10th SAAS CONFERENCE

“The Backyard of the U.S. Mansion: Critical readings of poverty and wealth in the United States”

Alcalá de Henares (Madrid).  April 14-16, 2011

 

4) Life-Writing and its ‘From Rags to Riches’ Variations

Panel Chair: Isabel Durán
Institution: Universidad Complutense
E-mail: idurangi@filol.ucm.es

It is well known that St. Augustine’s conversion “from sin to grace”, as traced in his Confessions, found its secular counterpart in Benjamin Franklin's conversion “from rags to riches”, as presented in his Autobiography (1791), a book that also illustrates the process of self-invention and renewal which Crèvecoeur referred to in his Letters from an American Farmer (1782). During his own lifetime, and even to this day, Franklin represents the archetypal American. Presenting himself as an ordinary man from humble beginnings, Franklin outlines the story of his extremely successful life and offers readers a formula that could enable them to achieve a similar success. In so doing, he created what would become an enduring component of American identity: the self-made man and the individualism on which it relies.

The proposed panel seeks to analyze, in a time of crisis, the enduring influence of Franklin’s success story or the lack thereof. We shall explore how the belief that, with hard work and great effort, every individual can achieve success in America simultaneously includes and excludes many people. It is inclusionary, because it has traditionally suggested that success and the American Dream are available for anyone willing to follow Franklin's work ethic and faith; and, in fact, it has been a source of inspiration for many success stories à la Horatio Alger, as much as for many stories of assimilation written by immigrants who moved from barrio or ghetto life to fame and wealth. But it has also proved to be exclusionary because despite the implied claims to universality, Franklin's self-made man also excluded peoples of African, Mexican, Asian, and indigenous descent, as well as women and poor people of all colors, as they have also stated in their testimonial autobiographies. Moreover, the story of the self-made man posits an adversarial relationship between the individual and the larger community: the individual is viewed as an autonomous, wholly independent human being who succeeds despite society's emphasis on conformity, a theme that also articulates much autobiographical literature.

Suggested specific topics, always within the field of life-writing, include (but are not limited to):

- Success or failure life-stories
- Rewriting “assimilation” in autobiography: immigration and exile autobiographies
- Class, gender and ethnic identity in autobiography
- The individual vs. the community in “stories of becoming”
- Revisions of the “from rags to riches” paradigm in life-writing
- How does wealth/social class contribute to strengthening the myth of the New Adam/the self-
  made man?
- The poor as “the other”
- Contemporary versions of the Horatio Alger stories
- Working-class autobiography

 

 

10th INTERNATIONAL SAAS CONFERENCE
Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, 14-16 April 2011

THE BACKYARD OF THE U.S.A. MANSION: Critical Readings of Poverty and Wealth in the United States

Name:

Academic Affiliation:

E-mail:

Title of Proposal:

Panel:

Special requirements, if any:

Abstract (400-600 words):

Please, complete this form and send it, in electronic format (via e-mail), to the Chair of your selected panel. Deadline for sending proposals is October 29, 2010.