Absent Presence: Women in American Gangster Narrative
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Absent Presence: Women in American Gangster Narrative Carmela Coccimiglio Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a doctoral degree in English Literature Department of English Faculty of Arts University of Ottawa © Carmela Coccimiglio, Ottawa, Canada, 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract iii Acknowledgements v Introduction 1 Chapter One 27 “Senza Mamma”: Mothers, Stereotypes, and Self-Empowerment Chapter Two 57 “Three Corners Road”: Molls and Triangular Relationship Structures Chapter Three 90 “[M]arriage and our thing don’t jive”: Wives and the Precarious Balance of the Marital Union Chapter Four 126 “[Y]ou have to fucking deal with me”: Female Gangsters and Textual Outcomes Chapter Five 159 “I’m a bitch with a gun”: African-American Female Gangsters and the Intersection of Race, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Conclusion 186 Works Cited 193 iii ABSTRACT Absent Presence: Women in American Gangster Narrative investigates women characters in American gangster narratives through the principal roles accorded to them. It argues that women in these texts function as an “absent presence,” by which I mean that they are a convention of the patriarchal gangster landscape and often with little import while at the same time they cultivate resistant strategies from within this backgrounded positioning. Whereas previous scholarly work on gangster texts has identified how women are characterized as stereotypes, this dissertation argues that women characters frequently employ the marginal positions to which they are relegated for empowering effect. This dissertation begins by surveying existing gangster scholarship. There is a preoccupation with male characters in this work, as is the case in most gangster texts themselves. This preoccupation is a result of several factors, such as defining the genre upon criteria that exclude women, promoting a male-centred canon as a result, and making assumptions about audience composition and taste that overlook women’s (and some women characters’) interest in gangster texts. Consequently, although the past decade saw women scholars bringing attention to female characters, research on male characters continues to dominate the field. My project thus fills this gap by not only examining the methods by which women characters navigate the male- dominated underworld but also including female-centred gangster narratives. Subsequent chapters focus on women’s predominant roles as mothers, molls, and wives as well as their infrequent role as female gangsters. The mother chapter demonstrates how the gangster’s mother deploys her effacement as an idealized figure in order to disguise her transgressive machinations (White Heat, The Sopranos). The moll chapter examines how this iv character’s presence as a reforming influence for the male criminal is integral to the earliest narratives. However, a shift to male relationships in mid- to late-1920s gangster texts transforms the moll’s status to that of a moderator (Underworld, The Great Gatsby). On the other hand, subsequent non-canonical texts feature molls as protagonists and illustrate the potential appeal of the gangster figure to women spectators (Three on a Match). Subsequently, the wife chapter explores texts that show presence is manifested in the wife’s cultivation of a traditional family image, while absence is evident in her exposure of this image as a façade via her husband’s activities (The Godfather, Goodfellas). In the following female gangster chapter, I examine how gender functions to render this rare character a literal absent presence such that she is inconceivable as a subject (Lady Scarface, Lady Gangster). Expanding upon this examination of gender, a final chapter on the African-American female gangster (in Set It Off and The Wire) explores how sexuality, race, and female—as well as “gangsta”—masculinity intersect to create this character’s simultaneous hypervisibility and invisibility. By examining women’s roles that often are overlooked in a male-dominated textual type and academic field, this dissertation draws scholarly attention to the ways that peripheral status can offer a stealthy locus for self-assertion. