Intimacy and Autonomy: Twentieth Century American Women and the Quest for Self-Realization" (2015)
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Purdue University Purdue e-Pubs Open Access Dissertations Theses and Dissertations January 2015 INTIMACY AND AUTONOMY: TWENTIETH CENTURY AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE QUEST FOR SELF- REALIZATION Mary Florence Barford Purdue University Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations Recommended Citation Barford, Mary Florence, "INTIMACY AND AUTONOMY: TWENTIETH CENTURY AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE QUEST FOR SELF-REALIZATION" (2015). Open Access Dissertations. 1088. https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/1088 This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact [email protected] for additional information. INTIMACY AND AUTONOMY: TWENTIETH CENTURY AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE QUEST FOR SELF-REALIZATION A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Purdue University by Mary F. V. Barford In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December, 2015 Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana ii For my parents ii iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is a rare joy to be able in some formal capacity to thank the people in your life that deserve your thanks. I finished this project as a 38 year-old single mother of two. My route toward completion was circuitous and along that twisty path I acquired many a debt of gratitude that I am happy to pay back if just slightly in these few pages. First, I want to thank my phenomenal advisor, Dr. Susan Curtis. Dr. Curtis has been a mentor to me, not only as a scholar and a teacher, but ultimately as a human being. She carries all the accouterments of a great historian – curiosity, intelligence, perseverance, and an undeniable work ethic. My first moments in her class I knew immediately that she was the kind of historian that I wanted to be – engaged with ideas, innovative, and determined that our work be meaningful to the present. Beyond her intellectual gifts she is a person of tremendous openness and compassion. At every turn iii she was there as a force that both challenged and supported me. I want to thank my two spectacular daughters, Sofia Rose and Johanna Florence. It is impossible to relate in words how much I love these two beings. So much of my effort is with the hopes of providing a life of opportunity for them as well as setting an example for them of all a woman can do. The many nights I spent writing instead of doing so many other things I hope that they will some day see was worth the effort in the iv end. They were and always are both muse and motivation. They are the embodiment of delight and as Hettie Jones says of her daughters, I fall on my knees in front of them. I have gained a great deal from many dear friendships in the past few years. My Lafayette ladies including Stacey Gable, Sasha Reel, Kate Sweeney, Sarah Casto, Kayla Carlson, Ashley Watson, Megan Wells, and Andrea Sullivan have always been places to turn for warmth or laughs or conversation that helped me through many a difficult time. I also want to thank the Miller/Van Gorder families for taking me in as one of your own and always making me and the girls feel like part of the family. I want to thank my friend, Chris Hanlon, for talking to me seriously and being hilarious and encouraging all at the same time. I also want to thank my friend, Siggy Zahner, who appeared one evening and made life so much better. I also want to give a huge shout out here to my students at Lafayette Jefferson High School. You all don’t know it, but you really taught me who I was. You drove me crazy, but made me laugh every day and what we achieved in our time together is one of the greatest accomplishments of my life. It has been a great honor to be your teacher. iv I want to thank my brother Ian. He is the closest thing I have to an unwavering supporter since my Dad passed away in 2010. He is a man with a huge capacity for love and he has shared his love with me from the moment I was born. Sometimes we fight, but he is in my corner like nobody’s business and I have leaned on that many times. Thank you so much, Ianny for being an incredible big brother. I also want to thank my older brother, Dan. From the time I was a very little child he talked to me as an equal, he valued my ideas and my personhood and shared of himself in ways that enchanted and delighted me from the time I was very young. I v learned so much from Dan about beauty, and about ideas, and even about pain. I miss him every day. Dru Alkire joined my journey two years ago. He suffered through some of the pains of me writing this dissertation, when I couldn’t really relax or just hang out for months on end. He supported my efforts, made dinners and celebrated the final triumph by my side. He also did math homework with Sofie when I didn’t have time and filled our lives with his humor and generous spirit. More than anything he has loved my daughters and me, truly and sincerely. We all three love him and we are so glad that he and his family are now a part of our lives. I want to thank my daughter’s father, Jesse, as well. Our marriage did not work out, but we have both worked hard to work well together as parents and that is something to really value and appreciate. The other members of my committee, Dr. Nancy Gabin, Dr. Ryan Schneider, and Dr. Yvonne Pitts are all faculty that I worked closely with at one point or another and from all of them I have benefitted enormously. v Lastly, but not the least this dissertation is wholly dedicated to my incredible parents. My Mom has been tremendously supportive of me as a mother and as a scholar. She supported this effort whole-heartedly and was willing to help in all manner of ways. Though she lives a few hours away she would come to visit bringing food and comfort and care for all of us. She would walk the dog and pick the girls up from school. She has been a kind of partner to me for all the years that I’ve been a single parent, supporting me in every way that she could manage from far away. My Dad passed away in 2010, but this project is his in every way as well. He planted all the seeds that manifest in any vi success that I ever have in my life. My Dad loved and fought for the things that moved him – social justice, philosophy, the arts, and me. He listened to me from the time I was very little. Even though he was a Philosophy professor he took my ideas very seriously and his strength I try to access every day. Writing this dissertation is without a doubt one of the most meaningful experiences of my life. It's so much more than a paper, it's an expression of myself and my capacities as a woman, the wake of which will reverberate on to my own daughters and hopefully to theirs as well. My Mom and Dad are the roots and the source of this whole experience and their love is alive in every word that I write. This dissertation is written in their honor. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... viii PREFACE...........................................................................................................................ix INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 JOYCE JOHNSON AND JACK KEROUAC .................................................................. 50 HETTIE JONES AND LEROI JONES ............................................................................ 96 LEE KRASNER AND JACKSON POLLOCK ............................................................. 152 ETTA MOTEN AND CLAUDE BARNETT ................................................................. 232 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................... 278 VITA................................................................................................................................296 viii ABSTRACT Barford, Mary Florence Virginia. PhD, Purdue University, December, 2015. Intimacy and Autonomy: Twentieth Century American Women and the Quest for Self-Realization. Major Professor: Susan Curtis. This dissertation examines the effects of culturally managed gender expectations on intimate spaces. The study of these intimate spaces is rooted in the biographies of four relationships in the post-war period. Through exploration of these individual stories an understanding emerges of how monolithic cultural paradigms work for men and for women in very different ways. For purposes of archival availability and continuity, this dissertation focuses on a very specific group of people, namely women of great talent and ambition who were either married to or in a relationship with a man whose fame eclipsed her own. My question became how have women managed their own fulfillment within the limitations of a culture that so heavily promoted marriage and family as the only avenues for true feminine satisfaction. Furthermore, how did these women compromise or assert themselves in their quest for self-realization. Each relationship examined in this dissertation sheds light on a different aspect of the same cultural dilemma. The first couple examined is Joyce Johnson and Jack Kerouac. Joyce Johnson was a young writer herself when she met Kerouac, and was with him during his leap into fame after the publication of On the Road. This chapter explores the idea of privilege and the female attempt to find identity through connection to a man. The second chapter looks at Hettie ix and LeRoi Jones. This chapter uncovers the complications of race in the post-war period and the way that cultural antagonisms can seep into otherwise neutral or even loving environments. Hettie and LeRoi Jones also shared two children and that aspect of intimacy is also developed in this chapter.