Year: 2020
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Drawing on Svetlana Boym's theory on restorative and reflective nostalgia, this thesis investigates how the emotion relates to Harper Lee's classic.The thesis is divided into two main parts: the first part discusses the function of nostalgia in the reception of the book, while the second part focuses on the use of nostalgia as a literary device within the book.The thesis argues that the nostalgia of the reception is restorative, and the nostalgia within the book is reflective.While nostalgia and collective memory studies make up the theoretical framework of the thesis, other influences are critical race theory -especially whiteness studies -and reception theory, and the thesis is informed to a great extent by historical context.vi vii 1 Aaron Blake, "Hillary Clinton Takes Her 'Deplorables' Argument for Another Spin," The Fix, Washington Post, March 13, 2018. 2 Blake, "Hillary Clinton." 3 Stacy Denton, "Nostalgia, Class and Rurality in 'Empire Falls,'" Journal of American Studies 45, no. 3 (2011): 503. 4 Sarah Smarsh, "Liberal Blind Spots Are Hiding the Truth About 'Trump Country,'" Opinion, New York Times, July 19, 2018.5 Smarsh, "Liberal Blind Spots." 6 Smarsh, "Liberal Blind Spots."7 Smarsh, "Liberal Blind Spots." 8 "President Obama and Marilynne Robinson: A Conversation -II," New York Review of Books, November 19, 2015.9 Svetlana Boym, "Nostalgia and Its Discontents," Hedgehog Review 9, no. 2 (2007): 10. 10 Boym, "Nostalgia and Its Discontents," 7. 11 Casey Cep, "The Contested Legacy of Atticus Finch," New Yorker, December 10, 2018.Brown's apartment, she found herself longing for home.Or, she thought she did.Looking back on it a couple of years later, she wrote: What I really missed, was a memory, an old memory of people long since gone, of my grandparents' house bursting with cousins, smilax and holly.I missed the sound of hunting boots, the sudden open-door gusts of chilly air that cut through the aroma of pine needles and oyster dressing.I missed my brother's nightbefore-Christmas mask of rectitude and my father's bumblebee bass humming Joy To The World. 15It was nostalgic memories like these that inspired Nelle to write her stories.She had shown some of them to the Browns, who found them delightful and encouraged her to continue.Yet, finding time to do so was hard.She barely had time as it was.That Christmas, Nelle did not have high expectations.They had all agreed in advance that they would limit their presents to "pennies and wits" -Christmas was for children, after all.16 When she came downstairs on Christmas morning, however, there was an envelope on the tree with her name on it.Inside it was a note: "You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please," it read, "Merry Christmas."17 After objecting profusely, Nelle finally accepted this "act of love," as she called it, and vowed to do her best not to fail them.18 Arguably, no author has come through on a promise like Harper Lee did.When Mockingbird was published four years later, it became an immediate success.Within a year of its publication, it had sold a half million copies, been translated into ten languages, and landed Lee the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.19 In 1962 the story made its way to the silver screen, famously starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch, the hero of the story.The film won two Golden Globe awards, three Academy awards, and grossed more than 13 million dollars, which would be a 100 million in today's money.20 By 2016, the year Lee died, the book had sold over 40 million copies and been translated into over 40 languages.21 In comparison, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has sold 15 Lee, "Christmas to Me." 16 Lee, "Christmas to Me." 17 Lee, "Christmas to Me." 18 Lee, "Christmas to Me." 19
Author: Tveit, Andrea Søgnen
Institution: University of Oslo
Language: English
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3207132825