“Spiders and Webs in American Literature”

From Jonathan Edwards to Jorie Graham, spiders are strikingly present in American literature. The purpose of this article is first to show how that theme may have become something of a national tradition as very different writers, all of them careful observers of aranae, answered one another through...

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Autor principal:	Vincent Dussol
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN FR
Publicado:	Association Française d'Etudes Américaines 2021
Materias:	Bestiary Eshleman lesbian movement Native Americans spiders thread History America E-F America E11-143
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/e3cf6ff993ed46a3bf6483bc7a0bcd22
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:e3cf6ff993ed46a3bf6483bc7a0bcd22
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:e3cf6ff993ed46a3bf6483bc7a0bcd222021-12-02T10:14:26Z“Spiders and Webs in American Literature”1765-276610.4000/transatlantica.5506https://doaj.org/article/e3cf6ff993ed46a3bf6483bc7a0bcd222021-02-01T00:00:00Zhttp://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/5506https://doaj.org/toc/1765-2766From Jonathan Edwards to Jorie Graham, spiders are strikingly present in American literature. The purpose of this article is first to show how that theme may have become something of a national tradition as very different writers, all of them careful observers of aranae, answered one another through the years. It is very likely that the attention paid to spiders by American authors was increased by those Native American myths in which spiders are a central figure. More than occasionally, on the female side of the American counter-culture, especially among its feminist and lesbian exponents, simple activists and creative writers have harnessed the symbolic power invested in the spider by Native Americans.There may be deeper reasons accounting for American authors’ fascination with spiders. The country’s phobia of disunion is one; a nation of settlers’ acute consciousness of the precariousness of its occupation of the territory is another. In demonstrating outstanding skills for adjustment to unknown places, spiders epitomize a form of identity permanence. The predominantly positive character of spider symbols in American literature will occasionally be inverted. Following the national logic of checks and balances, any web covering the whole of the United States will tend to come under suspicion.This study ends with an inventory of cultural productions linked with spiders and webs and whose Americanness is yet to be clearly determined.Vincent DussolAssociation Française d'Etudes AméricainesarticleBestiaryEshlemanlesbian movementNative AmericansspidersthreadHistory AmericaE-FAmericaE11-143ENFRTransatlantica : Revue d'Études Américaines, Vol 2 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN FR
topic	Bestiary Eshleman lesbian movement Native Americans spiders thread History America E-F America E11-143
spellingShingle	Bestiary Eshleman lesbian movement Native Americans spiders thread History America E-F America E11-143 Vincent Dussol “Spiders and Webs in American Literature”
description	From Jonathan Edwards to Jorie Graham, spiders are strikingly present in American literature. The purpose of this article is first to show how that theme may have become something of a national tradition as very different writers, all of them careful observers of aranae, answered one another through the years. It is very likely that the attention paid to spiders by American authors was increased by those Native American myths in which spiders are a central figure. More than occasionally, on the female side of the American counter-culture, especially among its feminist and lesbian exponents, simple activists and creative writers have harnessed the symbolic power invested in the spider by Native Americans.There may be deeper reasons accounting for American authors’ fascination with spiders. The country’s phobia of disunion is one; a nation of settlers’ acute consciousness of the precariousness of its occupation of the territory is another. In demonstrating outstanding skills for adjustment to unknown places, spiders epitomize a form of identity permanence. The predominantly positive character of spider symbols in American literature will occasionally be inverted. Following the national logic of checks and balances, any web covering the whole of the United States will tend to come under suspicion.This study ends with an inventory of cultural productions linked with spiders and webs and whose Americanness is yet to be clearly determined.
format	article
author	Vincent Dussol
author_facet	Vincent Dussol
author_sort	Vincent Dussol
title	“Spiders and Webs in American Literature”
title_short	“Spiders and Webs in American Literature”
title_full	“Spiders and Webs in American Literature”
title_fullStr	“Spiders and Webs in American Literature”
title_full_unstemmed	“Spiders and Webs in American Literature”
title_sort	“spiders and webs in american literature”
publisher	Association Française d'Etudes Américaines
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/e3cf6ff993ed46a3bf6483bc7a0bcd22
work_keys_str_mv	AT vincentdussol spidersandwebsinamericanliterature
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“Spiders and Webs in American Literature”

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