Authorial Anxiety in a Mass Media World: Four Modernists
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AUTHORIAL ANXIETY IN A MASS MEDIA WORLD: FOUR MODERNISTS RESPOND A Dissertation by JAMES MARCEL STAMANT Submitted to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Chair of Committee, William Bedford Clark Committee Members, Jerome Loving David McWhirter John H. Lenihan Head of Department, Nancy Warren December 2013 Major Subject: English Copyright 2013 James Marcel Stamant ABSTRACT This project explores the anxieties authors of the early twentieth century experienced in relation to mass media, particularly newspapers and the movies, focusing on the selected works of four modernist authors: Sherwood Anderson, James Joyce, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway. The works I examine span a twenty-year period, from the late 1910s to 1940, when both the newspaper and movie industries were firmly established as “mass” media. I submit that these authors sustained very complicated relationships with the media they were in contact with. While all four of these authors worked for a time in one of these media, they maintained a negative attitude toward these same media when writing about them in their fiction. All four of these authors depicted perceived flaws in the very media they participated in. Anderson and Joyce, critiquing the newspaper world, suggest that newspapers fail to fulfill expectations regarding “real” and accurate representations of the world. Anderson’s portrayal offers different reasons for the medium’s inabilities than Joyce’s, but both authors’ fiction comes to comparable conclusions of the newspaper business’ inadequacy to compete with the representations that could be found in literary fiction. Fitzgerald and Hemingway, writing about the movie business, highlight what they see as that medium’s shortcomings, and though both Fitzgerald and Hemingway personally held great optimism in the potential of movies they ultimately suggest otherwise in the fiction I examine. ii For these authors, the anxieties they felt were quite real. Some of the worries that these four authors held existed long before their time and continue to persist in the media saturated world of the early twenty-first century. Whatever reservations these authors had, though, they did not preclude them from envisioning the possibilities of different media, participating in those media, and utilizing their experiences (both real and imagined) in their own literary fiction. The connections between media and authorship in the early twentieth century were extremely complex, and the blurred lines between different modes of communication—as well as the definitions of “art”—created concerns that these four authors expressed in the best way they knew how: in their literary works. iii DEDICATION To my family: past, present, and future. In memory of Jean Nolan Stamant. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many people who supported this project and need to be acknowledged. First, I’d like to thank my committee for all of their hard work, comments, and suggestions, in particularly the mentorship of William Bedford Clark. He gave me his time, confidence, and the benefit of his years of experience for which I am truly grateful. Furthermore, I’d like to thank Jerome Loving and David McWhirter; parts of this project originated in their classes at Texas A&M. I’d also like to express my appreciation to John H. Lenihan and to James Aune both of whom provided me with lots to consider and from different vantage points. Within the English Department, there were many outside my committee who helped initiate deep thinking about parts of this work. In particularly, I would like to acknowledge Marian Eide who spurred my thinking about James Joyce. That part of this project also benefited from my work at the Cushing Memorial Library and Archives, and with the support I received as a Kelsey Fellow I’d like to further thank the directors of Cushing who supported my work there: Steven Escar Smith, David Chapman, and Larry Mitchell. I have been very lucky, all of my life, to have the love and support of my parents, Jack and Jean Stamant, and my sister, Jackie Longino. Thank you for all that you’ve done to propel me forward. That good fortune expanded long ago with the addition of Charles Longino, his parents Chuck and Loyce, and his sister Laura. There have been many deep conversations during holidays with all of these members of my extended family. And to my niece and nephew, Chase and Brynn Longino, you have given me v laughter and repeatedly displayed your big hearts; for that I am truly thankful. The thoughts and prayers of my aunts and uncles are also greatly appreciated. Knowing that you were thinking of me and cheering me on gave me drive; many thanks to Sr. Mary Gallagher, Fred and Betty Harkins, Bob and Jeanne Stamant, and Edward Gallagher. My family has grown since I began this project, and I have received much love and support from my in-laws: Patricia McDaniel, Bill West, Bruce Carder, and Janet Wolery. Additionally, I am very grateful that Michelle, Liz, Jack, and Grant were always there to cheer me on. I also want to acknowledge all of my friends who continually inquired about the project and let me tell them about whatever part I was working on at the time. I am blessed with many good friends, too many to include them all here, but I would like to mention a few who discussed specifics throughout this process: Nick and Dana Lawrence, and Michael and Kimberly Beilfuss. Additionally, I would like to thank Todd Samuelson who spoke with me at length about my work. Also, I need to give a special thanks to Damian Carpenter, who not only discussed aspects of this project over the long-haul but also was a reliable and intelligent reader of drafts. I would not be where I am without the encouragement, direction, and instruction of H. R. Stoneback, and I am indebted to him for his continued help over many years. I also want to remember his wife, Sparrow, who was always squarely in my corner. The Stonebacks took students like me into their family and provided an example of teaching that cannot be equaled but should be strived toward. vi Finally, I want to express my infinite gratitude to my wife, Nicole, who constantly discussed this project with me: over breakfast, in the car, at family gatherings, in the office, etc. She has always showed tremendous confidence in me and my work and has been an unending fount of reassurance. My journey through this process would not have been possible without her love and her constant support of me, my thinking, and my writing. I am eternally grateful that she is in my life. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... ii DEDICATION .................................................................................................................. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. v CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: AUTHORIAL ANXIETY IN A MASS MEDIA WORLD ............................................................................................................................. 1 Newspapers: The New Mass Medium ........................................................... 10 The World of Movies: Dreams by Collaboration ........................................... 24 Lessened Authority and Lack of Control for Authors’ Narratives ................. 35 CHAPTER II HACKING IT: AN AUTHOR’S LIFE BRACKETED BY NEWSPAPER WORK ..................................................................................................... 46 Readers’ Illusionary Connection to a Literary Celebrity’s Rise and Fall ...... 55 Imagining and Creating a Real World from Newspaper Omissions .............. 62 CHAPTER III JOYCE’S WRITING DREAMS: JOURNALISTIC TO LITERARY .... 84 Newspapers as Unreliable Guides through the Everyday Odyssey of Joyce’s Ulysses ............................................................................................... 98 CHAPTER IV SCREENING AUTHORS IN HOLLYWOOD: NARRATIVE AUTHORITY AND COMPETING REPRESENTATIONS ........................................ 124 The Rise and Fall of a Star Author: Inside and Outside the Hollywood Circle ............................................................................................................ 125 Authors with No Authority: Writing Outside the Power Circle in Hollywood .................................................................................................... 138 Pat Hobby: A Hack Hollywood Writer and a Bad Cog in the Assembly Line ............................................................................................................... 147 viii Page CHAPTER V WORKING AT A DISTANCE FROM HOLLYWOOD: HEMINGWAY AND THE MOVIE INDUSTRY ......................................................... 167 Hemingway’s Control over “Real” Representations of Spain and Cuba ........... 184 Hemingway’s Fictional Representations of Filming the Spanish Civil War.......199 The Old Man and the Movie: Hollywood’s The Old Man and the Sea ............. 213 CHAPTER VI CONCLUSION: WIDENING THE SCOPE OF THE MEDIA’S REPRESENTATIONS OF THE WORLD .....................................................................224 WORKS CITED ............................................................................................................. 233 ix CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: AUTHORIAL ANXIETY IN A MASS MEDIA WORLD Since Plato, the question