Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Gender And Colonialism: An Intergenerational Conversation In African Literature, Khadizatul Kubra

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

It is thought that African literature tends to be dominated by the masculine-oriented politics that also characterizes African public political life. In some cases, this is true, but there is a feminist movement in Africa, and many African women writers are using global feminist principles and global anti-colonial principles to write a different kind of literature. As a consequence, recent novels such as Yvonne Vera’s Nehanda (1993), set in Zimbabwe, and Petina Gappah’s Out of Darkness, Shining Light (2019), revise past, often male, African writers’ approaches to depicting the genders, even as they also criticize, implicitly or explicitly, still-widespread colonialist …

Feminist Modernist Dance, Melissa Bradshaw, Jessica Ray Herzogenrath

English: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This is the first of two special issues of Feminist Modernist Studies dedicated to feminist modernist dance (the second will be Summer, 2022). We have wrestled in our joint editorial work here, as well as in our own work, over the disjunctions embodied in these three terms conjoined. Though feminist scholars have been doing important work in modernist studies for half a century, the term modernism remains mired in gatekeeping canon formations that center white male artists, primarily writers, with few exceptions. The continued need to specify “feminist modernism” signals an exasperating truism that modernism persists in its reliable male-orientation. …

Ethnic Irony In Melvin B. Tolson's "Dark Symphony", Elizabeth Newton

Publications and Research

This article historicizes musical symbolism in Melvin B. Tolson’s poem “Dark Symphony” (1941). In a time when Black writers and musicians alike were encouraged to aspire to European standards of greatness, Tolson’s Afro-modernist poem establishes an ambivalent critical stance toward the genre in its title. In pursuit of a richer understanding of the poet’s attitude, this article situates the poem within histories of Black music, racial uplift, and white supremacy, exploring the poem’s relation to other media from the Harlem Renaissance. It analyzes the changing language across the poem’s sections and, informed by Houston A. Baker Jr.’s study of “mastery …

Virginia Woolf And Her World, Václav Paris

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

The Meaning Of Peace: William Faulkner, Modernism, And Perpetual Civil War, Jason Luke Folk

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Much of scholarship regarding the presence of war in literary modernism has foregrounded psychic trauma endured by veterans of World War I. The returning soldier is often figured as representative of the war’s infiltration of the homefront. The common argument claims that the erosion of the distinction between war and peace (as well as private and public) is a mirror image of the veteran’s wounded psyche. This thesis, however, argues that peace and war in the West have always been indistinct. The body politic is, in actuality, constituted by a perpetual civil war. Furthermore, the novels of William Faulkner, because …

Leonard Diepveen. Modernist Fraud: Hoax, Parody, Deception, Jayme Stayer

English: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Diepeveen has spent a considerable part of his career chasing after the tricky concept of intent, how authors or works signal it, and how interpretive communities respond to it. With his most recent book, he has brought a systematician’s rigour to the question of how modernism addresses, offends, or accounts for its various audiences. One of the most engaging elements of Modernist Fraud is how Diepeveen rescues authorial intention from the New Critical and Barthesian dustbins, revealing its centrality in the evaluation and understanding of art, in spite of its unpindownable nature. The paradox of intent is that its ‘evidentiary …

Harlem And Abroad: Notes To An International 'Renaissance', Joshua I. Cohen

Publications and Research

Like other intractable figures of the Harlem Renaissance, the movement’s visual artists sometimes exceeded their expected parameters, and thus their anticipated representativeness of a locality. Their images, in other words, did not automatically disclose Harlem-bound or even US-bound concerns. Now familiar through continual reproduction in exhibition catalogues, scholarly monographs and literary compendia, certain artworks from the period – such as Archibald J. Motley’s Blues (1929; Figure 1) and Aaron Douglas’s Congo (c. 1928; Figure 2) – subverted any definition of the Harlem Renaissance that would hinge on a narrowly delimited urban geography or national imaginary. Motley, who painted ‘Blues’ during …

Intertextuality, Aesthetics, And The Digital: Rediscovering Chekhov In Early British Modernism, Sam Jacob

Modernist Short Story Project

Mark Halliday’s poem, “Chekhov,” published in 1992, raises a simple yet profound question regarding the Russian playwright and author, Anton Chekhov: What do we get from Chekhov? Considering the present article’s particular focus, Halliday’s query may be used to ask how Chekhov influenced early modernist writers (circa 1900-1930) from the British literary context. However, when considering the amount of scholarly work devoted to this question, the initial simplicity of Halliday’s inquiry evaporates, giving way to a breadth of complexity, nuance, and ambiguity. Such ambiguity has led scholars attempting to trace the intertextual convergence between Chekhov and the early modernist writers …

