Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations Arts & Sciences Summer 8-15-2016 Breaking Bread with the Dead: Social Radicalism and Christian Traditions in Twentieth-Century American Literature Jonathan David McGregor Washington University in St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds Recommended Citation McGregor, Jonathan David, "Breaking Bread with the Dead: Social Radicalism and Christian Traditions in Twentieth-Century American Literature" (2016). Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 870. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds/870 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Arts & Sciences at Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations 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: William J. Maxwell, Chair Long Le-Khac Leigh Eric Schmidt Abram Van Engen Rafia Zafar Breaking Bread with the Dead: Social Radicalism and Christian Traditions in Twentieth-Century American Literature by Jonathan David McGregor A dissertation presented to the Graduate School of Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2016 St. Louis, Missouri © 2016, Jonathan David McGregor Table of Contents List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ iv Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................... v Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ viii Chapter 1: Introduction: Social Icons: Religious Tradition and Political Vision in Twentieth-Century American Literature .................................................................................... 2 1.1 Radicalism without Progressivism ..................................................................................... 7 1.2 Criticism without Progressivism ...................................................................................... 10 1.2.1 Medievalist Sacraments ......................................................................................................... 10 1.2.2 Queer Temporalities .............................................................................................................. 11 1.2.3 Postsecular Spiritualities ........................................................................................................ 14 1.2.4 Intellectual Histories .............................................................................................................. 18 1.3 Literary History without Progressivism ........................................................................... 19 1.4 Works Cited ...................................................................................................................... 26 Chapter 2: A Queer Orthodoxy: Monastic Socialism and Celibate Sexuality in Vida Dutton Scudder and Ralph Adams Cram ......................................................................... 29 2.1 Medievalism, Socialism, and Sexuality in American Anglo-Catholicism ....................... 32 2.2 Ralph Adams Cram: The Walled Town and the Decadent Abbey .................................. 39 2.3 Vida Scudder and Florence Converse: Wedded Sisters of St. Francis ............................. 52 2.4 Sacred History and Utopia ............................................................................................... 62 2.5 Works Cited ...................................................................................................................... 66 Chapter 3: The Ways of Orthodoxy: The Christian Antimodernisms of John Crowe Ransom, T. S. Eliot, and Dorothy Day in the Great Depression ................................................................. 70 3.1 John Crowe Ransom’s Marginal Orthodoxy .................................................................... 81 ii 3.2 T. S. Eliot’s Elitist Orthodoxy .......................................................................................... 92 3.3 Dorothy Day’s Anarchist Orthodoxy ............................................................................. 102 3.4 The Implicit Icon of Orthodoxy ..................................................................................... 113 3.5 Works Cited .................................................................................................................... 116 Chapter 4: Midcentury Medievalisms with a Difference: Peter Maurin, Claude McKay, W. H. Auden, and the Catholic Worker Movement ........................................................................................... 120 4.1 Péguy in the Bowery: Peter Maurin’s Working-Class Medievalism ............................. 121 4.2 Dark Like Me: Claude McKay’s Black Medievalism .................................................... 141 4.3 Monasticism Versus Empire: W. H. Auden’s Queer Medievalism ............................... 157 4.4 Medievalism and the Politics of History ........................................................................ 172 4.5 Works Cited .................................................................................................................... 173 Chapter 5: Tradition Beyond Tragedy: Walker Percy, James McBride Dabbs, and Will D. Campbell’s Committee of Southern Churchmen .................................................... 178 5.1 Improvising on Tradition: Walker Percy’s The Last Gentleman ................................... 186 5.2 Heritage of Dissent: Will D. Campbell’s Southern Churchmen .................................... 196 5.3 Fortunate Fall: James McBride Dabbs’ The Southern Heritage .................................... 213 5.4 Beyond Tragedy? ........................................................................................................... 230 5.5 Works Cited .................................................................................................................... 235 Chapter 6: Coda: Wholeness in an Age of Fracture; or, The Home Economics of Wendell Berry and Marilynne Robinson ...................................... 240 6.1 Works Cited .................................................................................................................... 254 iii List of Figures Figure 2.1: Ralph Adams Cram’s graph plotting the development of civilization against the development of monasticism in Walled Towns (1919), p. 33 .........……………………………..43 Figure 2.2: Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue’s frontispiece to The Decadent (1893) by Ralph Adams Cram …………………………………………………………….. …………………...…………46 Figure 2.3: Andrei Rublev’s Holy Trinity (15th century) ……………………………………….47 Figure 3.1: Ade Bethune’s Masthead for The Catholic Worker (1936) ……………………….111 Figure 4.1: Claude McKay’s “The Middle Ages” (1946) in its Catholic Worker context …….148 Figure 5.1: Cover of the inaugural issue of Katallagete: Be Reconciled! (1965) ……………...209 iv Acknowledgments This dissertation is about communion and community, and it was made possible by what Wendell Berry calls “the care of neighbors.” Among those neighbors, I wish to thank first my dissertation director, Bill Maxwell, a model scholar whose writing is as delightful as it as serious, and whose editorial suggestions are always timely and incisive. Leigh Schmidt, Rafia Zafar, and Long Le-Khac have proved winning conversationalists as well as helpful critics. Abram Van Engen has been a mentor and friend of indefatigable generosity. Vince Sherry’s article workshop did much to help me improve parts of Chapter 2. For Chapter 5, Steven Miller fielded my questions about Will Campbell, and the Special Collections of the University of Mississippi Library graciously facilitated my archival research. Many others have provided encouragements, corrections, and inspirations too numerous to count. My fellow graduate students made Washington University a neighborly place to learn, to write, and in many ways to remake my self. Gratitude is due particularly to all who commented on my work in dissertation and article workshops and in the Religion and Literature Reading Group. Mike O’Bryan, Beth Windle, Kenny Gradert, Hannah Wakefield, and Asher Gelzer- Govatos deserve special recognition for their intellectual comradeship. No one has listened to me talk more than Caleb Caldwell, and no one has responded more prodigally with attention, insight, and enjoyment. Your friendship and faith in me have been constant. To my wife, Jennifer: your patience, faith, support, and love are beyond reckoning. I can’t imagine doing this with anyone but you. Our daughter Margaret only rarely begrudged it when we went to work, and she always welcomed us home with joy. Finally, to my parents, who have encouraged my intellectual pursuits from the beginning and who moved to St. Louis not v long before I began writing this dissertation: I couldn’t have done this without your presence, love, and care for me and my family. You are the best neighbors I could ask for. Jonathan David McGregor Washington University in St. Louis August 2016 vi For Jennifer vii