COLONIZING MASCULINITY: THE CREATION O F A MALE BRITISH SUBJECTIVIT Y IN THE ORIENTAL FICTION O F W. SOMERSET MAUGHA M by PHILIP JOSEP H HOLDEN B.A., University Colleg e London, 198 3 M.A., University o f Florida, 198 6 A THESIS SUBMITTED I N PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FO R THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR I N PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Department o f English) We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standar d THE UNIVERSITY O F BRITISH COLUMBIA May 199 4 (c) Philip Joseph Holden, 1994 In presentin g thi s thesi s i n partia l fulfilmen t o f th e requirement s fo r a n advance d degree a t th e Universit y o f Britis h Columbia , I agre e tha t th e Librar y shal l mak e i t freely availabl e fo r referenc e an d study . I furthe r agre e tha t permissio n fo r extensiv e copying o f thi s thesi s fo r scholarl y purpose s ma y b e grante d b y th e hea d o f m y department o r b y hi s o r he r representatives . I t i s understoo d tha t copyin g o r publication o f thi s thesi s fo r financia l gai n shal l no t b e allowe d withou t m y writte n permission. (Signature) Department o f EtvikLlS H The Universit y o f Britis h Columbi a Vancouver, Canad a Date 22 /N- 4 / H DE-6 (2/88 ) ii ABSTRACT This thesis discusses th e oriental fictio n o f W. Somerset Maugham i n the light of current theoretical model s introduced b y postcolonia l an d gender studies. Immensel y popular fro m thei r tim e o f publication t o the present, Maugham's novels an d shor t storie s se t i n Asia an d th e South Pacific exhibi t a consummate recyclin g o f colonialist tropes. Through thei r manipulation o f racial, gender, and geographical binarisms , Maugham's texts produce a fantasy o f a seemingly stabl e British male subjectivity base d upo n emotional an d somati c continence, rationality, and specularity. Th e status of the British male subject i s tested an d confirme d b y his activity i n the colonies. Maugham's situatio n o f writing a s a homosexual man, however, results i n affiliations which cu t across th e binary oppositions which structure Maugham's texts, destabilising the integrity o f the subject the y striv e s o assiduously t o create. Commencing with Maugham's nove l The Moon an d Sixpence, and his short stor y collection Th e Trembling o f a Leaf, both of which are se t i n the South Pacific, the thesis moves to a discussion o f Maugham's Chines e travelogue, On a Chinese Screen, and his Hong Kon g novel, The Painted Veil . Furthe r chapters explor e th e Malayan shor t stories, and Maugham' s novel se t i n the then Dutch Eas t Indies, The Narrow Corner. A final chapter discusse s Maugham's novel o f India , The iii Razor's Edge. Unlike many o f his contemporaries, Maugham does not even attempt a liberal critique o f British Imperialism. Writing an d narration are, for him, processes closely identifie d wit h codes of imperia l manliness. Maugham's putativel y objectiv e narrators, and th e public "Maugham persona " which the writer carefully cultivated , display a strong investmen t i n the British male subjectivit y outlined above . Yet Maugham's texts als o endlessly discove r writing a s a play o f signification, of decoration, of qualities tha t he explicitly associate s i n other text s with homosexuality. I f Maugham's text s do not critique the formation o f colonial subject s they do, to a critical reader, make the rhetoric necessar y t o create such subject s peculiarly visible. iv TABLE O F CONTENTS Abstract 11 Table o f Contents iv Acknowledgement v Preface vi INTRODUCTION 1 Chapter On e Envisioning th e Primitive: The Moon an d Sixpenc e 51 Chapter Tw o The Trembling o f a Leaf and the Closet of Nostalgia 89 Chapter Thre e The Flaneur Abroad: On a Chinese Scree n 121 Chapter Fou r The Empty Sig n of The Painted Veil 151 Chapter Fiv e Transgression an d Containment : The Malayan Shor t Storie s 182 Chapter Si x The Narrow Corner: Intoxication, Homoeroticism, an d th e Writing Cure 223 Chapter Seve n Transcending Sexuality : The Razor's Edge. 255 