The creation of the Small New England Town in Alice Hoffman's Massachusetts novels

224 Pages·2014·1.19 MB·English

B OULU 2014
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UNIVERSITY OF OULU P.O.(cid:3)B(cid:82)(cid:91) (cid:27)(cid:19)00 FI-90014 UNIVERSITY OF OULU FINLAND ACTA
A UNIVERSITATIS OULUENSIS
A C T A U N I V E R S I T A T I S O U L U E N S I S C
T
A
B
S E R I E S E D I T O R S HUMANIORA
Eva-Jo Jylhä
A
SCIENTIAE RERUM NATURALIUM
E THE CREATION OF
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B Professor Esa Hohtola a
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J
o THE SMALL NEW ENGLAND
HUMANIORA
J
y
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CUniversity Lecturer Santeri Palviainen h
ä TOWN IN ALICE HOFFMAN’S
TECHNICA
MASSACHUSETTS NOVELS
DPostdoctoral research fellow Sanna Taskila
MEDICA
A CULTURAL IMAGOLOGICAL STUDY
E Professor Olli Vuolteenaho
SCIENTIAE RERUM SOCIALIUM
F University Lecturer Veli-Matti Ulvinen
SCRIPTA ACADEMICA
G Director Sinikka Eskelinen
OECONOMICA
Professor Jari Juga
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Professor Olli Vuolteenaho
PUBLICATIONS EDITOR
Publications Editor Kirsti Nurkkala
UNIVERSITY OF OULU GRADUATE SCHOOL;
UNIVERSITY OF OULU,
FACULTY OF HUMANITIES,
ISBN 978-952-62-0589-2 (Paperback)
ENGLISH PHILOLOGY
ISBN 978-952-62-0590-8 (PDF)
ISSN 0355-3205 (Print)
ISSN 1796-2218 (Online)

ACTA UNIVERSITATIS OULUENSIS
B Humaniora 123
EVA-JO JYLHÄ
THE CREATION OF THE SMALL
NEW ENGLAND TOWN IN ALICE
HOFFMAN’S MASSACHUSETTS
NOVELS
A cultural imagological study
Academic dissertation to be presented with the assent of
the Doctoral Training Committee of Human Sciences of
the University of Oulu for public defence in Kuusamonsali
(YB210), Linnanmaa, on 7 November 2014, at 12 noon
UNIVERSITY OF OULU, OULU 2014
Copyright © 2014
Acta Univ. Oul. B 123, 2014
Supervised by
Professor Anthony Johnson
Reviewed by
Docent Mark Shackleton
Doctor Jason Finch

ISBN 978-952-62-0589-2 (Paperback)
ISBN 978-952-62-0590-8 (PDF)
ISSN 0355-3205 (Printed)
ISSN 1796-2218 (Online)
Cover Design
Raimo Ahonen
JUVENES PRINT
TAMPERE 2014
Jylhä, Eva-Jo, The creation of the small New England town in Alice Hoffman’s
Massachusetts novels. A cultural imagological study
University of Oulu Graduate School; University of Oulu, Faculty of Humanities, English
Philology
Acta Univ. Oul. B 123, 2014
University of Oulu, P.O. Box 8000, FI-90014 University of Oulu, Finland
Abstract
The region of New England has played a strong role in the formation and development of the
United States on both physical and ideological levels, and the image of the small New England
town is highly evocative at both a regional and national level. It is an image shaped by an
awareness of the past and the needs of the time. Alice Hoffman is a popular writer who often writes
about people living in small New England towns. This thesis is a study of how Hoffman’s fictional
small New England towns are created in six of her Massachusetts novels, Practical Magic (1995),
The River King (2000), Blue Diary (2001), The Probable Future (2003), Blackbird House (2004)
and The Red Garden (2011).
To provide a framework for this study, concepts developed by cultural geographers such as
sense of place and landscape are combined with imagological, sociological and historical ideas of
collective memory and narrative identity. Phenomenology is at the root of the epistemological
stance and concepts that are central to this study of the creation of place. Concepts of place, time
and identity from across disciplines are combined in an extension of the horizons of imagology
that shifts focus from national images to a broader range of images producing a cultural
imagological study of the creation of Hoffman country.
This study works with various levels of engagement and interaction with community in the
fictional towns of the novels. The major sub-communities in The River King are used to amplify
the workings of a sense of place and nostalgia in relation to rootedness. The town community as
a whole is studied through Blackbird House and The Red Garden to explore how history and
memory merge to create the mythology central to the identity of a town. Changing interactions
with community at an individual level are scrutinized through a topobiographical study of the
reconstruction of narrative identity in the novels Practical Magic and Blue Diary. The Probable
Future figures around the interaction of a family with the rest of the community and this changing
interaction is examined through the processes and functions of memorialization. All six novelistic
towns are then examined in terms of landscape and imagined communities. Through the study, a
mapping of Hoffman Country emerges and the formation of Hoffman’s imagined small New
England towns is explicated.
Keywords: belonging, collective memory, community, cultural landscape, images,
memorialization, narrative identity, New England, sense of place

