THE TRAVEL NARRATIVE AS SPIN: MITIGATING CHARLIE CHAPLIN’S PUBLIC PERSONA IN MY TRIP ABROAD AND “A COMEDIAN SEES THE WORLD” A dissertation presented to the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy Lisa K. Stein June 2005 ©2005 Lisa K. Stein All Rights Reserved This dissertation entitled THE TRAVEL NARRATIVE AS SPIN: MITIGATING CHARLIE CHAPLIN’S PUBLIC PERSONA IN MY TRIP ABROAD AND “A COMEDIAN SEES THE WORLD” by LISA K. STEIN has been approved for the Department of English Language & Literature and the College of Arts and Sciences by Carey Snyder Assistant Professor of English Leslie A. Flemming Dean, College of Arts & Sciences STEIN, LISA K. Ph.D. June 2005. English Language and Literature The Travel Narrative as Spin: Mitigating Charlie Chaplin’s Public Persona in My Trip Abroad and “A Comedian Sees the World” (232 pp.) Director of Dissertation: Carey Snyder Avant-garde writers such as T. S. Eliot and Gertrude Stein found in Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp persona an analogue for what they were attempting in poetry and prose: as Michael North notes, Chaplin brought a “rhythm back into realism” with his jerky gate and flexing cane, thereby disrupting normative behavior and comportment much like the modernist writers were disrupting literary conventions. This project demonstrates that Chaplin’s relevance to literary modernism is not confined to his work on film, but can be extended to his travel narratives as well. Akin to select celebrity author travel narratives such as Charles Dickens’ American Notes (1842) and Gertrude Stein’s Everybody’s Autobiography (1935) in purpose, one that diverges from the accepted usage of the travel narrative genre, Chaplin’s My Trip Abroad (1922) and “A Comedian Sees the World” (1933-4), also demonstrate a subtle promotional agenda much like ones recently uncovered for modernist writers, including James Joyce and T. S. Eliot. The dissertation argues that Chaplin’s travel narratives function as effective promotional vehicles through a conflation of his public and filmic personae by 1) creating verbal correlations to the visual rhetorical strategies he uses to portray the Little Tramp on film, 2) creating a democratic Chaplin-as-tourist persona in the narratives, 3) establishing a rhetoric of authenticity in the narratives (analyzed with the assistance of Richard Dyer’s tripartite theory of rhetorical authenticity for celebrity promotion), and 4) employing particular visual images in the narratives that work to confirm and extend these tasks. “The Travel Narrative as Spin” demonstrates that the travel narrative proved to be the perfect promotional tool for Chaplin, because the Little Tramp was already “read” by audiences as an Everyman tourist-figure, in his dress, his demeanor, and his characteristic movement in films. Using Joshua Gamson’s theory of the celebrity-encounter game and Dean MacCannell’s theory of the tourist-attraction encounter, the dissertation reveals that Chaplin emerges in these narratives not only in the guise of his tourist persona, but also as a celebrity-author/tourist-attraction. Drawing on scholarship of celebrity and travel/tourism, then, this project offers a new reading of Chaplin’s particular significance for modernism and modernist studies. Approved: Carey Snyder Assistant Professor of English This dissertation is dedicated to three people who always seemed to have my best interests at heart and whom I miss very much: my mother, D. Maxine Stein, my grandfather, Albert C. Corson, and my grandmother, Alma G. Corson. Acknowledgements This project would have been impossible without the kind assistance of many great people. Kate Guyonvarch and Josephine Chaplin of Association Chaplin in Paris offered access to any and all manuscripts, documents, etc., which are foundational to this project and I could not have completed it without their support. Kate went above and beyond her call of duty to offer me tireless support and hospitality both in Paris and over the email. Thanks also to her assistants, Claire Byrski and Charlie Sistovaris. Thank you to Evelyn Lüthi-Graf of the Archives de Montreux, who provided much needed assistance and support during my research of the Chaplin archives housed in that facility. Of course, I wish to thank Carey Snyder, my director, for her dedication to my project, thoughtful comments and criticism and overall support. I wish also to thank Sherrie Gradin for her much appreciated comments and support. Also, a very heartfelt thanks to Betty Pytlik, who offered support, friendship and interest that helped me get through the day-to-day frustrations of researching and writing. The following list of people offered comments, research support or other assistance, for which I thank them: Joseph McLaughlin, Kevin Harris, Josephine Bloomfield, Susan Crowl, Lucy Jaffe, Barb Grueser, and Kris Teters. All images from Chaplin films made from 1918 onwards, and all extracts from the Chaplin archives, Copyright © Roy Export Company Establishment. Charles Chaplin and the Little Tramp are trademarks and/or service marks of Bubbles Inc. S.A. and/or Roy Export Company Establishment, used with permission. 8 Table of Contents Abstract................................................................................................................................4 Acknowledgements..............................................................................................................7 List of Figures......................................................................................................................9 Introduction........................................................................................................................11 Chapter 1: Before and After: The Promotional Travel Books of Charles Dickens and Gertrude Stein ....................................................................................................................42 Chapter 2: Persona I: The Verbal Construction of the Little Tramp Persona....................74 Chapter 3: Persona II: The Chaplin-as-Tourist Persona ..................................................108 Chapter 4: Chaplin’s Language of Authenticity ..............................................................134 Chapter 5: Seeing Stars: The Role of the Visual Text in a Promotional Agenda............169 Coda .................................................................................................................................208 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................213 Appendix A......................................................................................................................226 Appendix B ......................................................................................................................230 9 List of Figures Figure 1. Chaplin and Jackie Coogan in The Kid ..............................................................83 Figure 2. Chaplin in The Pilgrim ......................................................................................89 Figure 3. Chaplin in The Pilgrim ......................................................................................89 Figure 4. Chaplin in One A.M...........................................................................................90 Figure 5. Chaplin in Costume as the Little Tramp............................................................90 Figure 6. Chaplin in Easy Street .......................................................................................94 Figure 7. Chaplin in Shanghaied ......................................................................................99 Figure 8. Chaplin in Modern Times ................................................................................101 Figure 9. Chaplin in The Circus......................................................................................105 Figure 10. Belgian Postcard............................................................................................111 Figure 11. German Chaplin and Globe Toy....................................................................112 Figure 12. Belgian Postcard Chaplin and Mannekin Pis ................................................117 Figure 13. Josephine Percy .............................................................................................159 Figure 14. “C. in the b.g. lying down”............................................................................159 Figure 15. “Charlie and his guardian angel, though a very dark one”............................160 Figure 16. “Charlie lying down”.....................................................................................160 Figure 17. Chaplin posing at Juan-les-Pins.....................................................................161 Figure 18. “Entitled by C. C. himself, ‘The South Sea Islander’”..................................161 Figure 19. “A friend took this whilst I was snapping Charlie…”...................................162 Figure 20. “C. tired out” .................................................................................................162 Figure 21. “Oh, my arms!” .............................................................................................163 10 Figure 22. “That wretched arthritis again!” ....................................................................163 Figure 23. Chaplin on boat, Juan-les-Pins ......................................................................164