UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Dangerous Crossings: Class Passing, Identity Intersectionality, and Consumer Culture in U.S. Crime Fiction and Film, 1940-1960 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Literature by Clare Rolens Committee in charge: Professor Michael Davidson, Chair Professor Rebecca Plant Professor Roddey Reid Professor Shelley Streeby Professor Nicole Tonkovich 2014 Copyright Clare Rolens, 2014 All Rights Reserved The Dissertation of Clare Rolens is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: Chair University of California, San Diego 2014 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page……………………………………………………………………………iii Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………………iv Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………..v Vita……………………………………………………………………………………...viii Abstract of the Dissertation………………………………………………………………ix Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..1 CHAPTER ONE The Femme Fatale on the Home Front in Raymond Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely (1940) and Vera Caspary’s Laura (1942)..………………..42 CHAPTER TWO For Richer, For Poorer: Class-Passing Mothers and Domestic Noir in Vera Caspary’s Bedelia (1945)……………………………………………..……90 CHAPTER THREE The Homme Fatal Strikes Again: Male Class Passers in Dorothy Hughes’s In a Lonely Place (1947) and Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955)….……………………………………………………………..….140 CHAPTER FOUR Economically Queer: Class and Gender Passing as Anti-Racist Resistance in Chester Himes’s All Shot Up (1960).………………………...….176 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...208 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………214 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Studying writers, I cannot help but note certain patterns in the writing process. One is the combination of the writer as always alone in her craft, and the other is writer as constantly supported, challenged, critiqued, and shaped by family, friends, colleagues, editors, advisors, and well-wishers. First and foremost, I would like to thank my kind and diligent advisor, Michael Davidson. Because of his detailed feedback and enthusiasm for my project, my doctoral studies have been not a long and onerous slog but a delight. Even late in his career, his energy and pleasure in scholarship has been infectious. I am particularly grateful for the moments when he demanded more of me, pushed me to a higher standard, and fostered ever more provocative work. My mother Debra and father Jim introduced me to the endlessly rich world of crime fiction; my father was my historian, and my mother my poet. Thanks to both of them for shaping my life as a writer, thinker, and reader. My brother, Sam, a journalist, songwriter, and playwright, has always been a source of inspiration and an invaluable collaborator for me, as has my endlessly creative poet of a sister-in-law, Jacquie. My aunt Lin is my intellectual sounding board, and a woman of grace and forceful, creative, and curious thought— my thanks to her for making me a traveller, and thus opening a wide world to me. My dear Sierra has been like a sister to me in my writings, my readings, and my travels. Lani taught me how to have complicated and ambitious conversations about everything under the sun, and taught me to enjoy and crave such conversations. Jessica developed this skill further, in long talks over cocktails and long walks on the beach collecting shells. Christie and Lata helped me to have fun and make my college years into countless good stories. Neil asked v me to think more complexly and feel more deeply, and was my partner in American history and inquisitive study of masculinities in American culture. I was lucky to have a fabulous committee who supported me with both praise and constructive criticism. My thanks go to Nicole Tonkovich for her advice in all matters academic and personal; her tireless commitment to teaching and scholarship has set the bar high for me. Shelley Streeby pushed me in the right direction in my study of working class identity and gender studies, and has made me a more well-rounded scholar. Roddey Reid’s class on glamour and popular culture, as well as his work in masculinity studies, provided the foundation for my overall scholarship. Rebecca Plant’s historian’s eye allowed me to write more textured and complete contextualization for my literary analysis, and encouraged my fascination with motherhood and domesticity in crime fiction and film. I had so much help at UCSD beyond my committee. Kate was my model academic and friend, without whom graduate school would have been a lot more confusing and a lot less joyful; Jack stood by me in balancing school and work, and taught me the best chicken recipe. Sarah gave me fresh passion and a new standard for