Resisting Reproductive Regulation in Early Twentieth Century American Women’S Fiction
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
ABSTRACT Title of Document: RESISTING REPRODUCTIVE REGULATION IN EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY AMERICAN WOMEN’S FICTION Elizabeth Ann DePriest, Doctor of Philosophy, 2017 Directed by: Professor Peter Mallios, Department of English Resisting Reproductive Regulation contributes to a growing body of criticism about how women participated in early twentieth century debates about reproduction in the United States. While the mainstream American birth control movement led to the legalization of contraception, it gained popular support by prioritizing the desires of married white women who were able-bodied, born in the United States, and members of the middle and upper classes. Because birth control advocates embraced eugenics and condemned abortion, their campaigns resulted in greater reproductive regulation for many women deemed “unfit” for reproduction by eugenicists, including unmarried, poor, non-white, immigrant, and disabled women. Resisting Reproductive Regulation examines the fiction written by American women during this period that challenges this limited agenda. These writers insist that women should be able to control the reproductive potential of their own bodies, regardless of their circumstances or forms of embodiment, and they examine the negative consequences that reproductive regulation enacts in American women’s lives. As a result, their texts depict women’s reproductive struggles in ways that anticipate late twentieth and early twenty-first century intersectional campaigns for reproductive justice. Though Mary Hunter Austin, Josephine Herbst, and Katherine Anne Porter each enjoyed relative privilege as white, American-born, and generally able-bodied women, each experienced reproductive difficulties in her own life. Each subsequently challenged mainstream birth control advocacy from this period in her fiction by grappling with those difficulties and examining the conditions that caused them. In so doing, these writers expose the prejudices encoded in the arguments upon which early twentieth century American eugenicists and birth control advocates relied. Resisting Reproductive Regulation argues that their fiction reveals inextricable relationships between the reproductive regulations American women faced and American prejudices about (dis)ability, sexuality, class, race, and/or country of origin. By addressing these connections, these writers explore the ways that reproductive regulations secure and perpetuate existing patriarchal, nationalist, white supremacist, heteronormative, capitalistic, and ableist systems of power. By advocating for women to be able to control the reproductive potential of their own bodies, these writers also attempt to interrupt the reproduction of these systems of power. Further, American women writing about contraception, abortion, and reproduction in the early decades of the twentieth century knew their depictions of these topics were subject to censorship, suppression, and marginalization. This dissertation argues that these writers resisted this form of reproductive regulation as well, developing innovative narrative and aesthetic techniques in order to communicate with readers about reproductive issues. While some of their concerns and experiences were successfully suppressed and marginalized during their lives, Austin, Herbst, and Porter each preserved illuminating materials in their personal archives. This dissertation recovers many of those materials, which provide new context within which to examine their published fiction and to recognize their literary and feminist contributions. RESISTING REPRODUCTIVE REGULATION IN EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY AMERICAN WOMEN’S FICTION By Elizabeth Ann DePriest Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2017 Advisory Committee: Professor Peter Mallios, Chair Professor John Auchard Professor Deborah S. Rosenfelt Professor Christina Walter Professor Edlie Wong © Copyright by Elizabeth Ann DePriest 2017 Dedication For Nora Jane and Annie Kate ii Acknowledgements When I was preparing my PhD application, a trusted advisor told me that the applicants who stand out are the ones who demonstrate a desire to do the work of completing a doctoral degree. Seeing the completed dissertation before me, I am reminded of everything I’ve learned and everything I’ve achieved through my commitment to doing the work. I am also filled with gratitude for the mentors, colleagues, and loved ones who have made it emotionally, intellectually, and financially possible for me to continue doing the work. Peter Mallios has encouraged, supported, and challenged me since the very beginning of my graduate career, and his support has made it possible for me to complete this degree. When I told him I was pregnant with my first daughter, his confidence that becoming a mother would make me a better scholar encouraged me to make sure that became true. I am thankful to Christina Walter for the advice she