1/28 recap- approaching analysis

In the course of our discussion about American Artifacts we spent some time considering the applicability of Haltman's assignment-style outline of Prownian analysis. Patrick suggested that we use the steps the introduction outlines as a reference as we plan our own object analysis for our final project. We discussed the logistics of this outline -- both the interpretive possibilities that it opens up and the potential difficulties the process may present, depending on our academic backgrounds.

We proved the different ways in which we would need to adapt later in class, when Patrick gave us prints of "America Guided by Wisdom" and asked us to write an initial description of the image. When we discussed our various approaches, we found that some of us got entrenched in describing detail, while others kept descriptions general, and that some of us struggled with the urge to contextualize what we described, while others were better able to set aside questions of context. We also saw some variety in the stylistic approaches that each of us adopted to describe the image, and in the portions of the image where we each began or concentrated our descriptions.

The exercise in description was helpful both in demonstrating the importance of practice for all of us to get comfortable with using this method, and in giving us a taste of the various styles and analytic tendencies that our own readings are going to take. Our discussion of Prown's theoretical framework also gave us a sense of the differences in our approaches. We mentioned Prown's relative mistrust of non-objective historical evidence, to which the class responded with various degrees of disagreement, qualification, and acknowledgement. We also spent a while considering our various positions on Prown's fondness for using binary categories to read objects. For some of us clean dualism seems the best way to form a strong concept in our work, while for others a spectrum of possibilities seems to allow us more freedom of interpretation. Patrick reminded us that no matter what our approach, when we make an argument about an object's meaning, we're always going to be privileging evidence that supports our point, to the relative exclusion or marginalization of other aspects of the object. This seems like a point which may remain useful to us both in formulating our own readings and in evaluating the interpretations of the writers we'll be encountering this semester.