Imagining Race in the Works of Crane, Dunbar, Cather and Stevens
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Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Dissertations Graduate College 8-1999 Another Person's Skin: Imagining Race in the Works of Crane, Dunbar, Cather and Stevens Lisa M. DuRose Western Michigan University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, Creative Writing Commons, and the Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons Recommended Citation DuRose, Lisa M., "Another Person's Skin: Imagining Race in the Works of Crane, Dunbar, Cather and Stevens" (1999). Dissertations. 1502. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations/1502 This Dissertation-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ANOTHER PERSON'S SKIN: IMAGINING RACE IN THE WORKS OF CRANE, DUNBAR, CATHER AND STEVENS by Lisa M. DuRose A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, Michigan August 1999 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ANOTHER PERSON'S SKIN: IMAGINING RACE IN THE WORKS OF CRANE, DUNBAR, CATHER AND STEVENS Lisa M. DuRose, Ph.D. Western Michigan University, 1999 This study is interested in the motivations behind certain authors' attempts to, in the words of Willa Cather, "enter into another person's skin"~in the desires compelling writers to cross, transgress, or perhaps transcend those barriers that have historically divided people in the world: barriers of color, class, and gender. In particular it seeks to examine the works of four early twentieth century writers who undertake what these days is considered risky: transracial and transethnic crossings. By relying on biographical, cultural, and historical sources, I explore the strategies American writers Stephen Crane (1871-1900), Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872- 1906), Willa Cather (1873-1947), and Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) adopt in their attempt to represent and imagine what they are not. Specifically the study analyzes how each of them constructs the lives of others, those who exist outside the author's racial or social group. As we near the dawn of the twenty first century, literary critics remain skeptical about the possibility that the imagination can do the work that all four of these writers believe it can do. At the heart of this dissertation, then, is an effort to explore the source of this skepticism by investigating how these authors' representations and impersonations of racial/ethnic others leave many contemporary readers feeling ambivalent, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. uncertain, uneasy. This ambiguity is fueled by a series of questions that surface again and again in this critical examination: What function do racial/ethnic outsiders nave in the work and what do they offer the writer who uses them? Can any artist legitimately cross lines of color, ethnicity, or class? Can a writer's personal knowledge and experience living among racial/ethnic outsiders make for a more "successful" crossing? Does a writer's racial make-up better equip one to understand those who share the writer's same side of the color/ethnic line? Are movements across the lines of color/ethnicity or class, for all intents and purposes, the same kind of travel no matter which side of the line one begins? And finally, are what we have historically designated as color/ethnic/class lines more accurately represented as a continuum, governed by its own subtle gradations and levels? Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. 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Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 9942072 UMI Microform 9942072 Copyright 1999, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Copyright by Lisa M. DuRose 1999 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation stems, in large part, from the influence of two important teachers and thinkers in my life: Shirley Clay Scott who convinced me, in her very Wordsworthian way, that in the realm of the imagination all people can meet; and Katherine Joslin who taught me that art never takes place in isolation, but is shaped by the historical and cultural occasion. This study has been an attempt to reconcile these contradictory philosophies by insisting that since both sides can claim wisdom, I remain happily conflicted. I thank each of them for her intellectual encouragement during these years of study and for sharing her own story with me about her beginning as a reader and a writer; stories, incidentally, like mine, which suggest that as readers we are capable of falling in love with characters and authors who don't necessarily share our same gender, race, class, region, or even sexual orientation. I wish to acknowledge as well the support and guidance from those teachers who sustained my love of literature throughout the years: Mrs. Keyes, Marjorie McCormick,Terry Brown, Laura Zlogar, Richard Beckham, Phil Egan, and Stephanie Gauper. My thanks also to my committee who offered generous and careful readings of this work: Katherine Joslin, Mark Richardson, and Leander Jones. I am grateful as well for a dissertation fellowship I received from Western Michigan University which allowed me to complete this study in a reasonable amount of time. An earlier version of Chapter V was published in The Wallace Stevens Journal and I ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Acknowledgments—continued thank them for permission to use it here. This dissertation is dedicated to four very influential people: to Gramps for his stubborn faith in me; to Dad for teaching me good humor and the beauty of craftsmanship; to Mom who made my first experience with language safe, warm, and full of wonder; and to the memory of my Grandma whose hospitality and strength attended me during by best and most challenging teaching moments. Lisa M. DuRose iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS................................................................................. ii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION.................................................................................. 1 H. ENCOUNTERING THE OTHER HALF: CULTURAL NEGOTIATIONS ACROSS THE COLOR LINE.............................. 15 IE. WHEN A CROWD GATHERS: STEPHEN CRANE'S SPECTACLES, FREAKS, AND HORRORS...................................... 57 IV. THE NOVELTY OF A BLACK FACE': DUNBAR'S PRECARIOUS CROSSING OF THE COLOR LINE......................... 99 V. RECOVERING (M)OTHERS: THE SEARCH FOR HOME IN CATHER'S RACIAL AND ETHNIC CROSSINGS......................... 149 VI. RACIAL DOMAIN AND THE CAPABLE IMAGINATION OF WALLACE STEVENS.................................................................... 190 VII. CONCLUSION....................................................................................... 225 BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................................................................ 231 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION "Human beings are capable of powered, flight; we can travel across ourselves