November 16, 2009

            I enjoyed reading Mrs. Clarke’s portion of the Ann Carson memoirs this week. Throughout this course we have seen the highly questionable nature of authorship and authenticity in literature (if we even dare to call it literature- but that’s another post), but through Mrs. Clarke’s account we see an actual debate over the authorship of this work and what rights that entails. Mrs. Clarke does not begin her section with much authority. She writes, “Mrs. Carson ceases to be her own biographer, and Mrs. Clark now assumes the pen” (126). Mrs. Clarke gives Mrs. Carson much more authority over the text than was necessary by asserting that Mrs. Carson ever even was her “own biographer.” Through the rest of Mrs. Clarke’s writing, however, it becomes clear that Mrs. Carson was not her own “biographer” but a storyteller to Mrs. Clarke. There is also a very interesting exchange in the line, “Mrs. Clarke now assumes the pen.” These two lines are both passive on the part of Mrs. Carson. She does not willingly relinquish her biography to Mrs. Clarke, she merely “ceases” to have control. Mrs. Clarke, however, actively assumes the pen. By assuming the pen she assumes control, power, voice, and possibly even masculine authority (although really, I think people read too much into phallic symbols- sometimes a pen is just a pen). This exchange of values is especially interesting in light of the fate rhetoric that has been used in Carson’s memoir. Goods and values are the victims of fate just as people are, but here there seems to be an intentional exchange. It is not fate that led Mrs. Carson to give her biography over to Mrs. Clarke. I think that makes sense, though, because writing is not the result of fate. Writing is an active choice. Authors are not chanced upon, they are created.

            I really enjoyed the debate between Mrs. Carson and Mrs. Clarke over the changes Mr. D wishes them to make. Mrs. Carson refuses to change anything in the memoirs to please him, and says that Mr. D “dare not publish it without my permission” (161). Mrs. Clarke does not let Mrs. Carson delude herself any further about her supposed authorship and rights. She says, “you are mistaken, the book is mine, as I wrote it, and it shall be altered” (161). Mrs. Clarke does not allow her authorship to be questioned or run over by Mrs. Carson. I think this is especially fitting in light of Mrs. Carson’s budding counterfeiting career. She is unsuccessful in attempting to counterfeit authorship. It seems to me that Mrs. Carson is not really a true counterfeiter like perhaps Tufts and Burroughs were, however. Burroughs was clever, for example when he preached a sermon about a quite random and obscure verse in order to convince the Pelhamites that he really was a preacher, and Tufts was constantly tricking people through imitation. Mrs. Carson is not as successful. Even her money counterfeiting is not very successful. In this instance she does not use “confidence-man” techniques to win over Mrs. Clarke. She plays it straight pretending like it really is her book. I think Mrs. Carson is not truly a counterfeiter. She is perhaps a “fallen woman” who made some questionable decisions regarding men, marriage, and conspiracies, but counterfeiting is not a part of her nature like it is for Tufts and Burroughs. As I mentioned in my last post, the beginning of her story is a fairly average account of the love interests of a young woman. I am tempted to say that Mrs. Carson belongs to a different genre from Tufts and Burroughs. We have discussed the sentimental-novel aspects of her work, and perhaps she would fit better with that set. Removing Ann Carson’s memoirs from the group containing Tufts and Burroughs makes me wonder if there could truly be a confidence-woman. Could a woman have lived the life of Tufts and Burroughs? And what would her narrative be like?