Ashley Reed’s Final Presentation: The Way We Think about Fanny Fern The Way We Think about Fanny Fern

A Review of Conceptual Blending  an innate imaginative ability based on the construction and manipulation of mental spaces  Four kinds (simplex, mirror, single-scope and double-scope) but only humans are capable of forming double-scope blends  Explored at length in Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner’s The Way We Think  an innate imaginative ability based on the construction and manipulation of mental spaces  Four kinds (simplex, mirror, single-scope and double-scope) but only humans are capable of forming double-scope blends  Explored at length in Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner’s The Way We Think

My Project: To examine the ways in which Fanny Fern’s 1855 novel Ruth Hall and aspects of Fern’s own biography illustrate the principles of conceptual blending

Sara Payson Willis Parton aka Fanny Fern  Born July 9, 1811 in Portland, Maine  May 4, 1837: Marries Charles Harrington eldredge, who dies in 1846  1849: Marries Samuel P. Farrington, but leaves him 2 years later  1851: Publishes her first short story  1855: Publishes her fictionalized autobiography, Ruth Hall  1856: Begins writing exclusively for the New York Ledger and marries James Parton  Dies October 10, 1872  Born July 9, 1811 in Portland, Maine  May 4, 1837: Marries Charles Harrington eldredge, who dies in 1846  1849: Marries Samuel P. Farrington, but leaves him 2 years later  1851: Publishes her first short story  1855: Publishes her fictionalized autobiography, Ruth Hall  1856: Begins writing exclusively for the New York Ledger and marries James Parton  Dies October 10, 1872

Blending at all levels…  Textual  Metatextual  Biographical  Textual  Metatextual  Biographical

the “Business is Personal” blend Romantic interest, Coyness, Goal of marriage Financial interest Caution Goal of “sealing the deal” Personal interaction, Potential for permanence, obligation Contract-as- marriage, Partners-as- spouses Input 2: Business and contracts Input 1: Flirtation and wooing Generic Blend

Metatextual blends  Ruth Hall as a “novel by columns”  Ruth Hall as fictionalized autobiography  Ruth Hall as a “novel by columns”  Ruth Hall as fictionalized autobiography

Fanny Fern’s Biographical Blending  When sewing and teaching fail…  Inventing a new career: the exclusive weekly columnist  Keeping what was hers  When sewing and teaching fail…  Inventing a new career: the exclusive weekly columnist  Keeping what was hers

Bibliography Baym, Nina: Woman’s Fiction: A Guide to Novels By and About Women in America, Ithaca: Cornell Up, Belasco, Susan. Introduction. Ruth Hall. New York: Penguin, Fauconnier, Gilles and Mark Turner. The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending and the Mind’s Hidden Complexities. New York: Basic Books, Fern, Fanny (sara Payson Willis Parton). Ruth Hall: A Domestic Tale of the Present time. New York: Penguin, Walker, Nancy A. Fanny Fern. New York: Twayne, Warren, Joyce A. Fanny Fern: An Independent Woman. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, Baym, Nina: Woman’s Fiction: A Guide to Novels By and About Women in America, Ithaca: Cornell Up, Belasco, Susan. Introduction. Ruth Hall. New York: Penguin, Fauconnier, Gilles and Mark Turner. The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending and the Mind’s Hidden Complexities. New York: Basic Books, Fern, Fanny (sara Payson Willis Parton). Ruth Hall: A Domestic Tale of the Present time. New York: Penguin, Walker, Nancy A. Fanny Fern. New York: Twayne, Warren, Joyce A. Fanny Fern: An Independent Woman. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1992.