Hi all!
I will be focusing on frontier romance which is a sub genre within the novel category. I am going to be honest, I knew absolutely nothing about this sub genre before this class. We will both we learning something new. From the research that I have done so far, I came to the conclusion that frontier romance talks specifically about the romanticized version of a country’s history. It can also focus on the positive aspects of land rather than the negative.
I had a hard time researching this sub genre. There were a lot of sources on MLA that popped up however it was hard figuring out which ones to use. I also realized that just because they have the words of my sub genre does not mean they talk or address it. For example "'Wild' Women: Interracial Romance on the Western Frontier" talks about interracial love which does not have anything to do with frontier romance. Thanks to Professor Burnham I was able to find some awesome sources.
I had a hard time researching this sub genre. There were a lot of sources on MLA that popped up however it was hard figuring out which ones to use. I also realized that just because they have the words of my sub genre does not mean they talk or address it. For example "'Wild' Women: Interracial Romance on the Western Frontier" talks about interracial love which does not have anything to do with frontier romance. Thanks to Professor Burnham I was able to find some awesome sources.
A source I found solely focused on settling in America. Let’s ask ourselves thing, What was America before we settled here? When we are in elementary school our educational system begins to teach us that the settlers helped the Native American become what they are today. They gave permission to do whatever the settlers felt needed to be done. It is later in our education when we learn about what truly happens. The settlers came here to help the Native Savages, they look land without permission among many other things. Without the settlers the Native Americans would still be “backwards”. All the murders that happened, all of the evil crimes that we committed by the settlers will never be acknowledged in these novels. An example of this that people may have seen is Pocahontas, although it is a movie it still shared similar characteristics that a frontier romance novel has. What happens in this movie is far from what truly happened.
(I decided to reference to Pocahontas because most of us have heard about the movie rather than my source "Desert, Garden, Margin, Range: Literature on the American Frontier")
It also focuses on the beauty of land specifically what they can produce. Another source I found praised the idea of slavery because of what they were able to produce. It did not acknowledge the fact that slaves were considered property and that most slaves were beaten or killed if they did something wrong.
I am excited to continue researching this sub genre. I want to be able to understand why people feel it is okay to overlook the terrible things society allowed to happen. I am also curious to understand why they focus on certain periods in history.
Why do you think these historical stories are so romanticized? What is the purpose of the genre? Also besides the film adaptation of Pocahontas, what other specific examples are there?
ReplyDeleteIt might be interesting to look at how the perception of this genre has changed over time. You mentioned how as our education evolves, so does our understanding of the history of our country so you might want to tie this into interpretations of texts and how perhaps reception might be different should a historical knowledge be present.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like a really essential part of frontier romance is the author. I would assume that if this type of literature involves the romanticizing and cleansing of history, it would be typically be written by those in power. I'm curious to know, as time has gone on, have the marginalized groups in these histories taken part in rewriting their histories? In other words have the marginalized and ignored groups been a part of creating content in this genre as time has passed?
ReplyDeleteIt seems like this genre focuses on romanticizing the horrors of our nation's history. I never knew that the Disney movie "Pocahontas" was considered a Frontier Romance and fell under this unfortunate genre. I am curious to know if there is more to this subgenre than romanticizing the violence against marginalized groups in America's history. Is this subgenre only limited to America? Has there been recent work published under this subgenre? If so, how does it differ from the works published in the past?
ReplyDeleteAfter I analyzed some primary sources I learned that frontier romance does not just focus on the negative. The Last of the Mohicans really looks at both parties, the British and Native Americans. Although the British did terrible things so did the Native Americans. I understand that it was a fight for control but it makes you realize that neither side is innocent. I also think the author has a lot do to with frontier romance, the story is written in her perspective. Regardless of who the author is I feel their beliefs are always in their writing. We have frontier romance because it allows people to move on from terrible things, they rather look forward.
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