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am elated and a little bewildered to be writing this page, for I vividly remember being in the thick of my first year of doctoral studies and wondering how in the world I would complete my coursework, let alone my dissertation. It is no surprise that many people were involved in the process, and I am and delighted to have arrived at the point where I can honour them here. My supervisor, David R. Jarraway, never wavered in his belief in both my project and my ability to carry it out. His encouragement and candour reinvigorated me throughout the process. When one is battling ever-present impostor syndrome, one needs someone like David in her corner to keep the gremlins at bay and to help her emerge victorious. Most importantly, I learned from him how to focus on the journey rather than the destination, and I thank him for accompanying me. What a trip! My committee members—Eric Savoy, James Brooke-Smith, Anne Raine, and David Rampton—provided thoughtful, detailed responses to my project. I thank them all for their interest in my work and for pushing me to think further about it in its future iterations. Thanks to the English Department’s administrative staff for offering me much assistance over the years. The Student Academic Success Service’s Graduate Student Mentoring Centre steered me back on track when my thick soup of chapter drafts overwhelmed me. I am lucky enough to have been able to attend the first annual Graduate Student Association’s week-long writing retreat for graduate students. It was an incredibly restorative experience filled with camaraderie and support. Special thanks to Brenna Quigley for expertly organizing the retreat. My fellow graduate students Poonam Bajwa, Sue Bowness, Bonnie Hughes, Jenn Macquarrie, and Marissa McHugh invited me to join their “thesis club,” and I’m forever grateful they did. vi Along with later member Marla Arbach, we thesis clubbers met in the library to provide each other with feedback, support, and much-needed laughs. I’m especially thankful to those who continued to offer their advice from afar after they completed their own journeys. I am proud to be joining them as a fellow finisher. I also thank Markus Bohlmann for his no-nonsense approach and his generosity. Batia Stolar, my Master’s thesis supervisor at Lakehead University, is the one who recommended to me that I pursue a doctoral degree. I’m glad she did so. My friends Amy Boyer, Lori Romano, and Gloria Burns pulled me out of my dissertation bubble and kept me connected to the world through enlightening (and silly) conversations over coffee, tea, and wedges of delicious cake. Jenn Johnson has also been cheering me on since the beginning, and Leslie Robertson ushered me across the finish line. Thank you all. My family has played an instrumental role in the completion of this project. Franca and Vito Coccimiglio generously opened up their home to me in the final stages of this project. Their home-cooked meals, stories, and warmth sustained me. Joe, Fran, Natasha, and Adrian Colak- Florio have continuously expressed their interest in my research, which has made me feel very flattered, and their humour and kindness made me look forward to spending time together. Although my grandfather, Carmine Florio, could not quite understand why I was still in school for all these years, I hope he knows that the fortitude it took to complete this project resembles the kind of fortitude required of him—as an octogenarian with limited mobility—to continue planting his vegetable garden every year, the bounty of which he generously shares with me each time I visit my hometown. Thanks to my brother and sister, Danny and Maria, for their encouragement and support during this long journey. I have continued to feel the presence and wisdom of my late father, Saverio, who believed so strongly in education that he thought it should always be treated in a respectful, dignified manner by those who were able to pursue it. vii He would be pleased to know that I never once wore pyjama pants to school during my completion of this degree. On a more serious note, I know that as the first in my family to attend university (and now the first to become a doctor), I am fulfilling a dream larger than my own, and I hope I can continue to make him proud. To my mother, Anna, for her care packages, for taping gangster movies for me, for her financial support, for her love, for her belief that I could do it: this dissertation is dedicated to her. I am grateful for the financial support I have received from the Ontario Graduate Scholarship and the University of Ottawa. Conference travel grants from the Association of Part-Time Professors of the University of Ottawa (APTPUO), the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (FGPS), and the Department of English enabled me to share my research at conferences. With APTPUO and FGPS research grants, I visited the Archive and Research Study Center (ARSC) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Film and Television Archive. Special thanks to Mark Quigley, manager of the ARSC, for arranging my viewing of the 1933 film Blondie Johnson. That was an experience I can only describe as magical. I thank Dino Everett, Film Preparation Technician, Stanford Theatre Film Laboratory, UCLA Film and Television Archive, for creating the DVD access transfer of Blondie Johnson from the nitrate print (and with a short lead time). I also thank the friendly staff of the Margaret Herrick Library in Beverly Hills, California, especially Jenny Romero, Department Coordinator, Special Collections Department, for research help. Barbara Hall, Research Archivist, Special Collections Department, led me on a comprehensive library tour and introduced me to some of the library’s many treasures.