Research
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My dissertation examines the relationship between 19th century curiosities and narratives (particularly wonder tales, hoaxes, and legends) in the United States with a focus on a period from about 1840-1880. Particular attention is paid to forms of commodification that involve representation of cultures, disabilities, and abnormalities in both humans and automata.
During this period, a variety of narratives (lore) were woven into the collection, display, and marketing of curiosities. These narratives, both literary and physical, masked larger issues and gave the American public the opportunity to negotiate through newly emerging issues of class, gender, sexuality, race, industrialization, science, education, and cosmopolitanism. Differences in regional cultures, as well as immigrant groups will be addressed. I am particularly interested in how the display itself represents folklore motifs and taletypes within the context of the exhibit.
Both the microcosmic and macrocosmic levels will be examined. Exhibitions that featured foreign peoples and automata were often displayed in a manner that gave spectators a sense of national and racial superiority. On a larger scale, Early American Museums were criticized by European museums for having excess focus on entertainment, unscientific materials, unorganized presentation, and a surfeit of miscellany.
By examining, historical, anthropological, and social aspects, as well as narratives that circulated in this temporal and regional space, I will explore various sites of contest that intentionally convey both similar and contradictory narratives. I will argue that during this period, particularly during periods of social change, notions of wonder were deeply embedded in public discourse. The tendency towards narratives of wonder during the early American period can be seen as both shaping and reflecting early American notions of the ideal and normal.
The intersection between spectator (observation) and display (performance) can also be seen through the examination of displays such as the Panorama, Diorama, Wunderkammern, and projected images such as the Magic Lantern (Laterna Magica).
I will focus on remarkable beings on two levels: 1. People (Human Anomalies, Human Displays/Exhibits), and 2. Remarkable devices of wonder (automata, waxworks). I believe there is direct interaction between both humans and automata, as both human and non-human remain in dialog with one another, while simultaneously addressing science, modernity, the past, and the natural.
1. Folklore and the Marvelous
This field will examine the ways in which folklorists and other scholars have examined the spectacle, the monstrous, wonder, prodigies, teratology, etc. particularly through their manifestation in folklore narratives. I will examine how the interaction with folklore material and the marvelous is intertwined with displays and exhibitions and how various scholars have attempted to interpret the “marvelous”, “uncanny”, “wonderous”, etc. This study remains rooted in folklore, but may find itself, at times, extending beyond the periphery of standard anonymous records of oral tales, and into literature, ephemera (chapbooks, advertisements, etc.) and popular culture (plays, exhibits, etc.).
I am interested in how folklore narratives, particularly the “marvelous,” becomes embedded in literary works and manifests in various shapes throughout 19th century popular American culture and how scholars, in general, have treated this material. The study of folklore and the marvelous has been examined from many different academic directions. Anthropology, Psychology, English, and History are a few of the many fields that have taken interest in this subject It is important for my study to understand where these disciplines intersect (and diverge) on issues of wonder and folk narrative, and to consider how they may potentially direct my research in various directions.
Early scholars of the marvelous studied popular antiquities and belief legends, but in recent times, professional folklorists began studying legends. The legend scholars (and those who studied popular antiquities) have treated the topic of the spectacle and wonder with the most valuable contributions to my research, simply because the notion of the spectacle as display was often advertised as a (literal) legendary being. As with the field “Documentation and Collection,” the focus is on, but not limited to professionally trained folklorists.
Some scholars who have examined this topic follow: Sigmund Freud (psychiatrist) , Bengt Holbek (Fairy Tale/Folklorist), Lauri Honko (folk belief/folklorist), Bill Ellis (legend scholar/folklorist), Carl Jung (psychiatrist), David Hufford (folk belief/folklorist), Mikhail Bakhtin (literary critic/philosopher), Linda Degh (legend scholar/folklorist), Tzvetan Todorov (philosopher/literary critic), and Marina Warner (historian/mythographer).
