Sociolinguistic Style of Sydney Owenson's Writing and Iconic Realism

Plaque commemorating Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan)

on Kildare Street, Dublin, Ireland

From both my second book and an ACIS Mid-Atlantic/New England Regional Conference presentation:

Iconic realism is the placement of a realistic and iconic figure juxtaposed to another realistic iconic example to enlighten an audience of the need for cultural transformation. Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan) uses her personal experience and historical research to demonstrate revolutionary rhetoric through application of character role reversals, class discrepancies, and linguistic variations, all of which illustrate the need for societal transformation within various regions of nineteenth-century Ireland. 

For example, in the preface of her essay entitled, Absenteeism, she highlights the need for both the English and the Irish to be mindful of their patriotic responsibilities: 

“Notwithstanding the intense interest which is felt throughout all England concerning Ireland and Irish affairs, notwithstanding the frequent debates in parliament, and more frequent pamphlets and volumes published on points of Irish politics and economy, the prevailing ignorance on these subjects still operates powerfully in maintaining prejudices the most unfounded and the most fatal, and in retarding those measures of wisdom and of justice without which Ireland can never be happy; or the British Empire secure.” (Absenteeism pp. ix, x)

In this statement, Owenson demonstrates the commonality between the authority, England, and the respective community of Ireland, as she begins with the phrase, ‘notwithstanding the intense interest which is felt…’ She engages in the assertive use of negative phraseology linked with a deferential passive voice to unite the divergent intentions of England and Ireland. 

Her decision to carefully select the grammatical configuration of passive voice hints at her concern over absenteeism and indicates that she is stepping back to show respect for authority while she remains specific in her focus on the negative effect that this course of action has on the Irish citizenry.  She concludes this paragraph with a series of negative phrases that focus on the dire consequences if both Ireland and England do not consider the elimination of cultural bias. 

Through her sociolinguistic style of including Irish language and political tones with her enlightening observations of the English treatment of the Irish, she creates a sense of balance in a revolutionary manner that clashes with various societal levels, using iconic realism to juxtapose history with societal expression to bring about an awareness of the need for societal cohesion. 

Benny Goodman Live at Carnegie Hall, 1938 and Iconic Realism (Click onto title to hear the performance.) I'll just bet you can't sit still whilst listening to this!

(Photograph info: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic-art/243118/72265/Benny Goodman-and-members-of-his-band-1938) 

Benny Goodman and his orchestra appearing on the stage of Carnegie Hall in New York City in 1938 illustrates the theory of iconic realism. Never before had the art of jazz in America been performed in an established musical forum, where previous to this performance, only classical music had been performed. The presence of this jazz artist on this particular stage enlightened the world audience of the need for cultural affirmation of this art form. From this moment onward to the present, jazz has taken its place of honor as America's original musical genre. 

Dante Alighieri's "Paradiso" and Iconic Realism

Photo from Google Images

http://kidslink.bo.cnr.it/ic6-bo/scuolainospedale/num6-2/divcom/Image8.jpg

Dante Alighieri's final book of The Divine Comedy is Paradiso. In this book, he demonstrates the theory of iconic realism in this way:  

1.  He aligns the spirit of the beloved Beatrice with the true wisdom of God.

2.  He simultaneously illustrates the need for humanity to acknowledge the glorious virtues found within the parameters of human interaction. 

3.  He illustrates that by the human being choosing right action, he could experience a form of Paradiso.

In CANTO IV, lines 28-39: The souls exist as projections of their truest light, the light that shines directly from God, which is their 'true home' whereas in lines 72-81, what the Pilgrim cannot learn directly must be taught him through a suffering analogy involving the senses, human physiological experience. This contradicts the earlier lines that indicate truth as intangible and experienced only through one's own enlightenment from God. 

The human's personal will can enjoy freedom to move of his own accord; he can act in response to the intensity of individual motivation. When perfect, Divine balance exists between two motives, and the will could feel deprived of its power to move. It could thus become paralyzed. A paradox that remains is humanity needs to interact with others; however, some may resist the positive risk of relying on God to help us take the right and effective action. The result could be either apathy or right action. We must decide. Paradise could exist anywhere, even on a mountaintop. 

CANTO IV

Lines 28-39:

Choose the most God-like of the Seraphim---     

    take Moses, or Samuel, or take either John, 

    or even Mary--- not one is nearer Him,                 30

nor holds his seat atop the blessed spheres

    in any heaven apart from those you saw; 

    nor has his being more or fewer years.

All add their beauty to the Highest Wheat, 

    share the sweet life, and vary n it only                   35

    by how much of the Eternal Breath they feel.

They showed themselves here not because this post

    has been assigned them, but to symbolize

    that they stand lowest in the Heavenly host.

Lines 72-81: 

" --If violence, to begin,

     occurs when those who suffer its abuse

     contribute nothing to what forces them, 

     then these should have no claim to that excuse.   75

For the will, if it will not, cannot be spent,

     but does as nature does within a flame

     a thousand or ten thousand winds have bent.       

If it yields of itself, even in the least, 

     Then it assists the violence -- as did these            80

     who could have gone back to their holy feast. 

from: The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

Translated by John Ciardi 

New American Library, 2003

F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg and Iconic Realism

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs47/f/2009/172/9/f/Doctor_T__J__Eckleburg_by_sukimd.jpg

But above the gray land and the spasms of bleak dust, which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg. The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic—their irises are one yard high. They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose. Evidently, some wild wag of an oculist set them there to fatten his practice in the borough of Queens, and then sank down himself into eternal blindness, or forgot them and moved away. But his eyes, dimmed a little by many painless days, under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground. (F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Chapter 2)

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg peer across the ‘dumping ground’ of American spirit. How does this exemplify my theory of iconic realism? 

1. Fitzgerald portrays eyes as the ‘windows of the soul’ of a country steeping in corruption and superficiality. 

2. Fitzgerald places these eyes on an old billboard, gazing across a field of forgotten possessions, an unusual placement of such representatives of the soul of a nation. 

3. Fitzgerald brings into focus America’s need to appreciate all members of society, maintaining a mindset to be ever vigilant of the forefathers’ intentions of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

'Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress' by Dai Sijie and Iconic Realism

The novella, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie presents teenage students, who taste all that is forbidden in a 're-education' camp in the remote hills of China during the Chinese cultural revolution of the 1970's: music, literature, love, and freedom. Dai Sijie writes this beautiful tale as both a novella and a screenplay. Placing the intensive longing for education in a communist environment where knowledge was prohibited, he illustrates through the use of iconic realism that creativity and the hunger for knowledge of self and the world perseveres within the human spirit.