{ "viewingDirection": "left-to-right", "metadata": [ { "label": "Origin Place", "value": "Meudon, France" }, { "label": "Provenance", "value": "By vote of the Association on November 13, 1967 these manuscripts were placed on permanent deposit in the Houghton Library. The Association reserves the right to withdraw manuscripts from time to time for display or other special purposes." }, { "label": "Physical Location", "value": "Houghton Library" }, { "label": "Extent", "value": "10pp" }, { "label": "Funding", "value": "" }, { "label": "Abstract", "value": "

My Owl is an autobiographical short story written by Abigail May Nieriker that recounts a series of events in the author's travels between London and Paris during the 1870s - a transitional decade for women's culture. It tells a gratifying experience of a young and ambitious artist who succeeds in getting their work displayed in the Paris Salon, which develops their persona and artistic intuition. The story parallels Nieriker's life as both she and the protagonist submitted work to the Parisian Salon and tried to prosper in a new country, conforming to the cultural standards whilst challenging the social boundaries for independent female artists in Europe. The subject of her painting is a taxidermized owl - at first a cheaply-bought item of bric-a-brac that later becomes a sapient voice of guidance and constructive criticism in the novella, influencing the speaker's creative journey. The ubiquitous approval that the painting receives is a highly progressive concept in itself as, according to contemporary critics such as Cheryl Torsney, May and her art were a matrix of cultural circumstances. <\/p>" }, { "label": "Date of Creation", "value": "1878" }, { "label": "Title", "value": "My Owl: A Passage from an artist's life abroad" }, { "label": "Material", "value": "Paper" }, { "label": "Classmark", "value": "MS Am 1817" }, { "label": "Acquisition", "value": "Deposited by The Louisa May Alcott Memorial Association, Concord, Massachusetts; received: 1967 November 13." }, { "label": "Subject(s)", "value": "Alcott family; Alcott, May, 1840-1879; Alcott, May, 1840-1879--Travel--Europe; Americans--Europe--History--19th century; Painting--Study and Teaching; Painting--Special Subjects--Animals, Birds" }, { "label": "Data Source(s)", "value": "The manuscript of My Owl is included in the collection titled An Artists Holiday<\/i>. There is some debate as to whether My Owl was originally intended to be part of this collection, due to the chronology. An Artists Holiday<\/i> is about Nieriker's travels in London in 1873, whereas we know that My Owl takes place four years later, due to the references to the 1877 Paris Salon, at which Nieriker exhibited a still life of bottles and fruit. Exhibiting at this salon was highly competitive, which we can see from the manuscript itself. The manuscript is believed to be co-written by Nieriker and her sister Louisa May Alcott. This is a contested claim due to uncertainty surrounding the ownership of what the Houghton Library identifies as chapters 1 and 6; these chapters are based on Nieriker's letters home and there is significant debate as to whether these were subject to plagiarism or whether Nieriker consented to Louisa's publication of her own work. Nieriker's expatriate status is notable due to the evolution from the \"True woman\" to the \"New woman\", a transformation that was pivotal in the development of her identification with Parisian French culture, following her final relocation to Europe in 1876, and the prodigious art she was able to produce." }, { "label": "Language(s)", "value": "English" }, { "label": "Author(s)", "value": "Abigail May Alcott Nieriker" }, { "label": "Bibliography", "value": "

Bullington, Judy, \"Inscriptions of Identity: May Alcott as Artist, Woman, and Myth\", Prospects<\/i>, Vol 27, 2002, pp. 177\u2013200<\/div>
Butterfield-Rosen, Emmelyn, \"The Hierarchy of Genres and the Hierarchy of Life-Forms\", Res<\/i>, Vol 73-74, No 1, 2020, pp. 77\u201393<\/div>
Frye, Northrop, \"Second Essay: Ethical Criticism: Theory of Symbols\", Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays<\/i>, Princeton University Press, 1973, pp. 71-128<\/div>
Garb, Tamar, Sisters of the Brush: Women's Artistic Culture in Late Nineteenth-Century Paris<\/i>, Yale University Press, 1994<\/div>
Homer, Iliad<\/i>, tr. Peter Jones, Penguin, 2014<\/div>
Lewis, Deane, \"Owls in Mythology and Culture\", The Owl Pages<\/i>, [accessed 12.05.2022]<\/div>
Morris, Desmond, Owl<\/i>, Reaktion, 2009<\/div>
Nieriker, Abigail May Alcott, \"My Owl\", An Artist's Holiday<\/i>, 1873, transcribed by Azelina Flint, December 2016 [accessed 12.05.2022]<\/div>
Weinstein, Krystyna, The Owl in Art, Myth, and Legend<\/i>, Grange Books, 1990<\/div>
Wilson Fernandes, Julio, Jung Journal<\/i>, Taylor & Francis, 2022 [accessed 13 May 2022]<\/div><\/div>
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My Owl is an autobiographical short story written by Abigail May Nieriker that recounts a series of events in the author's travels between London and Paris during the 1870s - a transitional decade for women's culture. It tells a gratifying experience of a young and ambitious artist who succeeds in getting their work displayed in the Paris Salon, which develops their persona and artistic intuition. The story parallels Nieriker's life as both she and the protagonist submitted work to the Parisian Salon and tried to prosper in a new country, conforming to the cultural standards whilst challenging the social boundaries for independent female artists in Europe. The subject of her painting is a taxidermized owl - at first a cheaply-bought item of bric-a-brac that later becomes a sapient voice of guidance and constructive criticism in the novella, influencing the speaker's creative journey. 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