Evergreen Souls: Spiritualism and the Afterlife in Alice Brown’s “There and Here”

Author(s): Alyssa Everett

Mentor(s): Dr. Samaine Lockwood, English

Abstract
Alice Brown is an important literary figure, but her writing has not received enough attention. Though she was one of the most talented regionalist writers in New England, the scholarship on Brown’s writing is limited. Only a few scholarly works analyze her 1897 short story, “There and Here,” in particular. The objective of this project is to uncover the significance of Brown’s portrayal of the afterlife in this short story by examining the use of spiritualistic elements and the historical and cultural context. Spiritualism is rooted in the belief that the dead can communicate with the living. Some scholars have interpreted the spiritualism in “There and Here” to be a vehicle for advocating same sex love. While I don’t disagree that this theme is present, I contend that Brown is more concerned with communicating her beliefs about the afterlife and the human soul. I argue that “There and Here” serves as a philosophical exploration in which Alice Brown uses spiritualism to convey the transcendent nature of the human soul, provide a comforting image of the afterlife, and emphasize individualism. The story contains elements which echo the Transcendental literary movement of the past and contribute to the American Gothic and Modernist movements. Alice Brown’s “There and Here” comprises a spiritualistic worldview which is both firmly rooted in the New England region’s culture and innovative in its contribution to the American Gothic and Modernist movements.

Keywords: Alice Brown, spiritualism, afterlife beliefs, literary criticism, transcendentalism, American gothic, modernism

Audio Transcript
0:00 Hello! My name is Alyssa and today I will be presenting my thesis, Evergreen Souls: Spiritualism and the Afterlife in Alice Brown’s “There and Here.”
0:10 Alice Brown was a talented and prolific New England writer during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
0:15 She found the most success with her “local color” short stories, but she was also a novelist, essayist, poet, and playwright, among other things.
0:22 She supported love between women as well as female independence and encouraged women to travel abroad.
0:28 Her writing career spanned several decades and she interacted with many important discourses.
0:32 Unfortunately, the scholarly attention she has received is not sufficient for her importance as a literary figure.
0:38 This project helps bring her back into the spotlight and showcases the ways in which she responds to and influences the literary culture.
0:45 I chose to focus on her short story, “There and Here,” first published in October 1897,
0:50 because her exploration of the afterlife and use of spiritualism in this piece deeply resonated with me.
0:56 It is my goal to provide evidence that Alice Brown’s “There and Here” comprises a spiritualistic worldview
1:01 which is both firmly rooted in the New England region’s culture
1:04 and innovative in its interactions with the American Gothic and Modernist movements.
1:10 Spiritualism is generally defined as the belief that people exist in some form after death and can communicate important messages to the living.
1:18 The Spiritualist movement emerged during a period of religious awakening, and it influenced practically all forms of New Age spirituality that came later.
1:25 The movement had an influence on politics and society in America.
1:30 Female leaders and mediums held a new form of authority and voice which allowed them to comment on social and political issues including gender equality, slavery, and marriage.
1:39 The first wave of feminism was making its way through the country at the same time as this religious movement, influencing the uplift of women through Spiritualist practices.
1:47 When spiritualism appears in literature, not all fictional ghosts are portrayed as threatening, and many hauntings are metaphorical.
1:54 To explain the connection between Spiritualism in literature and socially progressive ideas, one expert points out that
2:00 “the séance room has been theorized as an arena for the suspension of social norms and assumption of power by those who would otherwise be without it” (Bann 682).
2:08 Previous analyses of Brown’s “There and Here” suggest her use of spiritualism as a vehicle for advocating same-sex love.
2:15 I agree this theme is present, but her exploration of the afterlife deserves critical attention as well.
2:20 In “There and Here,” a young woman named Ruth is visited in the night by an old friend, Rosamond, who had moved to Italy.
2:26 Rosamond brings Ruth to her childhood home, which has been abandoned yet is clean and maintained when they arrive.
2:31 After spending some time there, Rosamond suddenly rushes Ruth back. When Ruth wakes up the next day, her mother gives her the terrible news that Rosamond had just died.
2:39 Ruth realizes Rosamond was not alive when she visited her, and is comforted by the message she’d imparted that “there is just the same as here” (Brown 197).
2:46 Alice Brown creates an allegorical heaven in Rosamond’s old house and uses nature and fire imagery to explain that death does not mark the end of life, knowledge, or happiness.
2:56 Brown uses nature-based metaphors to explain what happens after death, such as when Rosamond responds to Ruth’s concern that her Rose will wither by saying,
3:03 “‘I may be transplanted,’ said she, ‘but wither, no! See the little twigs pricking through the crust! Hear the tips of the pine-trees talking!’” (Brown 187).
3:12 The fire imagery in “There and Here” explains death as an illuminating transition.
3:16 When the women enter the home, Brown writes, “The firelight seemed to fill the room. Ruth drew a long breath of rapturous recognition” (Brown 189).
3:25 Light is often a symbol of knowledge, and that connection is established here when the firelight elicits “recognition” from Ruth.
3:31 The word choice of “rapturous” is important because while it communicates joyfulness, it also stems from the word rapture.
3:37 In Christianity, the rapture is the prophesied return of Jesus Christ during which all people are judged and sent to the afterlife.
3:44 That context makes the phrase “rapturous recognition” more significant, as if the light has inspired an end-of-world understanding.
3:52 Alice Brown never officially declared a religion for herself, but the New England area certainly fostered the exchange of Christian beliefs.
3:58 Traces of Christian ideology can be found in “There and Here,” such as allusions to angels, as well as freedom and harmony in the afterlife.
4:06 Transcendentalism was popular in the earlier half of the nineteenth century in New England, and there is evidence to suggest that Brown was inspired by this movement.
4:14 Transcendentalism does have an emphasis on nature, which is a major theme in “There and Here.”
4:19 Brown also adapted and blended tropes from the American Gothic and Modernist literary movements.
4:24 These interactions demonstrate how she impacted both these literary movements and the transition between them.
4:31 Alice Brown is an important literary figure who helped shaped the direction of literature in New England during the turn of the century.
4:37 Her work engages in significant cultural discourses, critiquing society and offering a new perspective on life.
4:44 “There and Here” plays an important role in her career and in American literary history, and I hope that, over time, Alice Brown will gain more of the attention she deserves.
4:54 Thank you so much and take care.

