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National History and the Novel in 1930S Britain Erica Delsandro Washington University in St Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) January 2011 National History and the Novel in 1930s Britain Erica Delsandro Washington University in St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd Recommended Citation Delsandro, Erica, "National History and the Novel in 1930s Britain" (2011). All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs). 85. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd/85 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS Department of English Dissertation Examination Committee: Marina MacKay, Chair J. Dillon Brown Jennifer Kapczynski Tabea Alexa Linhard Steven Meyer Vincent Sherry NATIONAL HISTORY AND THE NOVEL IN 1930s BRITAIN by Erica Gene Delsandro A dissertation presented to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2011 Saint Louis, Missouri copyright by Erica Gene Delsandro May 2011 Acknowledgments Marina MacKay deserves the lion’s share of thanks not only for her attentive and generous readings of my work but also for providing a model to emulate. As a scholar, Marina is of the best, and as a mentor, she is unsurpassed. The most appropriate way I can think to thank her is by continuing to challenge myself as a scholar and by mentoring others with a similar honesty, integrity, and generosity. Others at Washington University have been influential in my development and in the evolution of this project, especially Vince Sherry, whose conversations have enriched my thinking about modernism and history and whose 2008 Mellon Seminar was pivotal in my intellectual evolution. Steven Meyer has been a consistent supporter and I am grateful for his sincere interest in my work. Of course, nothing would have been accomplished if it was not for Kathy Schneider who, when I sought counsel and aid, provided friendship as well. My years at Washington University were funded generously by the English Department and the Graduate School; without this support my dissertation project could not have come to fruition so efficiently. Even from afar, the English Department and the Graduate School have continued their support, most recently in the form of the Dissertation Fellowship; for this consistent support, I thank Bill McKelvy who always advocated on my behalf. Natalie Spar, Emily Fammartino, and Katie Muth made coming into the office a pleasure. In these three I have found lifelong friends and colleagues. Dalia Oppenheimer is an invaluable friend and colleague whose companionship and conversation nurtured both my project and me. Debie Lohe’s smiling face and kindred spirit provided a much needed example of balance and I am thankful our connection continues. Despite the distance, Jessica Rezunyk has remained a consistent presence, and our regular email correspondences have been a light in the dark times and a joy all the time. And St. Louis would not have been “home” if it wasn’t for Marge Kessler who took me in as her own from the first day we met. Ghislaine McDayter, Helen Morris-Keitel, and Sue Reed all deserve a mention. At Bucknell, these women were kind colleagues, wise counsel, and great friends. Deirdre O’Connor has been a constant throughout my academic life; my evolution as a thinker, writer, and teacher owes a great debt to her. Peg Cronin, whose impact on me cannot be measured, has also been witness to my progress, both professionally and personally. Her belief in me kept me confident and her support kept me steady. Without Carrie Walker, my life would be far less vibrant and my thinking far less complicated. Christen Braun and Lauren Hughes have been with me since the beginning of my academic life as an undergraduate and they have listened to me talk about Virginia Woolf with interest and patience. Thanks to these three, there has been plenty of laughter in my life. Dustyn Martincich has been a terrific cheerleader since our friendship began; ii I hope our collaborations, personal and professional, continue. Candice Nicolas’ wisdom and vitality has infused the last two years with pleasure; for this I thank her. John Kloke has helped me to see the adventure in everything, even during times of hard work and uncertainty; I look forward to our adventure continuing. Finally, I thank my parents. Their love is my comfort and their respect my prize. Their confidence in me has never faltered and their support is the foundation upon which I stand. I dedicate this to them. