And The Pursuit Of Happiness

By Maira Kalman

Kalman Syllabus

And the Pursuit of Happiness began in 2009 as a blog on the New York Times website (Kalman Blog), and was published in monthly installments. In October 2010 it was published as a book.

---

Discussion
(wiki entry calendar and assignment details)

Last Wiki Entry!

sashakudler 31 May 2011 05:26

In discussing And The Pursuit of Happiness, we discussed the ways in which Kalman painted (get it?) a counter-hegemonic narrative. Most obviously, she is an immigrant, who came over from Israel as a young girl, therefore her perspective on American culture, her own pursuit of happiness, is automatically a counter-hegemonic narrative. Additionally, where most books on history are packed with words, crammed so closely together on the page that the reader has to strain their eyes to comprehend them, Kalman's book uses language sparsely, and rather than pedantically discussing one particular topic, Kalman jumps from image to image in a way that channels an average persons attention span, rather than that of a history aficionado. This motif of "the ordinary" permeates all parts of Kalman's book - from her obsession with fancy hats to her adventures with organic, local food, Kalman highlights simplicity above all else in her text. To her, the greatness of American democracy is incomplete without all of its thoroughly mundane components. Even the smallest thing in a persons life (like eating a meringue in a garden, or taking a napkin-folding class) contributes to their own Jeffersonian pursuit.