Jylhä, Eva-Jo, Uusienglantilaisten pikkukaupunkien rakentuminen Alice Hoffmannin
Massachusettsiin sijoittuvissa teoksissa. Kulttuuri-imagologinen tutkimus miljöistä ja
yhteisöistä
Oulun yliopiston tutkijakoulu; Oulun yliopisto, Humanistinen tiedekunta, Englantilainen
filologia
Acta Univ. Oul. B 123, 2014
Oulun yliopisto, PL 8000, 90014 Oulun yliopisto
Tiivistelmä
Uuden-Englannin alue on ollut merkittävä Yhdysvaltojen alueellisessa ja ideologisessa muodos-
tumisessa. Mielikuvat pienistä uusienglantilaisista kaupungeista miljöinä ovat voimakkaita, ja
usein niihin liittyy tietoa paikkojen historiasta.
Alice Hoffmann on suosittu nykykirjailija, jonka useissa teoksissa henkilöhahmot asuvat
Uuden-Englannin pikkukaupungeissa. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena on tarkastella, miten
Hoffman rakentaa fiktiivisiä kaupunkeja kuudessa Massachusettsiin sijoittuvassa teoksessaan.
Tutkimusaineistona ovat teokset Practical Magic (1995, suom. Noitasisaret), The River King
(2000), Blue Diary (2001), The Probable Future (2003), Blackbird House (2004) ja The Red
Garden (2011, suom. Punainen puutarha).
Tässä tutkimuksessa kulttuurimaantieteellisiä käsitteitä, kuten paikkatunne (sense of place) ja
maisema, on yhdistetty imagologian, sosiologian ja historian käsitteisiin kollektiivisesta muistis-
ta ja narratiivisesta identiteetistä. Näin kulttuuri-imagologia yhdistää imagologian tutkimuksen
kansallisuuteen liittyvät mielikuvat mielikuviin tietystä paikasta, ajasta ja identiteetistä. Tätä teo-
reettista kehystä käytetään analysoitaessa Hoffmannin fiktiivisiä pienkaupunkiyhteisöjä. Tutki-
muksen tietoteoreettisena perustana on fenomenologinen näkemys ja käsitteistö. Kulttuuri-ima-
gologian kautta tarkastellaan Hoffmannin romaaneissaan rakentamia yhteisöjä ja miljöitä.
Olennaisimmat yhteisöt romaanissa The River King vahvistavat paikan ymmärryksen ja nos-
talgisuuden merkityksen henkilöhahmojen kokemalle juurettomuudelle. Kaupunkiyhteisöjä on
tarkasteltu novellikokoelmien Blackbird House ja The Red Garden avulla osoittamaan, miten
historia ja muisti toimivat rakentaen mytologista paikan identiteettiä. Yksilöiden toisistaan erot-
tuva yhteisöllinen vuorovaikutus analysoidaan topobiografisella tavalla rekonstruoitaessa narra-
tiivista identiteettiä romaaneissa Practical Magic ja Blue Diary. The Probable Future -teoksen
hahmojen vuorovaikutus perheen sisällä ja muun yhteisön kanssa ilmentää muistelmallisuuden
prosessia. Kaikkia kuutta fiktiivistä kaupunkia tarkastellaan maiseman ja fiktiivisen yhteisölli-
syyden näkökulmista.
Tämä tutkimus osoittaa Alice Hoffmanin uusienglantilaisiin pikkukaupunkeihin sijoittuvien
teosten analyysin avulla, miten kirjailijat voivat käyttää ja muokata teoksissaan mielikuvia pai-
koista luodessaan tunnesiteitä yksilöiden, yhteisöjen ja miljöiden välille.
Asiasanat: kollektiivinen muisti, kulttuurimaisema, mielikuva, muistelmallisuus,
narratiivinen identiteetti, paikkatunne, Uusi-Englanti, yhteisöllisyys

