Mormon literaturstreit sneak peak + Mormon aesthetics
Hello.
It’s been a mild winter here in Minnesota. But it also snowed a few days ago. As my daughter said: having snow and seasonal allergies at the same time is just rude.
Next month, I’ll be starting my deep dive on the Mormon literaturestreit of the 1990s. As promised last month, here’s a sneak peak along with an update on my new Mormon aesthetics project and a couple of reading recommendations.
Mormon literaturstreit sneak peak
What is a literaturstreit?
Streit is a German word which appended to an academic discipline (literaturstreit, historikerstreit) means a public disagreement about issues related to that discipline. The literal definition of the word is conflict or battle, but it also has gentler uses like argument or disagreement.
What is the Mormon literaturstreit?
In 1989, Signature Books published Harvest: Contemporary Mormon Poems, an anthology edited by BYU English faculty Eugene England and Dennis Clark. It was a momentous event in the field of Mormon letters.
In the spring of 1990, a review of Harvest, by Richard Cracroft, also a member of BYU’s English department and a long-time Mormon literature reviewer and critic, appeared in BYU Studies. He criticized some of the poems in it (especially those by younger poets) for being too secular.
This review led to further responses, often through AML addresses/papers. On the one hand, it can be situated within the right-left culture wars of the 1990s. However, in spite of me calling it a “literaturstreit”, most, if not all, of the folks involved would see it as a more genial debate focused on where the soul of Mormon letters does and should reside.
Why is it important?
Because it involved a lot of back and forth and also discussion of actual authors and texts, it represents the main (maybe only?) ongoing public conversation on how one defines Mormon literature. Certainly, there are voices not represented in it. Indeed, it mostly featured male BYU professors. But to understand it is to understand how the field of Mormon literature has progressed (or not) into the 21st century. It also features some interesting attempts to define (even constrict) Mormon aesthetics, which leads me to my next update:
Mormon aesthetics
I’ve launched a very casual public project to document attempts at Mormon aesthetics. I explain why I’m doing this here: Help me collect resources on Mormon aesthetics.
And here’s a link to the actual page: Attempts at Mormon Aesthetics
On the page, I list a resource, a brief summary of its’ arguments, and a brief commentary on its’ use specifically for Mormon aesthetics. Towards the bottom of the page, I have a list of other essays, books, etc. I’m considering adding to the main list. I’d love feedback on this project, and, especially, any suggestions you have.
I’m collecting all this because I feel like a lot of discourse in Mormon arts is bemoaning constraints or cheerleading stuff coming out or making grand, abstract pronouncements about the potential for the future. All of that is important, and I’ve engaged in all three.
But I’m interested in the potential of Mormonism’s rich history, doctrine, worldview, etc. to inform actual aesthetic theory. I’ve found some interesting stuff so far. Please do take a look!
Recommendations
MORMON LIT: The Angel and the Beehive: The Mormon Struggle with Assimilation by Armand L. Mauss.
I’m way late to this one. And many of you have already read it. It’s crucial to understanding post-WWII Mormonism, and the turn towards correlation. It helps explain a lot of what we’ve seen happen with Mormonism in the past three decades.
You know what I’d love to see? More literary work and literary criticism that deals with threads Mauss teases out in his research. Certainly, something like Doug Thayer’s Under the Cottonwoods and Other Mormon Stories has echoes of that struggle with assimilation. But I think it’s time for some historical novels and plays that focus on the outmigration of the 1950s and ’60s. Or on the growth of the church outside the U.S. Or even on the dying echoes of a less assimilated U.S. Mormonism in the 1970s and 1980s.
FICTION: Wrong Way by Joanne McNeil is a work of very near future science fiction with a lit fic approach. It’s about a woman who was able to briefly climb from her lower middle class roots into the NYC art scene but then slid back down into the gig economy and ends getting a job operating a “driverless” vehicle for a huge, fictitious tech company (but one that’s a very recognizable mash up). I think it does a fascinating job of merging science fiction with literary fiction. I’ve posted this saying from time to time on social media (wresting Kafka by doing so): the meritocracy works, but not for you.
That’s what this novel is really about.
I wrote about it for my Wm Henry Morris pen name (major spoilers, but I don’t think this book suffers from being spoiled): On Reading Joanne McNeil’s Wrong Way as a Science Fiction Novel
VISUAL MEDIA: Dune, Part Two.
See this in the theater if you are able to.
Is it a shallow achievement as science fiction and political philosophy? Sure. Most films are.
Is it a good adaptation? It’s pretty good. Probably about the best you could do with a novel like Dune.
But I’d say that’s all beside the point.
What I’m most interested in are the visual and sonic choices made and how they so perfectly express the possibilities and limits of film as a medium for fantastic (because like Star Wars, Dune is both science fiction and fantasy) storytelling.
MUSIC: People have such different tastes in music that I’m never quite sure what direction to go with this one. But I’d say this is probably one of the most approachable ones I’ve recommended:
The Arcades Project by John Foxx
The link is to Bandcamp, but it’s also available on the major streaming services (if you must).
It’s minimalist piano music with some low-key synths added for background and texture. This a genre I love, but the albums in it do risk being boring or even insipid. I like my ambient to have a bit of texture and oddness. What elevates this one is that for all its’ smoothness, Foxx brings enough oomph to his compositions combined with restraint. It’s properly minimalist (I’m not interested in virtuosic piano playing) but the melodies are compelling. And while there’s plenty of reverb on the synth parts, the tracks don’t end up as just a big wash of sound.
Good stuff. Plus I’m always a sucker for a Walter Benjamin reference. This reminds me: I should save up and buy a copy of his (unfinished) The Arcades Project.
That’s all for this month!
See you in April, where we’ll start our deep dive into the Mormon literaturstreit.
Thanks for reading! Donations to support the costs of both this newsletter and keeping A Motley Vision's full archives online are welcome: Paypal