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgments ii Introduction “Twentieth Century Blues” 1 Chapter 1 “Some way historical?”: Missed Opportunities, Misidentifications, and Evelyn Waugh’s Bright Young Things 37 Chapter 2 Decadence and Dandies in the 1930s: Christopher Isherwood’s The Berlin Stories 93 Chapter 3 “To make that country our own country”: Gender Politics, National History, and Virginia Woolf’s The Years 160 Chapter 4 A Fighting Philosopher: Autobiography and the Politics of R. G. Collingwood 228 Bibliography 261 iv Introduction “Twentieth Century Blues” “In this strange illusion, / Chaos and confusion, / People seem to lose their way. / What is there to strive for? Say – / Hey, hey, call it a day. / Blues, nothing to win or to lose. / It’s getting me down. / Blues, I got those weary Twentieth Century Blues.” – Noël Coward, Cavalcade The 1930s in Britain are a decade set apart. Although the decade is one half of the interwar period, its unique designation as being simultaneously postwar and prewar motivates literary historians to treat the decade as an independent micro-period. Moreover, although the 1930s are only one decade out of the five that constitute the first half of the twentieth century, these ten years are treated as historically autonomous by literary critics and historians. The common wisdom emphasizes the ways in which the decade is separate from the national-historical narrative that links Britain’s industrial revolution, Pax Britannica, and the rise of Empire to military conflicts in the colonies, the Great War, and World War II, thus crafting a story of national greatness turned decadent, civilization in crisis, and a return to respectability by way of a righteous war. Political, economic, and cultural events assist the separation of the 1930s from longer histories of the first half of the twentieth century. The Great Depression and “the Slump” in Britain inaugurate the decade ushering in increasing unemployment and poverty, characterized by breadlines and the phrase “on the dole,” culminating in the Jarrow March of 1936. The middle of the decade is also marked by a crisis of constitutional politics in the form of Edward VIII’s abdication and the consequent coronation of his brother, George VI. Edward’s love affair with and eventual marriage to 1 the twice-divorced American socialite, Wallis Simpson, was a controversy that cut across class divisions: Edward’s personal battle between duty and love offering the British population both a distraction from their woes and worries as well as providing a corollary to their own struggle between dedication to the traditions of England and hope in a new and modern future. Symbolically, Edward’s abdication closed the door on the postwar euphoria that is synonymous with the jazz age of the 1920s: youth, frivolity, and carelessness were replaced by sobriety, austerity, and anxiety, fueled not only by economic instability but also by political tensions abroad.1 On the continent, Fascism was quickly becoming a formative mode of political action, a powerful response to the peace treaty that cultivated anything but peace for winners and losers alike.2 Mussolini was waging war in Abyssinia, Hitler was effectively initiating a political revolution in the form of the National Socialist Party, and thanks in part to the National Government’s policy of non- 1 Edward VIII, with his good looks, dashing personality, and celebrity lifestyle, is closely associated with the euphoria and excess that immediately followed World War I. Many memoirs as well as critical studies of the period fold the abdication of Edward VII into the social and cultural fabric of the 1930s, characterizing it as both symptom and sign of political, economic, and generational tensions. The People’s King: The True Story of the Abdication (2004), by Susan Williams, explores the complicated relationships among Edward VIII, the British government and monarchy, and the British people. 2 From the 1920s onward there was a growing consensus that the Treaty of Versailles was an ineffective end to World War I. John Maynard Keynes’ The Economic Consequences of Peace (1919) led the critique against the Treaty of Versailles: a “Carthaginian peace,” according to Keynes. As the economic depression and political unrest that characterized the 1930s became undeniable, many scholars, writers, and average citizens alike, came to share a Keynsian opinion of the Treaty. R. G. Collingwood, in his An Autobiography (1939), writes explicitly about his contempt for the treaty that, according to many, Collingwood included, planted the seeds for another world war. 2 intervention, Franco was successfully executing a Fascist takeover in Spain. Although the plight of the Spanish people captured the imaginations and minds of many left- leaning British artists and intellectuals toward the end of the decade,3 the overwhelming power and presence of Fascism in Europe did not leave England undisturbed. The British Union of Fascists grew in visibility, exacerbating the political division between left and right that many literary historians employ as the most important characteristic of the 1930s. A writer and Great War veteran, Wyndham Lewis situates the particular political and cultural circumstances of the 1930s in the context of war.
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