Acknowledgments
I entered into my doctoral studies in 2005 in order to find intellectual stimulation.
Over the past nine years I have continued to work full time and viewed my
research as an intense, exciting and sometimes overwhelming hobby.
Nevertheless, the stimulation my research has given me has helped me find new
levels of energy and interest. Many people—friends, colleagues, students and
family—have been supportive of the long process of my doctoral studies and I
would like to thank all of you.
Anthony Johnson, my intermittent supervisor, first set me on the path I have
followed. Your infectious interest in all manner of things has been invigorating
and our conversations stimulating. Thank you for helping me find direction and
taking me on again despite the complications added by your shift in institutions.
My introduction to cultural geography was graciously assisted by Pauli
Tapani Karjalainen. Thank you for your support and advice. I truly enjoyed the
tasks you set me and the meetings we held; your insights into the field and the
depth of your knowledge and experience are inspirational. I hope that you enjoy
your well-earned retirement.
I am grateful to my pre-examiners, Mark Shackleton and Jason Finch, for
taking the time to examine my thesis thoughtfully and drawing my attention to
potential avenues of thought. I have tried to take your comments and suggestions
into consideration and I believe they have helped me strengthen this thesis. I
would also like to thank my opponent Bent Sørensen for the time and effort he
has expended in preparing for my defense.
Within the English Department at the Oulu University I have found both
practical and intellectual support from the faculty. Lisa-Lena Opas-Hänninen
stepped into a supervisory role for me twice. Her practical guidance was
invaluable at key points in the process of my training and research. When she
passed away and I was left without a supervisor, John Braidwood stepped into the
breach. You helped me find focus and I am grateful for your help. The moral
support given to me by some of my fellow Humanities Faculty doctoral
candidates has been invaluable. It has been very important to know that even
though I have been working alone, I have not been alone.
My colleagues at Oulun Lyseon lukio have unfailing encouraged and listened
to me. I am grateful to Teuvo Laurinolli and Mika Aalto who as headmasters
helped make it possible for me to attend lectures and conferences and eventually
cut down on my workload a bit so that I could get my thesis written. I would
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particularly like to thank Sirpa Anttila-Muilu for introducing me to the world of
cultural geography, it has had a profound effect on my awareness of how I relate
to the world around me. Marita Juutinen has been invaluable as both a supportive
fellow post-graduate and in the writing of my Finnish abstract, thank you once
again. Many other teachers, particularly those working in the IB program, have
patiently endured my raptures and despair and given me encouragement and
advice. Indeed I am lucky to have such a great wealth of supportive colleagues
that you are too many to name here. You know who you are and how much your
continued friendship means to me.
When I first started working on my research proposal some of my students
noticed an immediate change and asked what had woken me up. To all of my
students who have stimulated my thinking, particularly those who studied a novel
by Hoffman with me, thank you for sharing your interest and insights into the
concepts and texts we have played with. I would like to single out Laura
Niskanen whose ideas about the oak tree found their way directly into Chapter 6.
Even though you are not listed in my bibliography, I have kept your analysis and I
thank you for letting me use your ideas here.
My parents, Mimmu and James have always valued the development and use
of creativity and intellect. Thank you for raising your children to be inquisitive
and for having been unfailingly encouraging of all of our studies. Thank you for
all of the resources, information, feedback and childcare along the way. All of my
siblings have supported me, but my little sister Anna-Laura Sloan has been
particularly instrumental throughout this long process. Goobie, you have kept me
sane. You have been willing to be a sounding board at any time day or night and
in light of all the help you have given me you hold the dubious honor of knowing
more about my research and thinking than anyone else. I seriously could not have
done this without you.
Last but not least, I would like to thank my husband, Mika, and my children
Anna-Sofia, Elina and Markus for your patience. Girls, I will try to stop putting
you to sleep with lectures on theory. Markus, you have never known what it is
like to have a mother who is not concerned with her studies. Thank you for
accepting all of the ways in which my research has taken up my time and
attention and for giving me the space to read and write. I love you.
Oulu, August 28th, 2014 Eva-Jo Jylhä
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