CONCLUSION 285 Endnotes 297 Bibliography 307 V ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would lik e to thank my Research Supervisor , Dr. Patricia Merivale, fo r her sensitiv e criticism an d intellectua l support, and als o to acknowledge the help I received fro m the tw o other members o f my Supervisory Committee , Dr. John Cooper, and Dr. Eva-Marie Kroller. I would als o lik e to thank Ms. Rosemary Leach, Graduate Secretar y i n the English Department, for her assistance t o me during my fiv e years i n the Ph.D. programme. VI PREFACE An earlier version o f the section o f Chapter Fiv e entitled "Reading 'Th e Yellow Streak 1" was published a s "W . Somerset Maugham's Yellow Streak " i n Studies i n Short Fiction 2 9 (1992): 575-582. An earlier version of Chapter Four, "Th e Empty Sig n o f The Painted Veil, " i s forthcoming i n English Studies i n Canada. 1 INTRODUCTION 1. Re-reading Maugha m "Is i t all right," American critic Joseph Epstei n wonders i n an essay written i n the mid 'eighties , "t o read Somerset Maugham?" (1 ) The feelin g persist s tha t i t somehow is not guite a u fait. Maugham's works ar e not part o f the English Literature cano n i n British o r North American universities, nor have they been subject t o focused critica l attention. A detailed critica l readin g o f a defined bod y o f Maugham's fiction , which this thesis attempts, faces difficulties n o matter what critical stanc e i s chosen. For the New Critic, Maugham's novels an d shor t storie s ar e lacking i n depth an d density. Their symbolis m i s clumsily obvious, plots contrived, languag e polishe d an d euphoniou s but tendin g toward s th e cliche. I n Maugham's fiction , meaning i s often on the surface, and th e text itsel f need s little explication o r annotation, i n contrast t o the modernist fictio n an d metaphysical poetr y upo n which British New Criticism cu t it s analytic teeth. More contemporary critica l approache s t o Maugham's texts, however, face other obstacles. Poststructuralist analysis, i n the age of the death of the author, finds Maugham's confidenc e i n intentionality an d writerly craftsmanship misplaced, i f not naive. Feminist critique s face th e arduous tas k o f finding purchas e o n the smooth 2 surface of Maugham's masculine self-fashioning. The author' s early novels, such as Mrs. Craddock (1902) , an d many o f his plays, are sympathetic intervention s i n debates on "th e woman question" o f the late nineteenth an d earl y twentiet h century simila r thematically t o the plays of Henrik Ibse n or the late r novels o f Thomas Hardy. His later, and more popular fiction , however, i s increasingly sex-stereotyped , displaying a misogyny tha t i s impervious t o critical intervention. James Joyce's and D.H. Lawrence's femal e characters ar e frequentl y troublin g presences , cracking ope n the surface s o f gender roles s o that the reader ma y peer, albeit briefly, beneath. Maugham's memsahibs, in contrast, seem s o self-evidently stereotypical , such clearly-define d products o f a rigid, internall y consisten t sex/gende r system, •* • that they resist th e leverage o f deconstructiv e analysis. Postcolonial critique s of Maugham's writings als o arrive a t an impasse . Maugham wrote a substantial bod y of texts about Asia, and i s often thought of, erroneously, a s a writer whose subjec t matter i s predominantly colonial . His novels an d shor t storie s se t i n Asia, however, suffer i n comparison with those o f two canonized predecessors , Kipling and Conrad . Maugham's work doe s not foregroun d th e fantas y of a life on the border zon e between tw o cultures, of a merging int o the exotic culture while stil l maintaining one's English subjectivit y intact , as Kipling's best work, such a s Kim, does. Nor do Maugham's text s exhibit th e 3 fractured structur e o f Conrad's novels an d shor t stories, the overlapping o f narrational voices an d their ultimate undermining o f the status of truth. Maugham's narrators si t in the clean, well-lighted plac e of reason; they observ e with irony , but they rarel y doubt.