Sexual Economics in Wedding Texts by Grace Lumpkin, Eudora Welty, and Alice Childress
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Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 2000 Anxiety and Orange Blossoms: Sexual Economics in Wedding Texts by Grace Lumpkin, Eudora Welty, and Alice Childress. Ida Maxwell Wells Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Wells, Ida Maxwell, "Anxiety and Orange Blossoms: Sexual Economics in Wedding Texts by Grace Lumpkin, Eudora Welty, and Alice Childress." (2000). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 7172. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/7172 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 Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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ANXIETY AND ORANGE BLOSSOMS: SEXUAL ECONOMICS IN WEDDING TEXTS BY GRACE LUMPKIN, EUDORA WELTY, AND ALICE CHILDRESS A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty o f the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment o f the requirements for the degree o f Doctor of Philosophy in The Department o f English by Ida Maxwell Wells B.A., Mississippi College, 1970 M .A., Louisiana State University Agricultural and Mechanical College, 1990 May 2000 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 9963967 Copyright 2000 by Wells, Ida Maxwell All rights reserved. __ ® UMI UMI Microform 9963967 Copyright 2000 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 0 Copyright 2000 Ida Maxwell Wells A ll rights reserved u• • Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. W ith much love and deep thanks to Mom who always taught me to follow my dreams and to my cousins McMains who made it possible for me to follow this one i i i Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. "When they were married, there were just ten people in the church, including the wedding party, o f the hundred who had been invited.. That was the other half of the reason for Ellen’s tears. But Sutpen wanted it. He wanted, not the anonymous wife and the anonymous children, but the two names, the stainless wife and the unimpeachable father-in-law, on the license, the patent. Ellen went through die rehearsal, but afterward the aunt took her home in a state very near hysteria, though by the next day it had become just quiet intermittent weeping again. There was some talk even o f putting the wedding o ff. "For a time Ellen walked out o f the weeping, the tears, and so into the church. It was empty yet save for your grandfather and grandmother and perhaps a half dozen more who might have come out of loyalty to the Coldfields. She seems to have walked out of the church arid so into it without any warning whatever. Perhaps she was still moving beneath that pride which would not allow the people inside die church to see her weep. She just walked into it, probably hurrying toward the seclusion o f the carriage where she could weep. Absalom, Absalom! W illiam Faulkner iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am deeply indebted to a number o f exceptional people who have guided me on this journey. Nancy Neill, a fellow Mississippian and writer with whom I worked at McKinsey & Company in Atlanta, was a wonderful friend and mentor who encouraged me to pursue this new career. Lewis P. Simpson provided, both in the classroom and as I typed manuscripts for him, the historical and cultural context to really engage with the Southern literature I love. John Lowe exploded the Southern literary canon for me in a dynamic way, provoking an interest in die dialectical relationships o f Southern and African-American writers with the American tradition. He has also provided valuable assistance in helping me evaluate Childress’s work within African-American literary, cultural, and theoretical contexts. Josephine Roberts introduced me to Stephen Greenblatt's Renaissance Self- Fashioning, which led to that aspect o f the theoretical model presented in this study. Patrick McGee introduced me to and interested me in critical theory as a discipline, especially psychoanalytic theory. Elsie Michie, Carl Freedman, and Michelle Collins provided excellent sources and insight into materialist feminist theory. Dana Nelson contributed both colonial American literature and history and theoretical sources. Rosan Jordan suggested several interesting historical, sociological, and anthropological texts from the period o f the three texts in the study and provided excellent conceptual and editorial advice. A ll have been inspirational teachers and friends as well. Dr. Charles Tolbert o f Sociology offered enthusiasm and advice in serving as Dean’s Representative on my General Examination Committee, and Dr. v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Jean Hurlbert o f the same department generously agreed to be the Dean’s Representative for the Final Examination with rather short notice. Students in my Fall 1999 Introduction to Fiction class were interested in and supportive o f die project, and several o f their ideas are inchided in the Conclusion. And, finally, Peggy Whitman Prenshaw, who knows more than I could ever hope to learn about American, Southern, and women’s literature, has shared that knowledge with exceptional grace and been teacher, friend, and mentor extraordinaire. To all, my deepest thanks. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...................................................................................... v ABSTRACT......................................................................................................... ix CHAPTER 1 BEAUTY, BRIDES, AND BARTER: GENDER ROLES, SEXUAL ECONOMICS, AND THE MARRIAGE EXCHANGE . 1 Issues ............................................................................................ 1 History of Marriage ...................................................................... 7 O rigins o f Sexual Econom ics ....................................................... 11 Changing Gender Roles: True Woman to New Woman ............... 18 Sexual Economics in the Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century South: A New Theory ................................ 23 In itia te s ............................................................................... 29 Self-Fashioners ................................................................... 31 Marriageable Women/Ladies .............................................. 32 The Bride as the Icon o f the Sexual Economy ..................... 40 Submissive W ife ................................................................. 47 Self-Sacrificing M other ....................................................... 49 M entors .............................................................................. 50 Literary Antecedents....................................................................52 The Marriage P lo t ...............................................................52 The Coupling Convention ................................................... 55 The Southern Literary Tradition .......................................... 55 N o te s .........................................................................................