FRINK Linked Data Fragments server

Matches in SemOpenAlex for { <https://semopenalex.org/work/W3207151902> ?p ?o ?g. }

• W3207151902 endingPage "273" @default.
• W3207151902 startingPage "257" @default.
• W3207151902 abstract "to touch the dark cheek:Facing the Postbellum South in Clytie Hannah Wells Readers of Clytie have rarely studied the face in the rain barrel.1 Scholarly interpretations consistently conclude that the face the title character confronts at the end of Eudora Welty's 1941 short story is merely a reflection of her own countenance.2 This reading has allowed for a persuasive scholarly consensus to emerge identifying Clytie Farr as an ugly, warped, inverted anti-Narcissus character, whose lack of any familial or community connection and of any positive sense of selfhood leads to the despair that ends her life (Vande Kieft 40).3 At the same time, however, this reading de-emphasizes the significance of the rain barrel in the yard as the place of Clytie's suicide. If the rainwater merely reflects her face, which she has seen countless times before, then it could not have any intrinsic power to force Clytie to her next action; her impetus would have to be incidental to the image in the rainwater. But the story's own treatment of this tragedy suggests otherwise; its action is centered around Clytie's all-consuming search for a particular face that arises from a memory of her childhood and its conclusion clearly fixes the face in the rain barrel as the object of that search. Whose face is it? Against the prima facie reading, I argue that the face in the rain barrel is not Clytie's own, at least not simply, but a revelation to her about her heritage that effaces her will to live. This possibility has been partially explored by Don James McLaughlin, whose psychoanalytic approach to Clytie leads him to conclude that the face Clytie seeks is, in part, that belonging to her mother, the member of the household missing from the story (54). Based on Clytie's memories of the face from her childhood, I agree that the face in the rain barrel is most cogently read as Clytie's mother. But what if her mother is not missing? If McLaughlin's analysis is correct and Clytie's submersion into the rain barrel signifies an attempt to find her mother through a regression to a womb-like space, a place where her face and her mother's may not be perceived as separate, then it is remarkable that the face she confronts there does not resemble herself or any of her family members (57, 59). The female face, with its dark cheek, unruly dark hair, and mouth old and closed from any speech, cannot be merely Clytie's own, because she has just been [End Page 257] described as ghostly pale, and is not particularly old (Clytie 110). Nor can it be her sister Octavia's, for her mouth is rarely closed from speech; readers know, moreover, that Octavia's face is thrust between Clytie's and the one she seeks (105). Instead, the features of the face in the rain barrel—the silent mouth, the pained brow, the look of long suffering, and the dark hair and cheek—most noticeably resemble Old Lethy, the family's long-standing Black servant, who discovers Clytie's body after her suicide. Lethy occupies a liminal space that is both part of and separate from the Farr household, for despite her past servitude there, in the story's present, she appears only at the threshold of the manor's back door. Her physically liminal position at this boundary—once the servant's entrance she would have used to go in and out—exemplifies her relational liminality to the Farrs: once an established figure in the family's daily life, she is now shunned and forced to remain separate from them. Lorinda B. Cohoon makes the case that Welty was concerned with the nuances of the controlled movement and position of the characters within the spaces of the story and in relation to one another when revising Clytie (47). Applying Cohoon's framework of position and movement to Lethy reveals that her entrapment is as severe as that of the Farrs, but rather than being trapped within the mansion, she is trapped outside it against her will (Cohoon 52). Her liminal relationship..." @default.
• W3207151902 created "2021-10-25" @default.
• W3207151902 creator A5004886952 @default.
• W3207151902 date "2021-01-01" @default.
• W3207151902 modified "2023-10-17" @default.
• W3207151902 title "to touch the dark cheek: Facing the Postbellum South in Clytie" @default.
• W3207151902 doi "https://doi.org/10.1353/ewr.2021.0009" @default.
• W3207151902 hasPublicationYear "2021" @default.
• W3207151902 type Work @default.
• W3207151902 sameAs 3207151902 @default.
• W3207151902 citedByCount "0" @default.
• W3207151902 crossrefType "journal-article" @default.
• W3207151902 hasAuthorship W3207151902A5004886952 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConcept C107038049 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConcept C111472728 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConcept C121332964 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConcept C124952713 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConcept C138885662 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConcept C142362112 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConcept C159717818 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConcept C178288346 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConcept C2779304628 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConcept C2780027720 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConcept C2780791683 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConcept C41895202 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConcept C518914266 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConcept C554936623 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConcept C62520636 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConcept C95457728 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConceptScore W3207151902C107038049 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConceptScore W3207151902C111472728 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConceptScore W3207151902C121332964 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConceptScore W3207151902C124952713 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConceptScore W3207151902C138885662 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConceptScore W3207151902C142362112 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConceptScore W3207151902C159717818 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConceptScore W3207151902C178288346 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConceptScore W3207151902C2779304628 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConceptScore W3207151902C2780027720 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConceptScore W3207151902C2780791683 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConceptScore W3207151902C41895202 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConceptScore W3207151902C518914266 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConceptScore W3207151902C554936623 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConceptScore W3207151902C62520636 @default.
• W3207151902 hasConceptScore W3207151902C95457728 @default.
• W3207151902 hasIssue "1" @default.
• W3207151902 hasLocation W32071519021 @default.
• W3207151902 hasOpenAccess W3207151902 @default.
• W3207151902 hasPrimaryLocation W32071519021 @default.
• W3207151902 hasRelatedWork W2367811179 @default.
• W3207151902 hasRelatedWork W2376358751 @default.
• W3207151902 hasRelatedWork W2391864012 @default.
• W3207151902 hasRelatedWork W2462541503 @default.
• W3207151902 hasRelatedWork W2502046872 @default.
• W3207151902 hasRelatedWork W2904224827 @default.
• W3207151902 hasRelatedWork W4299622603 @default.
• W3207151902 hasRelatedWork W659313528 @default.
• W3207151902 hasRelatedWork W2116994110 @default.
• W3207151902 hasRelatedWork W2146945860 @default.
• W3207151902 hasVolume "13" @default.
• W3207151902 isParatext "false" @default.
• W3207151902 isRetracted "false" @default.
• W3207151902 magId "3207151902" @default.
• W3207151902 workType "article" @default.