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The Liminal Space of Character Interiority in Modernist Literature By The Liminal Space of Character Interiority in Modernist Literature By Erica Calderon A Thesis Submitted to the Department of English Sonoma State University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS in English (Literary Criticism) Committee Members: Dr. Thaine Stearns, Chair Dr. John Kunat, Reader May 12, 2021 Copyright 2021 By Erica Calderon ii Authorization for Reproduction of Master’s Thesis I grant permission for the print or digital reproduction of parts of this thesis without further authorization from me, on the condition that the person or agency requesting reproduction absorb the cost and provide proper acknowledgment of authorship. Permission to reproduce this thesis in its entirety must be obtained from me. Date: 5/12/2021 Nam Erica Calderon iii The Liminal Space of Character Interiority in Modernist Literature Thesis by Erica Calderon ABSTRACT Through a poststructuralist lens, this thesis deconstructs character interiority in modernist literature to locate the subjective experience of the modern individual amid the cultural and social shifts of the early twentieth century. By doing so, this thesis identifies a pattern of characters who struggle to express their internal identities that disrupt social conformity externally. This pattern appears in H.D.’s HERmione, Rebecca West’s The Return of the Soldier, and Virginia Woolf’s The Waves. By writing from the mental interiors of their characters and portraying the external boundaries of their identity formation, these three writers create what this thesis refers to as a “liminal space” or a threshold between character interiority and exteriority. Each of the novels depict social constructs, such as gender, the body, the constraints of time, and even language, as inhibiting the individual self-expression of each character. In turn, the authors render their characters’ private identities as existing without a physical presence and thus occupying a liminal space of existence. Most importantly, the three narratives critique ideals of the traditional roles for women, which restricted women to private domestic spheres, and they explore the anxieties and hindrances associated with the early twentieth-century emergence of the figure of the “New Woman.” Within the context of modernism, H.D., West, and Woolf not only revolutionized the culture of art and language but the social outlook on the human experience and psyche through their innovative treatment of character interiority. These three modernists demonstrate their commitment to how language transcends verbal expression and relates to an individual’s inner, most private self. MA Program: English Sonoma State University Date: May 12, 2021 iv Acknowledgments This project would not have been possible without the guidance of my brilliant and supportive advisor, Professor Thaine Stearns. It has been a great pleasure learning from Thaine during my time as a graduate student. I am grateful for Thaine’s enthusiastic and inspirational lectures on modernism that have influenced the foundational argument of my thesis. Most of all, I am thankful for all of the time Thaine has dedicated to helping me work through my ideas and providing me with resources and advice so that I could achieve my academic goals. I would also like to thank Professor John Kunat for his commitment to my thesis project as the second reader and for helping me grow as a writer. From my time as an undergraduate to a graduate student, John’s words of encouragement and his passion for literature have made a lasting impression on me and my work. Additionally, I am thankful to Professor Anne Goldman, Professor Chingling Wo, and Professor Kim Hester Williams for the invaluable support they have given to me throughout my entire academic career at Sonoma State. And, of course, I am very grateful for my wonderful cohort and our seminar discussions that have greatly influenced my thinking and writing. Finally, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my friends and family, whose unwavering love and support during this time kept me going, even on the most challenging of days. v Table of Contents List of Figures vii Introduction 1 Chapter One 11 Jenny’s Story: The Narrative Voice of Rebecca West’s The Return of the Soldier Chapter Two 29 Liberating the Private Self from the Bounds of Society: H.D.’s HERmione Chapter Three 52 An Inner Reflection on Approaching Death: Virginia Woolf’s The Waves Conclusion 74 Works Cited 77 vi List of Figures Introduction Figure 1. Bonnie Kime Scott. “A Tangled Mesh of Modernists,” 1995………………………...4 Chapter One Figure 2. EJ Kealey, “Women of Britain Say ‘GO!’,” 1915…………………………………..13 Figure 3. Wyndham Lewis, A Battery Shelled, 1919……………………………………….....24 Chapter Two Figure 4. Good Housekeeping Magazine, Johnson’s Kleen Floor advertisement, 1910………32 Figure 5. The Little Review, advertisement for Diane of the Green Van, 1914………………..32 Chapter Three Figure 6. Pablo Picasso, Girl Before a Mirror, 1932………………………………………….61 vii 1 Introduction In the early twentieth century, modernist writers asserted the interiority of characters to posit an understanding of how the cultural and social changes that shaped the modern world affected the subjective experience of the modern individual. This thesis focuses on H.D.’s HERmione, Rebecca West’s The Return of the Soldier, and Virginia Woolf’s The Waves as exemplary instances of character interiority amid a broader social narrative. Each of these modernist texts exemplifies how its author used different types of narration to shape the mental interiors of their characters and explore the psychological component of human existence. In HERmione, H.D. alternates between first- and third-person points of view to articulate the synthesis of the titular character’s internal and external selves. In so doing, H.D. creates a disorienting effect for both Hermione, the main character, and the reader. As a result, H.D. shows how the repeated rejection of Hermione in her social world complicates her identity formation. In The Return of the Soldier, West employs a first-person account of a woman’s private response to the First World War as she struggles to navigate the domestic sphere. Jenny, the novel’s narrator, is silenced by the other characters and their traditional gender roles and, in turn, retreats inward to explore and reflect on her identity. Finally, in The Waves, considered to be Woolf’s most experimental novel, Woolf breaks away from traditional modes of storytelling and interlaces the soliloquies of six different characters. Through the characters Jinny and Susan, Woolf illustrates the importance of the private identities women formed during this time, as they were sexualized and visualized as mothers and wives in the external world. Although distinct in their narrative styles, each text establishes a vantage point from the private, psychological perspectives of the characters. The characters in each novel face 2 challenges and experience anxiety associated with manifesting their internal identities externally. The authors posit that one’s private identity will struggle to have an external representation outside of the internal self, especially if that identity breaks from social conformity. In turn, the three narratives depict a liminal space, or a threshold, between character interiority and exteriority, where the characters’ identities are deferred from manifesting. Within this liminal space, the writers uncover the factors outside of the self that inhibit individual self-expression. By revealing these obstacles, and by foregrounding the internal narratives of their characters, H.D., West, and Woolf render the multidimensional elements of humanity. Consequently, each writer avoids depicting how their characters conform to social constructs, such as gender, the body, the constraints of time, and even language. Experimenting with character interiority in this way allows the three authors to test the boundaries of identity formation and question how individuals can sustain their individuality in a world constructed by social mimicry. Most importantly, the three narratives critique ideals of the traditional roles of women, which restricted women to private domestic spheres, and they explore the anxieties and hindrances associated with the early twentieth-century emergence of the figure of the “New Woman.” H.D., West, and Woolf wrote their narratives in the frame of literary modernism, a period spanning 1910 to roughly 1945. And because they experimented with form, narration, and the aesthetics of language to attend to matters of gender and the subjective experience of the modern individual, their novels exemplify modernism. Indeed, for many scholars, the term “modernism” and its key characteristics are difficult to define succinctly. In broad terms, literary modernism has become known for its disruption of genres, break from traditional forms, and experimentation with language. Within the context of modernism, the three authors not only revolutionized the culture of art and language but the social outlook on the human experience 3 and psyche through their innovative treatment of character interiority. These three modernists demonstrate their commitment to how language transcends verbal expression and relates to an individual’s inner, most private self. The modernist movement, according to Peter Nicholls in Modernisms, traces back to the work of nineteenth-century French poet Charles Baudelaire, who rejected Romantic ideals and argued for “modernity as subject matter of
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