academic work, as well as superlative feedback and guidance, and remains a partner in crafting exciting and moral scholarship. Mark, with his endless energy for ideas and cheeky chapter titles, brought a sense of fun to my gender studies scholarship. Soren, Satoko, and Juliana read draft after draft, and were generous with their feedback and support. Amanda introduced me to San Diego and its many pleasures, and introduced me also to all my Sunday Funday friends who have made my time at UCSD the best years of my life. Meredith and Charlie helped me through tough times with legal help, happy arguments, and Cards Against Humanity, and Tony reminded me to look at novels like a vi novelist. Above all, Jimi’s infinite creativity, curiosity, and support have made me into the scholar and the person that I am. I hope he never stops asking me questions. No one could ask for a more wise, lovely, and loving partner. vii VITA 2005 Bachelor of Arts, University of California, Santa Barbara 2006-2007 Tutor, Santa Barbara City College 2008-2014 Teaching Assistant, Eleanor Roosevelt College 2012 Master of Arts, University of California, San Diego 2012-2013 Teaching Assistant, Literature Department, University of California, San Diego 2013-2014 Dissertation Fellow, Literature Department, University of California, San Diego 2014 Doctor of Philosophy, University of California, San Diego PUBLICATIONS “Write Like A Man: Chester Himes and the Criminal Text Beyond Bars,” in Callaloo: A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters, Johns Hopkins University Press. Spring 2014. “Revising the Prison in the Literary Marketplace: Blurred Boundaries and Absurdity Obscured in Chester Himes’s Prison Novels,” in the peer-reviewed essay collection New Chester Himes Criticism, Eds. Michael Gillespie and Gary Holcomb. Forthcoming. FIELDS OF STUDY Twentieth century U.S. literature U.S. crime and detective fiction and film Consumer culture and advertising African American literature and culture Jewish American literature Critical gender studies Class in U.S. literature and culture viii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Dangerous Crossings: Class Passing, Identity Intersectionality, and Consumer Culture in U.S. Crime Fiction and Film, 1940-1960 by Clare Rolens Doctor of Philosophy in Literature University of California, San Diego, 2014 Professor Michael Davidson, Chair In “Dangerous Crossings: Class Passing, Identity Intersectionality, and Consumer Culture in U.S. Crime Fiction and Film, 1940-1960,” I argue that a close analysis of class masquerade illuminates the intersectional nature of identity and the criminalization of socially mobile individuals in American literature and popular culture. The midcentury American crime narrative is structured by the stubborn prevalence of a figure I call the class passer, that is, a character who performs a false class identity in order to be socially mobile and to conceal their class origins. This “dangerous crossing” of class lines is a catalyst that also destabilizes any notion of gender, race, and sexuality as fixed ix categories. My focus serves as a critical lens for crime fiction’s engagement with consumer capitalism, as well as for the study of class, and more broadly of identity itself as a fluid, yet rigid, concept in midcentury discourse. Chapter One, “The Femme Fatale on the Home Front in Raymond Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely (1940) and Vera Caspary’s Laura (1942),” pairs Chandler and Caspary’s noir novels to illustrate the crucial role of class in the femme fatale’s danger to capitalist patriarchy. In Chapter Two, “For Richer, For Poorer: Class-Passing Mothers and Domestic Noir in Vera Caspary’s Bedelia (1945), Cornell Woolrich’s I Married a Dead Man (1948), and No Man of Her Own (1950),” I compare Caspary and Woolrich’s stories of pregnant women who are criminal class passers, as well as the latter novel’s 1950 film adaptation. In Chapter Three, “The Homme Fatal Strikes Again: Male Class Passers in Dorothy Hughes’s In a Lonely Place (1947) and Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955),” I argue that female authors revise conventions of the crime genre to frame the encroachment of consumer culture and postmodern notions of identity as threats gendered as masculine rather than feminine. Chapter Four, “Economically Queer: Class and Gender Passing as Anti-Racist Resistance in Chester Himes’s All Shot Up (1960),” uses queer of color critique to examine how passing in Himes’s series of Harlem crime novels expose fixed identities and white supremacy as confidence games. Ultimately, my project demonstrates the importance of popular genre in the broader study of U.S. literature and culture, specifically in terms of class, intersectionality, and postmodern identities. x Introduction In 1922 Carroll John Daly