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Frightening Masculinity: Gothic Affect and Antebellum

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Frightening Masculinity: Gothic Affect and Antebellum The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of the Liberal Arts FRIGHTENING MASCULINITY: GOTHIC AFFECT AND ANTEBELLUM MANHOOD A Dissertation in English by Brian C. Neff Copyright 2010 Brian C. Neff Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2010 ii The dissertation of Brian C. Neff was reviewed and approved* by the following: Christopher Castiglia Liberal Arts Research Professor of English Dissertation Adviser Chair of Committee Hester Blum Associate Professor of English Sean X. Goudie Associate Professor of English Amy Greenberg Professor of History and Women’s Studies Mark Morrisson Professor of English and Director of Graduate Studies *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii ABSTRACT This project engages novels and short stories written by Herman Melville, Charles Brockden Brown, Edgar Allan Poe, George Thompson, Theodore Winthrop and Julia Ward Howe. It elucidates the ways that these authors addressed changing notions of masculine anxiety during the antebellum period. As several factors challenged contemporary notions of masculinity, including the violent rejection of patriarchy in the Revolutionary War, the changing position of the father in the family, and the pressures of the rising market economy, the inability to successfully adapt to gender conventions became a source of intense anxiety for people struggling to be masculine. Recognizing the efficacy of Gothic rhetoric for understanding and explaining this anxiety by translating it into fear, these authors used Gothic literature to critique masculine structures and the relationship between masculinity, the body, and desire. More generally, the project brings together discussions of gender formation, antebellum male affect, and Gothic literature to argue that in order to understand fully the role of affect in the formation of masculinity, we need also to understand the importance of negative affects common to Gothic literature. Of particular importance is the way that these authors recognized that fear, instead of being simply debilitating, could be a productive source of masculine identity. Ultimately, this project argues for the centrality of gender to American Gothic literature while expanding our understanding of the role emotion played in the antebellum period and suggesting the importance of all gender practices— normative and non-normative—in the formation of the canon. iv Table of Contents Page Introduction: “cadaverously gentlemanly nonchalance”: Masculinity 1 and Gothic Affect in Antebellum America Chapter 1: Patriarchal Gothic and Affective Masculinity in Brockden 23 Brown’s Memoirs of Stephen Calvert Chapter 2: “covering me with its loathsome caresses”: Edgar Allan 64 Poe’s Fictions of Masculine Desire Chapter 3: A City of Men: George Thompson’s Gothic Masculinities 100 Chapter 4: Beautiful Monsters 136 Coda: Domesticating Poe 183 Works Cited 197 v Acknowledgments Like all projects of the sort, this dissertation would not exist without the generous and kind support of many people. First and foremost I would like to thank everyone at Penn State for making my years as a graduate student as enjoyable as they were intellectually invigorating. I have heard many horror stories about graduate studies, and am thankful that I don’t have any of my own to share. There is not enough space to thank everyone at Penn State who has had an influence on my work, but I take solace in the hope that I have thanked you many times in person. Even before I arrived at Penn State, I was fortunate to attend Colorado College, where I found an English department that was full of people who made me want to join the field. I always felt welcome, even though I was a lowly Chemistry major. During my years at Penn State I have been fortunate to receive funding from a number of sources. I am very grateful to have received a Philip Young Memorial Endowment in American Literature and two George and Barbara Kelly Graduate Fellowships in Nineteenth Century English and American Literature. I also have been the beneficiary of two awards from The Center for American Literary Studies—one which made it possible for me two attend the Futures of American Studies Institute, and one which supported me during my work on my dissertation—for which I am profoundly grateful. At the Futures of American Studies I had the good fortune to share my on Poe with a wonderful and collegial group, whom I thank for their helpful suggestions. Thanks to Kadji, Kevin, Harry, Leah, Meg, Brigitte, Brian, Mike, Dale, Kathleen, and especially Eric Lott. I left that week with a better project thanks to your insightful comments. To all the others that I met at Futures, thanks for sharing many drinks and many wonderful conversations. I also want to thank everyone who gave me feedback at the various conferences where I have presented work. The best part of this field is the people who comprise it. Thanks for making me feel like a colleague. I spent a wonderful summer at the University of Virginia’s Harrison Institute thanks to a Lillian Gary Taylor Visiting Fellowship in American Literature. The collection of Poe materials and city mysteries housed there is outstanding, and I can not remember a time when I learned more in such a short period. I thank all of the librarians for the constant willingness to help me track down whatever I might have wanted on a given morning, and I especially thank Kelly Miller for making my visit possible and for helping to make UVA such a welcoming place. Over the course of my career I have had the good fortune to work with people that I admire immensely. I have had the even better fortune that I ended up with a committee made up of them. To Hester Blum I want to say thank you for getting me interested in nineteenth century American literature in the first place. It was in your graduate seminar my first semester at Penn State that I decided that I wanted to study the period, and your kind words and guidance kept me going throughout the process. Amy Greenberg solidified my belief that one of the best things about studying nineteenth-century American literature is the fascinating history of the period. Thank you for welcoming literature students into your history seminars, and for your willingness to participate in my project. Sean Goudie arrived at Penn State at a very fortuitous time for me. Thank you for your willingness to jump right into this project with such positive energy. Your vi enthusiasm is contagious. Finally, I want to thank Chris Castiglia for his willingness to take me under his wing and guiding me throughout this project. This project grew under your guidance, and it would not be what it is without you. To all of my committee, thank you for modeling scholarship that is everything that I strive for in my own work. I only hope that this project does some justice to the faith and support you have given me. One of the most important parts of writing a dissertation is survival, and it is thanks to many friends that I have survived the last year. Once again there are too many people to thank, but I do want to make mention of a few people without whom I would never have made it this far. Many thanks to Ty Hollett. I can’t believe how lucky I was to find a roommate who became a friend so quickly. You’ve moved halfway around the world and back, but I have always felt that if I needed anything you were just a phone call away. Thanks also to Sean Moiles. From a friend to a roommate to an arch-enemy, you have always been there for me, ready for a drink or a conversation. It’s rare to find someone who can take snark and dish it out with equal measure. Speaking of drinks, thanks to Eric Norton. We have shared many a beer and many a scotch, yet the conversation was always such that I was ready for another round. I am especially in your debt as for your willingness to read every chapter of this dissertation. The project grew exponentially thanks to your insightful comments. Finally, I have to say thanks to Angela Ward. From the beginning of graduate school you have been a source of friendship and compassion. From one family to another: I have the good fortune of coming from a family that has supported me every step of the way, even when they might not have understood exactly what I was doing. I have two of the best brothers in the world, who I admire more than they will ever know. Thanks for many years of wonderful torment and even more wonderful friendship. It is hard to sum up a lifetime of gratitude, but that is what I feel I owe to my parents. Thanks for always being there for me. Since I study masculinity, it is only appropriate to say that I hope that I can someday be half the man that my father is. And I will be lucky if I can come close to living up to the example both of you set forth. Finally, there is Ashley. I met you my first day of graduate school, and since then we have been through so much together. Everything that I do is only possible because you are part of it. You have been my first, and most forgiving, reader, and only after your approval have I been able to share my work further. Even more than that, you have been the one to keep me sane all this time, and you have made the time not spent dissertating worthwhile.
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