Understanding Proust, Rio Turnbull

Modernist Short Story Project

French author Marcel Proust was at the forefront of exploring the literary device “stream of consciousness” as its usage began to rise in the early 1900s. He seemed particularly interested in using “stream of consciousness” to delve into memory. What may be the most articulate statement of Proust about his philosophy of memory, according to O’Brien, is as follows: “Yes, if memory, thanks to oblivion, could not contract any link, throw any chain between it and the present minute, if it stayed in its place, on its date, if it kept its distance, its isolation in the hollow of a …

Francis Gregg And Horror Feminism, Sarah Jensen

Modernist Short Story Project

For centuries, humankind has been fascinated with horror. From the cruel arenas where gladiators fought to the death in Ancient Rome, to todays Halloween blockbusters, there is no short history for a genre that can creep into any particular story, with just a few ingredients. I believe that horror captures attention through the storytelling mode of relatability. Horror asks of its readers and viewers “what would you do?” Horror is inherently scary because it triggers human empathy and fear for the characters. Experiencing a horror movie or listening to a true crime podcast today can be a validating experience as …

Modernism In Postwar Times: Life Through The Short Story, Daniel Sowards

Modernist Short Story Project

“The Mole” by Gerald Bullett, is a literary text that comments on postwar life and events that are ahead of its time. It was published in the British periodical, The London Mercury, in May of 1923 and was written post WWI in a time when literature was still reflecting the effects of the war. During the short story “The Mole,” there are many connections surrounding the Gubbins’ and war. In Voyant, where the mole is mentioned, Mrs. Gubbins is also mentioned. This reveals that Mr. and Mrs. Gubbins’ marriage is a war and her mole is a constant reminder …

Paralysis And Patriarchy: Moult’S “Stucco” And The Burden Of Responsibility, Elena Arana

Modernist Short Story Project

“Stucco” is a story about paralysis. A single man, around 50 years old, lives with and provides for his aging mother and spinster-sister. He is a blue collar factory employee who works six days a week, from dawn until dusk, humoring his family’s gossip around the dinner table each night in return for his weekend escapes to the country. When he finally gets the chance to retire, he pleads with his mother and sister to leave the city and move to the little cottage that he has always dreamed of owning. They refuse. He drops the subject. The end. “Stucco” …

“A Perfect Stranger”: The Domestic Power Struggle In “Samson And Delilah”, Shelby Shipley

Modernist Short Story Project

D.H Lawrence's short story “Samson and Delilah” was first published in vol. 21 no. 100 of The English Review, a modernist magazine that ran from 1908 to 1923 before it was absorbed into The National Review. According to the Modernist Journals Project, the magazine is described as “being more "modernist" than it actually was” however it was still “a major literary journal of the transitional period” (Modernist Journals Project). The English Review’s first editor, Ford Madox Hueffer, played an instrumental role in D.H Lawrence's literary career. In 1909, Impressed with Lawrence's talent, Heuffer published some of his poems in …

Grief And Color In A. E. Coppard’S “The Princess Of Kingdom Gone”, Sydney Sterrett

Modernist Short Story Project

Only about a year after the horrors of World War I, England was doing its best to reestablish itself as a seat of cultural and artistic value. Many journals and magazines ran new poetry and stories that were meant to relive war time or move on from it, but nearly everything seemed to be colored by the sights that the surviving young men had seen in the trenches. In November of 1919, A. E. Coppard published a short story in the Voices of Poetry and Prose magazine—a magazine that was meant to help readers recover from the war through new, …

Apples And Orchards, Exteriority And Interiority: An Examination Of The Agency Of Objects In “In The Orchard”, Natalia Green

Modernist Short Story Project

“In the Orchard” is a short story written by Virginia Woolf and published in the Criterion in April 1923. The Criterion was a journal that focused on publishing high-brow literature; it contained works from authors such as T.S. Eliot (who also edited the journal), George Saintsbury, and, of course, Virginia Woolf. Eliot created the Criterion with the purpose of publishing writing that contained the unconventional practices seen in modernist writing. Banerjee notes this motive when he states, “He [Eliot] also believed that it was through the journalistic channel that he could promote the kind of revolutionary poetry that he and …

All Is Fair In Love In “War”, Sabrina Thomas

Modernist Short Story Project

Love has always been a complicated concept. The battlefield of love is difficult, and heartbreaking to navigate. Members of the Bloomsbury Circle in the 1900s would have felt the complications that come along with love. The Bloomsbury Circle was a literary group known for its promiscuity along with some of its well-known members such as Virginia Woolf (Shone). Mary Hutchinson was an honorary part of the Bloomsbury Circle and entered into an affair with Clive Bell (Beechey). Her short story “War,” published in a 1917 edition of The Egoist follows a woman named Jane who is taking part in an …

