- TOPIC: SPACE, PLACE, THRESHOLDS/TRANSITIONS, PATHWAY
- DE
CERTEAU and the definition of what space and place is: space is defined the
bodies inside
Frontiers here act as the transitional space where it
eventually stabilizes and turns into an official place. A place is something
that is stable. The people there act specifically and according to.
- EXPANSION TO THE WEST
-DIFFERENT
PLACES. HOMES. SCENES.PEOPLE HE MEETS/THEIR BACKGROUNDS.
-HOW SPACE ALWAYS CHANGES. A STANDING THRESHOLD. DEPENDING
HOW PEOPLE USE THIS AREA?
WHAT IS A TRUE THRESHOLD? WHAT ARE THE THRESHOLDS IN TRAIN
DREAMS? HOW ARE THE PEOPLE IN GRANIER'S TRAVELS INVOLVED WITH THRESHOLDS?
WHAT IS SPACE? WHAT IS
PLACE? HOW IS EACH AREA DEFINED AS PLACE/SPACE?
-DOES A CHANGING SPACE CATEGORIZE AS A THRESHOLD?
-
Minor Questions - How did they build the
western expansion? How/Why did they choose the pathway? How do pathways cross?
-
How were the people affected? How did they change the space they occupied?
-
WEST meets EAST. transitional/Moving
systems are the thresholds.
-
Moving systems act consciously creates a place
-Train Dreams. Spatial Stories. How the West expanded. How
things change. The historical lost of each space.
-HOW
DOES SPACE MAKE PEOPLE BEHAVE? - Forced to interact and cooperate to create
this railroad.
- How
does the hardship during the western expansion affect the personal life of
Robert Granier and how does this draw
connections to space and place?
- PATHWAYS/THRESHOLDS.
AREAS THAT ARE CLEARED EX FOREST. (For the purpose of building a path to connect to the ends
together)
- Manifest Destiny -
"That westward expansion was greatly aided by the
completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, and passage of the
Homestead Act in 1862. That act provided free 160-acre lots in the unsettled
West to anyone who would file a claim, live on the land for five years and make
improvements to it, including building a dwelling."
-THE CULTURAL ASPECTS - Racism. DID IT AFFECT THE
SPACE/PLACE
-Juxtaposition to show analysis. (Small stories) The man and
the dog. Granier and land. Etc.
-Story progression
-The
American Dream and Western Expansion
-His own
dreams. The spaces created.
-Other specific moments...
I think it would be interesting if you could mark out the major thresholds that change Grainier's life throughout his journey, supported by minor thresholds. You could also think about the "conceptual thresholds". For instance when he lost his family, such events that completely changed his life. But your outline looks super detailed and interesting so far!
ReplyDeleteI think Ann's is a good suggestion and you might think about the way threshold is defined in terms of "boundaries" and "frontier" in the way de Certeau describes. This might give you a clearer way into the question of how our our own spatial experience is established or transgressed (or even made less clear) as an effect of the (fictional) story of Granier and his journey as set in the historical past.
ReplyDeleteIt might be useful to consider how the book works as narrative, whether the time-space of the book is linear or not, and whether Granier's limited self-knowledge informs our understanding the various boundaries or thresholds that mark his lived experience and define his space in the world.
Ann's idea to think about "conceptual" thresholds is a very good idea--and you should focus on each event or "micro story" that choose to look at as a site of close reading--analyzing how the stories connect, create patterns, and otherwise function in the larger narrative of the book. How do these stories establish, reframe, or transgress the frontier (as a space of meeting and difference in the way de Certeau suggests): the frontier of self (defined by other), of home (defined by its exterior), of life (defined by death), of humanity (defined by animal), the domesticated space of man and family (defined by its suggestion of safety from the forces of natural destruction [and regrowth]), and the rational space of railroads and technological advancement, cities and towns (versus the non rational space of legends and stories, untamed forrest, wolf girls, the man shot by a dog, and trees that topple onto men at work logging in the forest.) Bodies and boundaries become undone in these spaces and actions, and that is what makes your focus compelling. You may need to reframe your questions--perhaps in outline format as you gather evidence and group it into potential paragraphs--in order to better clarify the path of your writing and ground it as much as possible in the analysis of you primary textual details and your use of critical sources.
A good start.
Nice start.
I think your focus on change and movement as a defining element of space is worth pushing a bit further. What exactly do you mean that "movement systems" function as threshold? What is the affect of mobility and movement on the way we inhabit delimited space? How does it change our understanding of space and its thresholds as already defined--how does it create a sense of self as docile body or as spatial author? How are boundaries made porous, fuid, shifty?
Certainly the well-defined threshold between self and "other" that we so see clearly enunciated in Grainer's spur-of-the moment decision to help murder a Chinese worker at the beginning of the book is challenged as the action develops, and he begins to imagine him everywhere, believing that his fate has been tied to the wills of the man they assaulted.
You might consider the temporal or even technological threshold that Granier's life spans, how it develops both a connection and disconnection to our own moment in space and time and informs (or not) our current definition of space as its lived in the everyday.
I suggest gathering concrete quotes from Train Dreams to begin focusing your paragraphs and organizing your argument based on how you can group and analyze the details of the text.