Final Project Proposal
For this project, I think doing a timeline will be interesting and interactive so I’ll pick that (though the idea of translating is tempting but I think translating 5 pages is impossible for my level…). I want to look at how people, particularly through writers and the media, view “happiness.” What does it mean to be blessed or happy and how does the time period or era affect the views? I’m not certain if there is a unifying view of happiness, that somehow what the writers are saying can be broken down into one or two general things. What I imagine so far is that in the past (~1600s), happiness revolves around the family. If the family circle is happy, so is the individual. And as time advances, happiness becomes self-centered. The number of things that could advance a person’s happiness would continue to increase until there are so many options that happiness becomes difficult to find; hence, it leads to our typically depressed culture (of industrialized/developed nations). As you can see, my point or direction isn’t really specific, so I hope in my research it would become clearer.
My time period for this project would be 250 years, starting from probably 1650 to 1900. I might increase the time period by 50 more years to 1950 to include the full effects of industrialization on writers’ attitude but I think to 1900 for now is good. The texts I wanted to start with is Tartuffe, in which sadness/unpleasantness exist because the family is being torn apart. Bewitched, which tells the story where love and happiness revolves around the family (or to have a family), would be nice to include too. I’m also thinking of using one of Charles Baudelaire’s works (probably “Anywhere out of the World”), The Death of Ivan Ilyich, and one of Rabindranth Tagore’s work (probably “Kabuliwala”).
This week I will begin researching in general for what was happening in the world (~200 years span from 1650), typically from an economic and social standpoint. Hopefully, I can find some poster or news article that records something interesting. I believe advertisements reflect a lot on the wants/needs of society. The first week and a half of November would involve more research on advertisements and re-reading the texts. Then the last week before November 20th would be putting pieces together into a draft timeline.
One of the problems that I might come across due to my topic choice might probably be that it is too general. I’m thinking of focusing this on one gender actually if I need to (women, like my essay 1 but in another direction).
3 responses so far
Abraham Lincoln once said: “People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.” Later on, Oscar Wilde had another perspective regarding happiness, which tended more towards individualism: “Some cause happiness wherever they go, others whenever they go.”
I am looking forward to see what you come up with, for I think the approach you are taking, as well as the subject are quite interesting.
Also, I have found this article about the history of happiness. Hopefully it will be of use.
http://hbr.org/2012/01/the-history-of-happiness/
Good luck
Hey Gen,
I think this is a GREAT topic!! Very very interesting! One thing that might be interesting is to note of is how literature, paintings, photographs, etc portray a ‘screen shot’ of history, often times depicting a ‘faked’ or rather ‘posed’ happiness.
As for getting more specific, an interesting direction might be to explore the direct connection between the decrease in organic societal happiness and the increase of industrialism/consumerism. Whether your vision for this timeline agrees with this correlation or maintains the opposite, it would still be very interesting to explore this connection. And if you don’t think industry is what is affecting happiness, what is?
Happiness is a great focus. What is it in different time periods, and why does it change? What are the forces that shape how we define what it means to be happy? And how are the definitions of happiness represented and explored in literature? The texts you have in mind sound good, but really, so many would work. Kafka, Melville, and if you choose to go up to 1950, more. Be careful of not of narrowly defining hay happiness is in any given period ( eg in earlier times it was all about the family–this might be reductive). Look for complexity in how cultures define happiness in different time periods.