum of her own school. The values seen here seem to vary drastically from the values seen in the letter from her mother. Mrs. Addams praised Haldeman for the way she raised her daughter, Marcet. However, this praise did not come for Marcet's housekeeping abilities but more for her intelligence-- as seen with the compliments Addams gives concerning the girl's letter writing skills.

Major questions I would like to investigate: What do the letters from the school imply about what industrial education was? How do the values differ from Haldeman's values? How did Haldeman receive the suggestions for her school's curriculum? Based on the dissonance seen between the letters, what role did Haldeman play in regard to this education? What did industrial education mean to Haldeman?

In addition to the information I found in the letters, I would like to find the following things:

-More models of the different schools, perhaps including what happened with Haldeman's school and if Haldeman actually took the other schools' advice

-Information concerning Haldeman's role in society (especially as a banker) and how that might effect the way she intended to teach girls / her own daughter and what she believed "industrial education" was.

Phase Four: Mulock-Craik

I have been studying Mulock-Craik’s book, A Woman’s Thoughts about Women, and I am interested in how the book works within the model of “womanly” rhetoric as well as how Mulock-Craik invites audience participation.

When I looked at the preface through the lens of Campbell’s essay Man Cannot Speak For Her, I found examples of the balance that Mulock-Craik had to find between her rhetorical aims and her feminine positions. As an author in general, was Mulock-Craik successful in maintaining this balance? I would like to research some biographical information about her as well as some critiques or reviews of her work to help answer this question.

Another aspect of feminine rhetoric is inviting audience participation. How does Mulock-Craik invite readers to participate and interact with her ideas? Who is her intended audience? Much of her writing seems to be directed toward women, but she also appeals to men. She says that her thoughts are not original and that many women have had similar thoughts. How does she appeal to readers who already agree with her views and to readers who disagree with them? I will use Ong’s essay about audience construction to analyze how Mulock-Craik constructs her audience.

I looked at another work by Mulock-Craik to try to get another view of her writing. I looked at One Year: A Child’s Book, In Prose and Verse. The book is divided into twelve sections, one for each month, and there are illustrations. There are three stories in each section, and the third story in each is a description of the typical activities in the childhood of the author and two other children. Throughout the narration of these descriptions, Mulock-Craik uses first and second person in order to establish a dialogue with the reader. I was only able to skim through the descriptions of her year, but I saw some themes that relate to A Woman’s Thoughts about Women, such as the importance of being self-dependent and of being a good Christian.

At the end of her preface in A Woman’s Thoughts about Women, Mulock-Craik says that she is sure that her book will have a good effect. I wonder if there is some way for me to get an idea of what effect her book had at the time she wrote it. Through historical British newspapers and other online resources, I hope to find references to her book to help me better understand what effect her audience construction and feminine positioning may have had on society’s response to her writings.