2. Collection and Documentation of folk narrative
This field encompasses two parallel tracks of study: the documentation of folk narrative, and the documentation of material (human or otherwise) items. These two factors must be considered and studied in conjunction in order to better understanding the relationship between the two. The examination of both classical techniques in documenting folk narrative (tale-type index, motif index, etc.) and the collection and documentation of material objects (humans, manifestations of folklore-ie. fiji mermaid) may help to elucidate the study of display.
The focus of this field is on the “enabler of displays,” that is, the methods and strategies of those in charge of putting objects (human or otherwise) in exhibitions and displays (categorizing, ordering and placing in biological phyla), and/or their objective for collecting folklore narratives. [Disabilities, Corresponding folklore Narratives considered]. For the purposes of this field, I define “display” as an exhibition for the (paying) public that is centered on a curiosity or wonder, human or otherwise. Those in charge of these displays often organized these exhibits with the same impetus as early folklore collectors, that is, to collect and preserve. The organization, however, was often lacking. The displays were almost always accompanied by a narrative, which often echoed folk narratives.
As with the field Popular Amusements in the United States in the 19th Century, issues of disability, class, race, and gender were often concealed or exposed in ways that often discreetly mystified the public. The difference here is the purposeful presentation and representation of the display vs. what the audience actually perceives—something that is to be discussed in the next field.
Although the focus of this field is on the “enabler” of these displays, it is important to note that the enabler was not always the “collector” of the material. Collectors of the 19th century include: Cotton Mather, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, George Catlin, and John Greenleaf Whittier. These gatherers often collected to document the ethnographies of ‘curious’ new cultures (ie. travel literature), and/or explain unusual occurrences in a religious light (ie. providences) rather than to preserve a fading past. Later, this material (both narrative collections and material objects/humans) were placed in exhibitions.
3. Popular Amusements in the United States in the 19th Century
This field will explore early American amusements, particularly the ‘display’ as defined earlier, in the mid to late 19th century. The focus will be placed on the exhibits and display in urban areas.
Through my research, I wish to explore the connection between the ‘experience’ of popular amusements and ‘experience’ of folklore. For example, how a magic lantern show, panorama, in situ display of curiosity, etc. allows the visitor to ‘travel’ and experience fictional places based on expectations from folklore (and literature) and how these displays act as a way to experience folklore.
Popular amusements will be examined and issues such as gender, class, disability, science/education, (im)migration, tourism, religious (revivals) movements, and socio-ecomonic history will be considered.
Museum formation and popular amusements in the 19th century are closely linked as they rely on education to entice the public. Early freakshows of the 1830’s and 1840’s were essentially a form of a “traveling museum.” By the 1850’s, humans were displayed as scientific specimens, often to provide legitimacy to theories of racism. The acceptance of anthropology as a discipline in the 1880’s, led to an intellectual shift, which permitted expositions to focus on human display. Barnum’s Ethnological Congress of Barbarous and Savage Tribes, for example, reflected this shift and used anthropology and science as legitimizing factors to attract the public. Near the end of the 19th century, World’s Fairs and expositions held in America were calculated attempts at demonstrating Darwinian theory.
Charles Wilson Peale, John Scudder, and P.T. Barnum, owned and operated some of the most popular museums and/or exhibition spaces in 19th century America.
Publications
“Like Dogs Barking at the Rear of an Elephant: The Animal’s Place in Malay Proverbs” Proverbium vol. 25 (Oct. 2008)
“Popular American Amusements: Tourism, Bodies, and Display in America 1769-1900″ The Early America Review (Winter/Spring 2008) Click Here to Read Article
“Kancil the Trickster: A Vehicle for Expression in the Malay World” M.A. Thesis, University of California Berkeley, 2005.
29 Days in Peru, Self Published, 2002
Conferences
Presenter, American Folklore Society Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City Utah 2004, “The Kancil Trickster as a Vehicle for Expression in the Malay World”
Presenter, American Folklore Society Annual Meeting, Atlanta Georgia 2005, “The ‘Secret’ (Censored) Animal Tales of Russia and the Malay World: How Two Cognates Function in Two Very Different Lands”
Presenter, Western States Folklore Society Annual Meeting, Berkeley, California 2006, “The Kancil Trickster as a Vehicle for Expression in the Malay World”
