Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature II
Session Coordinator: David D. Anderson

Navigating the Mainstream

The term “mainstream” frequently arises in discussions of the literary heritage of the United States, particularly when those discussions focus on what works deserve particular attention in the curriculum. This paper considers the term as a geographic metaphor and the Mississippi Rivers as its literal level. In this light, mainstream literature in the United States is the literature of the Mississippi River.

Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the best known novel, but the literature of the Mississippi River is multi-genre and multi-ethnic, ranging from works by European explorers to the autobiography of Sauk elder Black Hawk, and more recently, to poetry and fiction by Rita Dove, Ernest Gaines, Walker Percy, and Lee Smith.

Jean Toomer’s poem “Brown River, Smile” questions why, given the multi-faceted importance of the Mississippi, it does not function in the United States in any way equivalent to the role of the Ganges as a cultural symbol. In Toomer’s words, the Mississippi “Is waiting to become! In the spirit of America, a sacred river.” Those who see in the spiritual potential of the river, the poem goes on to assert, may realize benefits for us all: “Whoever lifts the Mississippi / Lifts himself and all America.” By looking at representative literary works, this paper embarks on the task Toomer has defined.

Margaret Rozga
Univ. of Wisconsin-Waukesha

The River Myth in Sherwood Anderson's Works

There are two Sherwood Anderson novels in which rivers figure very prominently: "Poor White" (1920) and "Dark Laughter" ( 1925).  In the first, Hugh McVey seems to represent a Huckleberry Finn-figure, unconsciously one with nature and living in a realm apart from society in a mode of adolescent irresponsibility, on the banks of the Mississippi.  As in later life Hugh makes his way in the industrial town of Bidwell, Ohio, he tries to leave behind the memory of unconscious river life only to discover in the end that niether a denial of the primitive/unconscious nor an inert submersion in it do justice to human nature, which hangs in the balance between conscious/civilized and unconscious/primitive.  In "Poor White," it seems we find a call for America to find that balance--a call for Huck Finn to be socialized and yet still remain Huck Finn. 

In "Dark Laughter," Bruce Dudley seems to represent more of a Tom Sawyer-figure: an intellectual romantic, he consciously and inspired by literary models (Mark Twain, of course) attempts to float away, on various water-vehicles down the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, from the civilization he has come to hate in Chicago.  His quest is not entirely successful--while in New Orleans, Bruce discovers an increasing freedom from "hurry," but he remains apart from the African American community which, in his eyes, lives a more spontaneous and natural life than white society.  Back in his native town of Old Harbor, Indiana, Bruce discovers that the Ohio River is dead (the railroad has killed the old river life), and he himself participates in that "death" as he is employed in the industrial world that has killed a more "natural" civilization.  Primeval memories of his mother are intimately associated with the Ohio, and eventually, it is Woman in the person of his employer's wife, Aline, who leads him back to nature, first as her gardener, then as her lover.  As the two lovers defy convention and run away together, they become identified with the river--again, the river represents America's primeval soul that needs to be revived amidst a crushingly nnatural civilization. In "Poor White," Huck Finn battles to retain the core of his identity even as he is civilzed; in "Dark Laughter," Tom Sawyer must gradually learn to decivilize and become more like Huck.

Mark Buechsel
Baylor University

Exploring the Limberlost Swamp: Gene Stratton-Porter’s Camera Domestica

Bob Mellin
Purdue Univ.

Saving the Swamp and Beyond: Gene Stratton-Porter as Conservationist

Gene Stratton-Porter’s earliest writing included columns for photography magazines, for which she lugged cameras into the depths of the Limberlost swamp in east central Indiana around the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century. The first of her best-known novels, Freckles (!904) describes the harvesting of the great hardwoods from that swamp, and in its sequel, A Girl of the Limberlost (1909), the narrator mourns the loss of that habitat, not only for its beauty, but also for its role in maintaining the ecosystem. In her nonfiction works, conservation played a role, as well. In Tales You Won’t Believe (1925), she records the demise of the Limberlost and gives that as a reason for her move north to Sylvan Lake in Noble County. There, she struggled against other property owners to maintain lake levels and set herself the task of gathering native plants to grow safely on her property. Therefore, it should be no surprise that conservation of forests, swamps, rivers, and lakes have a part in her best-known as well as her minor works. Articles in more magazines, notably the Izaac Walton League Monthly, affirmed her support for conservation of lakes and rivers. In 1923, in one of a long series of articles in McCall’s, she wrote an article titled, “Shall We Save Natural Beauty?” There, she theorizes that preserving forests and planting trees will help maintain rainfall and water levels.

Porter’s zeal to reform did not end with her environmental concerns. She became an advocate for women, children, and the sanctity of the family. She opposed alcoholism, pornography, and corsets. She urged women to take advantage of their right to vote, and protested unreasonable censorship of films. To the end of her life, however, she remained a lover of nature in all of its manifestations, beginning with her ventures into the Limberlost.

Mary DeJong Obuchowski
Central Michigan University