Individual Femininity And The Modernist Epiphany, Megan Davies

Modernist Short Story Project

The 20^th century author Frank Swinnerton was well respected for writing “excellent, credible stories about contemporary people, usually living in or near London, [people who were] intelligent and aware of the times they were living in but concerned above all with their relationships as friends, enemies, lovers, or rivals in love” (Times). Despite Swinnerton’s relative renown, his biographies do not mention that he wrote short stories, so the discovery of his short stories in at least two 20^th century periodicals, The Open Window and Rhythm, sheds light on a largely ignored aspect of the author’s …

Middle Class Anxiety In “Wang-Ho And The Burial Robe”, Malcolm Lamb

Modernist Short Story Project

“Wang-Ho and the Burial Robe” was published by The London Mercury in 1918 and would later be included as the seventh story in Ernest Bramah’s 1922 fantasy anthology, Kai Lung’s Golden Hours. Though published in a well-respected journal alongside the likes of Virginia Woolf and Siegfried Sassoon, “Wang-Ho and the Burial Robe” has little in common with the modernist trends of the early twentieth century. The story features no stream of consciousness, experimentation in new styles, epiphany, commentary on sexuality or gender, evocative imagery, reference to the Great War, or religious symbolism. In fact, it seems safe to suppose that …

Predicting The Future For A Victorian World: A Digital Exploration Of “Domestic Studies In The Year 2000 A.D.”, Kimberly Plater

Modernist Short Story Project

While “Domestic Studies in the Year 2000 A. D.” may be E. S. P. Haynes’s only piece of fiction, it captures two of his main ideologies in two very short stories. The stories adopt a dystopian view toward the future, looking ahead 87 years with two scenarios depicting average life in the year 2000. Both stories tackle decidedly controversial topics for the early twentieth century: individual freedoms and gender roles. The story found an appropriate home in the progressive periodical The New Freewoman, which heavily promoted the advancement of women, taking progressive stances on equality and feminism. Part one …

Detachment: An Analysis Of Nugent Barker’S “Mrs. Sayce’S Guy”, Caroline Bressler

Modernist Short Story Project

“Mrs. Sayce’s Guy,” by Nugent Barker is an inconclusive, mysterious ghost story centered around the events of the British national holiday, “Guy Fawkes Night,” which takes place on November 5^th. In particular, the story focuses on Mrs. Sayce as the main character; a sickly woman who finds herself in a conflicted family situation. Nugent Barker uses unlikely characters, such as the face, to give depth and mystery to his story. As a personified actor, the face is a performative aspect of what is happening psychologically, resulting in a story about consciousness, interiority, and a distrust of humanity and …

Hg Wells’ Anticipations : More “Perishable” Feminism, Kacey Sorenson

Modernist Short Story Project

In researching H.G. Wells’ evolving views on eugenics, race, anti-Semitism, and women, there was a noticeable absence of scholars referring to his last chapter of Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon Human Life and Thought. Regardless of why it has been overlooked, the aim of this study is to use the last chapter of Anticipations specifically to emphasize and confirm what feminist scholars have extracted as Wells’ view of women: what he proudly owned as feminism was dismissed by his contemporaries as “very perishable” (Kirchwey 308).

Social Alienation And Expatriate Fiction, Courtney Larkin

Modernist Short Story Project

“The Velvet Glove,” a short story written by Henry James, was first published in The English Review in March 1909. At this time, the editor of The English Review was Ford Madox Hueffer, whose purpose in running the periodical was to seek out and spotlight the finest writers of the era and to showcase literary excellence. Indeed, Hueffer saw much potential in James, as well as in other writers whose works appeared in The English Review throughout the years: D. H. Lawrence, Joseph Conrad, Thomas Hardy, H. G. Wells, Katherine Mansfield, William Butler Yeats, E. M. Forster, and Ezra Pound. …

Books Have Their Destinies, Calvin Carpenter

Modernist Short Story Project

Books Have Their Destinies

Habent Sua Fata Libelli by Maurice Baring was a fascinating work of literature from an author who specialized in Drama, and this work was no exception. Found in the London Mercury, the title can be translated from Latin as, “Books have their Destinies” which hints at the important role books will play for our main characters. Maurice Baring, who’s work saw only limited success, is far from a household name, although his contributions are still perhaps worth mentioning. His life had a rich history, as he served in the Royal Air Force during WWI. After his …