has given me at key stages of the dissertation process. Her feedback has helped me recognize my own blind spots and attempt to fill them as best I can. I am also indebted to Edlie Wong for her willingness to help me in the home stretch of this process, and for offering advice that has been both insightful and practical. I am also fortunate to have had John Auchard advise me all the way along— as the professor of my first graduate class, a strong advocate for me in the department, a supportive mentor for my work as a teacher, and as a member of my dissertation committee. The support I have received from other University of Maryland faculty members has also guided me and helped me improve my work. Marilee Lindemann, David Wyatt, Zita Nunes, Jess Enoch, and Deborah S. Rosenfelt provided vital feedback while I iii worked toward completing my comprehensive exam and my prospectus. Kandice Chuh taught me to imagine otherwise, challenged me to continue my studies as a doctoral student, and directed my Master’s capstone project. Ralph Bauer ensured my progress through the degree by helping me secure necessary funding and satisfy the foreign language requirement. Tita Chico continuously challenged me to “keep going,” always helping me go farther than I realized I was capable. The English faculty and staff with whom I worked as a graduate assistant made me feel at home in the department, especially Rebecca Sommer, Manju Suri, Nicole Stevens, Michelle Cerullo, Kent Cartwright, Bill Cohen, Theresa Coletti, and Kevin R. Nesline. Working with the Libraries’ Special Collections staff on the Katherine Anne Porter Correspondence Project was a chance to live a dream while learning an entirely new skillset. I am particularly indebted to Joanne Archer for helping me continue that work, and my dissertation research, by creating a graduate assistantship for me. Beth Alvarez’s knowledge of Katherine Anne Porter’s life and archive is exhaustive. The value her insights have added to my academic work is surpassed only by the value her mentorship and friendship have added to my life. The encouragement I’ve received from the other members of the Katherine Anne Porter Society has been another highlight of my graduate career. I am also thankful to the University of Maryland Graduate School for the 2016 Ann G. Wylie dissertation fellowship, to the Department of English for the 2015 Summer Fellowship and the 2014 QCB Research and Travel Grant, and to the College of Arts and Humanities for the 2016 Graduate Student Travel Award. These funding opportunities iv allowed me to remain in the program and made it possible for me to conduct much of my archival research. I could not have progressed through the doctoral program nor finished this dissertation without the help of the many people who have looked after and educated my daughters. They have provided careful, considerate, consistent care that enriched my daughters’ lives and allowed me to focus my energy on my work. These caretakers and teachers include my in-laws, Patti and Chuck; the staff of the Goddard School in Columbia, including Patty, Lisa, Chrissie, and Delshurn; the staff of Kindercare in Gambrills, including Ellen, Imelda, Ashley, Candace, Tarah, Bonnie, Shavon, Shy, and Kathy; the staff of the Goddard School in Millersville, including Dipti, Courtney, Amanda, Vicky, Wendy, and Stephanie; the employees of Rippling Woods Elementary, including Mrs. Meekins; and our babysitter, Anna. One of the great fortunes of my life is that I have been in graduate school with Katie Stanutz and Anne-Marie Robinson-Siemen. Each of these women is, as Toni Morrison writes in Beloved, “a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order” (321). Katie has been my right hand woman all the way through, always finding a way to lighten the load. Her generosity, advice, and encouragement have pushed me ever closer to achieving the ambitions I’ve had for myself and for this project. Anne-Marie has helped me navigate both graduate school and motherhood, and the conversations we’ve had over the years are the invisible threads that quilt this dissertation together. My work and my time at Maryland have also been enhanced by the solidarity I’ve enjoyed with other brilliant, v kind, and considerate classmates, colleagues, and friends. Rachel Vorona Cote, in particular, has been instrumental in helping me get to the finish line. My family helped me develop the determination and resilience I’ve relied on daily as a graduate student. My dad, Mark Chambers, taught me from my earliest years that I could work through any obstacle, preparing me for doctoral study and helping me endure his death without leaving the program. I wish he could have lived to see how this document combines my professional and my personal interests. My mom, Debi Kingston, has long been my biggest cheerleader, and her confidence that I would reach my goals remained steadfast even when my own wavered. My sister, Vickie Cozad, is always by my side. She has inspired me to lead by example, taught me the invaluable skill of gaming the system, and reminded me I’ll write my way out.