6 replies on “Evergreen Souls: Spiritualism and the Afterlife in Alice Brown’s “There and Here””

This is a lovely presentation that highlights the nuances interwoven into Alice Brown’s work. I particularly appreciated your realistic acknowledgement of multiple themes being present as people are often motivated by a variety of interests and their identities are more mosaic than black-and-white.

One question that comes to mind listening to your presentation: could there be a connection drawn between the way Rosamond had moved to Italy in the story and Brown encouraged women to travel abroad in real life?

Hello,
Thank you so much!
It is interesting that you ask that, because I absolutely think it’s related! Alice Brown and a few of her friends started The Women’s Rest Tour Association, which provided boarding and travel information for women to encourage them to explore the world and provide the tools for them to do it safely. When Rosamond is chatting with Ruth, she tells her that she has arranged her will such that the house they visit in the story will be left to become a home for tired women to find respite from the city. I think that these ideas of traveling abroad and women coming together to enjoy nature in “There and Here” are a little nod to this work that Brown did with her friends.
Thanks again for your comment.
Alyssa

Hi Alyssa,
This is such an interesting topic and I learned a lot from your quick presentation. I have a more general question about sporitualism in this era. How was spiritualism perceived by mainstream society? Were the women looked down upon for following ‘non traditional’ belief structures? Were they seen as threatening for their critiques of the status quo?
Tulane

This is an interesting question, Tulane. I wonder, Alyssa, if it’s possible to read women’s participation in the spiritualist movement, such as Brown’s, as a form of feminist resistance to conventional–and especially patriarchal, cosmologies.

Alyssa! Nice work. I’ve read a lot of regionalist fiction but must admit that Alice Brown isn’t too familiar to me, though I’m definitely going to read her now, thanks to you! I was glad that you situated her in relation to Christianity and think you’re probably right to define “Christianity” as broadly as you do. As you talked about the plot of the story, I wondered whether Brown was deconstructing Christian notions of paradise and earth in the act of blurring the distinctions between “here” and “there.” But it also sounds like she’s going for mildly spooky, which I think would also place her pretty squarely in New England literary regionalist currents? Anyway, thanks for a lovely presentation!

—Prof. Anderson

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