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The Erotics of Race Suicide: the Making of Whiteness and the Death Drive in the Progressive Era, 1880-1920

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The Erotics of Race Suicide: the Making of Whiteness and the Death Drive in the Progressive Era, 1880-1920 Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2015 The rE otics of Race Suicide: The akM ing of Whiteness and the Death Drive in the Progressive Era, 1880-1920 Madoka Kishi Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Kishi, Madoka, "The rE otics of Race Suicide: The akM ing of Whiteness and the Death Drive in the Progressive Era, 1880-1920" (2015). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 189. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/189 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. THE EROTICS OF RACE SUICIDE: THE MAKING OF WHITENESS AND THE DEATH DRIVE IN THE PROGRESSIVE ERA, 1880-1920 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of English by Madoka Kishi M.A. The University of Tokyo, 2009 B.A. The University of Tokyo, 2005 December 2015 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To think about the erotic potential of suicide sounds amply morbid. Naturally I was sometimes met by a concerned look when I explained the project of my dissertation. But through writing this death-obsessed work, I was enlivened. It was solely because of those who trusted my project, gave me the warmest support one could ever wish, and nurtured me with their boundless affection: they gave me another life, so to speak. The works and the presence of my chair, Benjy Kahan, breathed life into this project and kept it animated. If my dissertation glows with any sort of eroticism, it is a dim reflection of the radiance emitted by his book, Celibacies. In many ways, my project is a product—indeed the progeny—of the incredible fecundity of the sexuality without sex he portrayed in his book. His boundless enthusiasm and unsparing care sustained me day by day. For this and more, I am eternally indebted to him. I will live on the nurturance he has provided me, passing it down to those who come after. I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to the other members of my committee as well. From my first semester at LSU, Elsie Michie has provided me with invaluable guidance about how to sharpen my focus. The sparkle of her intelligence, grace, wit, as well as of the collection of her fabulous necklaces, has illumed the dusky path of my growth as a scholar. Hours of conversation in Lauren Coats’s office taught me to moor my project in given historical contexts and enabled me to articulate my fragmented thoughts in English in my first year at LSU, giving me the sense of being at home in a foreign country. Bill Boelhower was a master mariner for my intellectual voyage, pointing toward the distant horizon where unexpected treasure was hidden and encouraging me to embrace challenges and pleasures of being an étranger. I would ii also like to thank my Dean’s Representative, Professor Richard Holben, for his deep interest in my project, as well as his encouraging smiles that made me breathe at one of the most nervous moments of my graduate school life. I feel enormously grateful for other professors and members of the Department of English, as well as of the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies at LSU. Professor Michelle Massé for teaching me what it means to give unflagging support to the growth of academic communities. English department graduate secretary Ashley Thibodeaux for her masterful guidance and loving patience to help me wade through the complicated university protocols. Professor Chris Barrett for her bottomless compassion, as well as her generosity to let me spend time with her feline companion Andromeda Barett. Professor Michael Bibler for his profound insights and enveloping warmth. Professor Pallavi Rastogi for her convivial pedagogical advice that made me remember the joy of teaching. Professors Kathleen Bratton and Barbara Craig for their warm welcome to the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, as well as their guidance for how to construct trusting relationships with students. I am also blessed with friends, who have resurrected me so many times from various hardships, enveloping me with deep sense of intimacy and security. Words cannot express my gratitude for my dearest friend, Peter Pappas, for the exuberance and the warmth he brought into my life for the past five years. His relation to his late canine companion, Futuro Pappas, was the source of inspiration for the chapter on Jack London. Ikuko Takeda was the greatest companion one could ever wish for. Her sunny smiles and yummy cookies were the emotional ballast for my being. She always made me see the beauty of life, whenever I was hiding from it in my seclusion in the tiny office. Many thanks to members of my writing groups; Jordan Von Cannon, Michael iii Von Cannon, Stacey Amo, Cristina Roselle, Logan Wiedenfield, Matt Dischinger, and Josef Horá!ek. Thank you always for holding my hands—y’all are the best writing buddies. And Megan Feifer and Travis Hubbs—I will always remember their balmy comraderie. My first year at LSU was funded by Fulbright, and I am indebted to the Institute of International Education for opening the gate of my academic pursuit in the United States. I was also fortunate to be given the Gale Carrithers Outstanding Essay Award in 2013 and in 2014, as well as the partial dissertation-year fellowship from January to June 2015 from LSU. I am enormously thankful to the selection committees for their generous reading and evaluation of my work. I would also like to thank the faculty of the Department of English at my alma mater, the University of Tokyo, with especial acknowledgement to Professor Takaki Hiraishi, the paterfamilias of the Department who retired in 2013. I am grateful, also, to Professors Noriko Imanishi, Koichi Suwabe, Yoichi Ohashi, and Stephen Clark, for their warm support during the completion of this project, and Professor Tomoyuki Zettsu at Rikkyo University for opening the path for queer studies for me when I was in Japan. Last but not least, inexpressive thanks goes to my family, who have supported me with unconditional love from across the Pacific. Despite my project that pursues the intimacy transcending consanguinity, I feel blessed to be born as a daughter of Yasuko and Yoichi Kishi, and as a sister of Misuki Hashiguchi. I dedicate this dissertation to my grandmother, Shizu Maruyama, who has embraced the impending departure from her life with calmness, dignity, and humor. I will never forget the warmth of her awkward but strong hugs when I needed them the most. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .............................................................................................................. ii ABSTRACT.................................................................................................................................. vii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION: THE SEXUALITY OF POPULATION . 1 The Race that Kills Itself ..........................................................................................................1 The Reification of the “Social Body”.......................................................................................5 The Buried History of Race in The History of Sexuality ........................................................10 Death, the Most Private Thing of All .....................................................................................15 Undoing the Body, Remaking the Social Body......................................................................21 Penumbrae of White Heteronormativity.................................................................................25 Notes .......................................................................................................................................28 2. THE SACRIFICIAL ECSTASY: THE BOSTONIANS, NEURASTHENIA, AND THE “OBSCURE HURT”. 33 “Poodle Henry James”............................................................................................................33 The Decay of the American Race in New England................................................................41 Wounded Attachments to the Social Body.............................................................................52 “The Ecstasy of the Martyr” ...................................................................................................62 Still Waiting............................................................................................................................69 Notes .......................................................................................................................................71 3. THE NEW WOMAN BREEDING A NEW RACE: KATE CHOPIN AND THE AESTHETICS OF DEVOLUTION . 73 “A New Race of Beings”........................................................................................................73 Darwin and the Aesthetic Mattering of Race..........................................................................79 Creole Chic .............................................................................................................................85 Vogue and Parthenogenesis
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