Steven Acroyd Goes To War: Expressions Of The War Experience In “The Victim”, Sydney Squires

Modernist Short Story Project

While “the image of the ‘shell-shocked soldier’ remains one of the most enduring of the First World War” (Keown, “Statements”), it is nearly impossible to find information about women’s trauma from World War I. While women were noncombatants, they were still heavily involved in warfare: they built the machines, drove the ambulances, and tried to keep their city from being bombed. However, after the war, their psychological trauma was not taken seriously. However, these war experiences still carried significant psychological weight for those who bore them. May Sinclair is one example of this: she was on the Belgian warfront for …

Meaninglessness In Tomlinson’S “The Fog”, Tate Wright

Modernist Short Story Project

As an aesthetic movement in British literature, modernism was marked by an unanticipated departure from traditional ways of interacting with the world. Modernism was composed of a series of virtues that emphasized individualism and experimentation as a way of subverting traditional expectations in literature, and the often discouraged stress on the individual sunk only deeper into the armature of modernist thinking with the outbreak of the Great War. World War I laid the grounds for the modernist intelligentsia to shift artistic focus to the self and inner consciousness, deliberately choosing to see the decay and alienation of the individual undergirding …

Finding A Foreign Home In Katherine Mansfield’S “The Daughters Of The Late Colonel”, Sam Jacob

Modernist Short Story Project

The latter end of Katherine Mansfield’s life (1915-1923), a time considered by many to be the most fruitful years of her career, also marked a period of self-examination and introspection for the author. Much of this self-reflection focused on Mansfield’s long-standing frustration with her New Zealand heritage—which she had abandoned in favor of a bohemian life of writing and creativity—with an emerging desire for a more traditional sense of home and domestic life. Two letters written by Mansfield during this time reflect the dissonance caused by these desires. The first letter, written in 1915 to her husband, John Middleton Murray, …

Cynical Indictment Or Genuine Elevation? Ethel Smyth’S “An Adventure In A Train”, Chad Kang

Modernist Short Story Project

Ethel Smyth’s short story, “An Adventure in a Train,” was featured in the London Mercury in 1920. As the journal tried to “help bridge the gap in discussion of literary criticism that was made during the first world war… reconnecting the learned public to literary spheres,” anyone acquainted with the periodical would assume that Smyth’s “An Adventure” would contain literary richness and social commentary (Hipol). Interestingly, however, the plot of “An Adventure” is quite straightforward and lacks any vivid action that is usually associated with any “adventure” story. Indeed, the narrator gets on a train, talks to a middle-aged woman, …

H.M. Tomlinson’S “Barbarism” As Post-War Ptsd, Jessica Hogge

Modernist Short Story Project

On its surface, “Barbarism” by H.M. Tomlinson describes an English adventurer in the jungles of Malaysia. He returns to England to find it more barbaric than the uncivilized jungles he just left. However, by examining the story in light of H.M. Tomlinson’s history of anti-war sentiment, I see “Barbarism” as commentary on World War I. Specifically, I believe that the short story describes the consequences of war that a soldier experiences personally—PTSD (or “shell-shock”), guilt, and isolation. In “Barbarism” Tomlinson creates a tone of anxiety through his word choice, brings to light the complications of differentiating between cowardice and shell-shock, …

“The Experience Of Mrs. Patterson-Grundy” As Proto-Baudrillardian Parable, Kyler Merrill

Modernist Short Story Project

Morley Roberts’s “The Experience of Mrs. Patterson-Grundy” is an inferior potboiler, all too fit for The Strand, a middlebrow general interest periodical (Willis). It is repetitive, its characters are underdeveloped, and its jokes usually fall flat. Even the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography indicates that “[c]ritics agree that he [Roberts] wrote far too much and too quickly, his popularity with the average reader being acquired at the cost of quality” (Coustillas). The present story exemplifies Roberts’s populism, but it warrants closer consideration for two special reasons: it mocks Victorian priggishness while extolling adventurous albeit patriarchal romanticism (unsurprising, given Morley …

“The Price Of An Inspiration” And Feminism, Hana Buhler

Modernist Short Story Project

There is the saying, “Behind every great man is a great woman.” During the Victorian period, this saying could be considered the theme as women were supporting their husbands and children from within the home. Eventually though, women no longer wanted to be behind. Instead they wanted to be more involved with society by being alongside men. The short story “The Price of an Inspiration” by Ellen A. Smith published in The Argosy May 1900 volume demonstrates this eagerness through a woman named Kathleen Hayes alongside her classmate Carl Brenner. The two come to learn throughout the story that as …