Beyond "Main Street": Small Towns in Post- "Revolt" American Literature Rachael Price University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
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University of Arkansas, Fayetteville ScholarWorks@UARK Theses and Dissertations 5-2016 Beyond "Main Street": Small Towns in Post- "Revolt" American Literature Rachael Price University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd Part of the American Literature Commons, Comparative Literature Commons, and the Modern Literature Commons Recommended Citation Price, Rachael, "Beyond "Main Street": Small Towns in Post-"Revolt" American Literature" (2016). Theses and Dissertations. 1476. http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/1476 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Beyond Main Street: Small Towns in Post-“Revolt” American Literature A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English by Rachael Price State University of New York at Geneseo Bachelor of Arts in English, 2000 State University of New York at New Paltz Master of Arts in English, 2005 May 2016 University of Arkansas This dissertation is approved for recommendation to the Graduate Council. __________________________________ Dr. Lisa Hinrichsen Dissertation Director __________________________________ ________________________________ Dr. Susan Marren Dr. Keith Booker Committee Member Committee Member Abstract “Beyond Main Street” examines the impact and legacy of the literary movement that Carl Van Doren, in an infamous 1920 article from The Nation, referred to as the “revolt from the village.” This movement, which is widely acknowledged to encompass such writers as Edgar Lee Masters, Sherwood Anderson, and Sinclair Lewis, pushed back against the primacy of the heretofore-dominant pastoral tradition when it came to depictions of rural America. These authors sought to create a more accurate portrayal of the small town, one that, while not completely eschewing the pastoral, also exposed the more seedy side of village life. Critics typically view this movement (if they view it at all) as one grounded in a very specific time period, usually from around 1915 until about 1930 or so. There is little extant research about the influence of this movement after 1930, and it remains a kind of cultural footnote in the legacy of literary modernism. To say that, after this period, depictions of the small town simply reverted to notions of the pastoral, though, would be oversimplification at best. This project argues that, as with so much of modernism, what began as a flouting of convention developed into an established paradigm. The “revolt” is no longer a “revolt” as such, because its conceptions of small-town America have become a lasting motif in American literature of the twentieth century and beyond. The pastoral image of the village functions now as a kind of simulacrum, an ideal that still permeates the American cultural imagination, but it is rarely given legitimate consideration in literary depictions of individual towns. Rather, I argue, the individual village has become a construction ripe for critique in an increasingly modern and urbanized society. In this project I examine three popular novels from the mid-twentieth century, Henry Bellamann’s Kings Row (1940), Grace Metalious’s Peyton Place (1956), and Larry McMurtry’s The Last Picture Show (1965), in order to illustrate this paradigm shift which can be traced directly back to the “revolt from the village.” ©2016 by Rachael Price All Rights Reserved Acknowledgments The completion of this dissertation feels like the end of an era, an era that has made manifest the kindness and generosity of so many individuals in my life. Any success that this work may bring me would not have been possible without the immense support of faculty, family, and friends. If I have forgotten anyone here, it is only due to my own momentary error and not to any lack on his or her part. This project would not have been possible with the constant support and guidance of my director, Lisa Hinrichsen. Her dedication has been wholehearted and unwavering from the very beginning. She has always been willing to read whatever I send her and give detailed, attentive, insightful feedback within days, no matter what else she had on her amazingly full plate. This included her reviewing my application for the Fulbright Dissertation Research Award (which I subsequently won, thanks to her guidance) just days before going into labor with her second child. On top of all of this, she is also a brilliant and inspiring instructor in the classroom. If I show just a fraction of her dedication in my own career, I will feel that I have done well. My readers likewise deserve thanks. The original idea for this project sprung from a seminar paper that I wrote for Susan Marren’s class, “The Realist Imagination.” In addition to being an engaging and thoughtful instructor, Dr. Marren is diligent and helpful in her commitment and service to her students and the English department. Keith Booker is an incredibly accomplished scholar who has greatly aided my understanding of many of the theoretical underpinnings of postmodernism. I feel genuinely lucky to be part of such an excellent department. In addition to my committee members, I have had a number of excellent instructors and mentors. I would like to extend special thanks to Patrick Slattery, Elias Dominquez Barajas, Dorothy Stephens, and Raina Lyons, who have helped to facilitate my growth not only as a scholar, but as a teacher as well. Thanks to LewEllyn Hallett, Shavawn Smith, Brandon Weston, and Sara Beth Spencer-Bynum for always being there when I needed something, and for making the department run so smoothly. I owe a debt of gratitude not only to the English Department but also to the family of Diane Blair, both of whom supplied financial support while I embarked on building my career as a scholar. I would also like to acknowledge Harry Stoneback, Daniel Kempton, and Thomas Olsen at SUNY New Paltz for inspiring me to take this path in the first place. I would also like to thank those who have assisted me so diligently with my research. Thanks to all of the staff at Mullins Library, particularly those in the Interlibrary Loan office. I also owe a debt of gratitude to the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, who awarded me a Fulbright Dissertation Research Award for 2015. This award allowed me to spend ample time with the Henry and Katharine Bellamann Collection at the University of Mississippi, combing through notes, early drafts, and letters from the Bellamanns that helped to greatly enhance my chapter on Kings Row. This project has also been greatly shaped by the feedback and encouragement of some incredible scholars I have met at conferences. I am thankful to the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature for awarding me the David Diamond Student Writing Prize for 2013; my prize-winning article, “’To Honor a Man’: The Decline of Hegemonic Masculinity in Henry Bellamann’s Kings Row,” ultimately became the basis for my Bellamann chapter. I would also like to thank the faculty from the Futures of American Studies Institute at Dartmouth, particularly Heike Paul, who introduced me to the school of critical regionalism and whose feedback greatly aided Chapter Three. Thanks to all of my wonderful friends, both those here in Arkansas and those far away. I owe special debt of gratitude to Becca Moore, Jackson and Aana Hazelip Jennings, Rodney and Erika Wilhite, Laine Gates, Ramey Moore, and Karen Walker, who have provided not only kind and consistent friendship but last-minute babysitting as well. And of course, thanks to Lisa Maldonado, Joleen Torgerson, and all the staff at Prism Education Center, for taking such wonderful care of my daughter while I navigated this path. This project would certainly not have materialized if not for the unwavering support of my amazing family. Thanks especially to my parents, my first teachers, and my brother, John. And I must also acknowledge the dedication and support of my mother- and father-in-law, Ellen and Bob Burchell. And of course, there is my beloved husband, Christopher, who took a chance with me on this crazy journey and has worked tirelessly to help me realize my dreams. I could not ask for a better partner, and I am thankful for him every day. Lastly, I must thank the most wonderful creation to spring from my years of graduate school, my daughter Verity. May all her dreams come true. Table of Contents Introduction: Reassessing the Rose-Colored Window: The “Revolt From the Village” ........ 1 Chapter One: “’Wild-Blooming Things’: Modernism, Masculinity, and Midwestern Regionalism in Henry Bellamann’s Kings Row” ........................................................................... 35 Chapter Two: “Modernism, Mobility, and the Mass-Market Paperback: Feminine Space in Grace Metalious’s Peyton Place” ...................................................................................................... 70 Chapter Three: “Blue Northers and Barbed Wire: Modernization and the Village in Larry McMurtry’s The Last Picture Show” ............................................................................................ 103 Conclusion: Uprisings and Evil Spirits: The Postmodern Small Town ................................ 143 Works Cited ......................................................................................................................................