Maeve Brennan
”The Servants’ Dance” (1954)

 First Mandatory Task (of Three)

Your first task: read the assigned literary content: the 1954 short story titled “The Servants’ Dance,” written by Maeve Brennan and first published in The New Yorker magazine on May 14, 1954. Irish-born, American-educated Brennan was a New Yorker employee, and “The Servants’ Dance” belongs to a sequence of short stories she released in that publication. Known as the Herbert’s Retreat series, the sequence concerns the troubled dynamic between Irish maids (colloquially known as “Bridgets”) and their American employers in an exclusive community called Herbert’s Retreat, situated on the Hudson River, north of New York City. In Seven Days a Week: Women and Domestic Service in Industrializing America (University of Illinois Press, 1981), David M. Katzman notes that by the early twentieth century, Irish women constituted the largest percentage of domestic servants in the United States (page 66).

Brennan based Herbert’s Retreat on an actual place, Snedens Landing, which The New York Times (November 21, 2018) described as a “tiny riverside enclave in the hamlet of Palisades, NY, in Rockland County, 12 miles north of the George Washington Bridge.” As in Brennan’s time, celebrities favor Snedens Landing. The 2018 Times profile noted, “The enclave … has a remarkably high concentration of celebrities. Last month, Scarlett Johansson closed on a $4 million, ivy-covered colonial on Washington Spring Road, up the hill from Jerry Hall and Rupert Murdoch. Jane Pauley and Garry Trudeau are reportedly building a house in the woods. The presence of these and other giants (Bill Murray, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Al Pacino …) brings disproportionate press attention.”

Maeve Breann lived in Snedens Landing during much of her unhappy, five-year marriage to St. Clair McKelway, a fellow New Yorker writer, well known for a severe drinking problem. (She was his fourth wife.) A total of six “Herbert’s Retreat” stories emerged from Brennan’s Snedens Landing experience, and they appeared in print as follows: (1) “The View from the Kitchen” = Nov. 14, 1953, edition of The New Yorker • (2) “The Anachronism” = Jan. 30, 1954 • (3) “The Servants’ Dance” = May 22, 1954 • (4) “The Stone, Hot-Water Bottle” = Nov. 27, 1954 • (5) “The Gentleman in the Pink-and-White Striped Shirt” = April 29, 1955 • (6) “The Divine Fireplace” = Apr. 21, 1956.

You can access Maeve Brennan’s “The Servant’s Dance” in the form of a printable PDF by clicking the icon above. Alternatively, you can access the PDF by clicking here.

 Second Mandatory Task (of Three)

Your second task: complete and submit — via Folio, before the deadline — the single Write Now (i.e. written homework) exercise about the focal literary text. Refer to your syllabus and/or the course Folio page to check the submission deadline. No late work is accepted.

There are 10 questions, presented in reading order. In other words: the questions chronologically track the PDF that contains the assigned reading: Maeve Brennan’s 1954 short story, “The Servants’ Dance.” When attempting the questions, it’s advisable NOT to begin with Folio but instead to answer the questions, one after the other, in a Microsoft Word document, which you should save as you proceed. That way, you’ll always have proof that you completed the exercise, even if Folio goes down or otherwise doesn’t cooperate. When you have finished the entire Write Now exercise, you should review it carefully, save it again, and then submit it via Folio — either as a Microsoft Word document or a PDF — before the firm deadline. The ability to submit ceases at that time, and effort not received before the deadline earns a grade of zero. Another way of saying the above: late submission isn’t possible. Remember, please, that your grade depends not just on correct responses but also: complete sentences; good grammar; accurate spelling; and clear expression. You can access the Write Now questions either by clicking here or by engaging with the green bar immediately below.

Please be very mindful of the following statements, which appear on the course syllabus.

Do your own work. Students may not collaborate on the production of responses to Write Now quizzes (i.e. homework exercises). When grading, we pay close attention to similarities between submissions. A student found to have copied or otherwise relied on another student’s work (on even one occasion) — or found to have committed plagiarism — will receive an “F” for the entire course and, in addition, will be reported to the University for a hearing that may result in suspension or expulsion from GS.

Third Mandatory Task (of Three)

Your third task: study the instructional content. In order to render the lectures as clear as possible, your instructor has captured their essential material in written form, presented immediately below as a PDF: Written Account of Brennan Material. Consider these documents your primary resource when studying the focal text. Terms that have particular importance appear in highlighted form.

EXAM WORDS

When preparing for your exam about this work of literature, ensure that you are fully up to speed with the following data (all of which receive explanation in the written accounts):

Name of American magazine in which “The Servants’ Dance” first appeared ••• Penname that Maeve Brennan sometimes used when writing for that publication ••• American magazine where Brennan worked as a fashion and lifestyle journalist ••• Irish fashion designer who Leona’s red linen shorts likely evoke ••• Name of principal maid in story (works for Leona); nickname or generic name given to Irish maids in America ••• Model for Charles Runyon: New York City-based Gerald Murphy, who entertained authors, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald (author of The Great Gatsby) ••• What Charles is known as being, in addition to a “wit” ••• Know significance of “Big House” ••• Know the architectural term used to describe Leona’s deck ••• Libidinal ••• Noun that refers to a grimace, such as an ape or monkey might make ••• Three profession with which Irishmen in story are associated ••• What/who the statues on Leona’s lawn portray ••• Maeve Brennan’s father’s challenge when Irish ambassador to the United States: Irish neutrality in which war? ••• Name of author of “The Crisis of America Masculinity” ••• Name of author of The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life ••• Terms: “sign vehicles”; “impression management” ••• Truman Capote character possibly based on Maeve Brennan ••• Strategy that maids use against their employers at the dance ••• Character Dolly’s family name ••• How Dolly’s husband characterizes the “atmosphere” at the prior year’s dance ••• Debt bondage ••• Actual community, north of New York City, on which Brennan based Herbert’s Retreat