1 The Poetry of Female Radicalism in Depression-Era America by Karen Elizabeth Veitch Dissertation submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in American Studies, University of Sussex, January 2012. 2 I hereby declare that this thesis has not been and will not be submitted in whole or in part to another University for the award of any other degree. Signature:……………………………………… 3 University of Sussex Karen Elizabeth Veitch DPhil in American Studies (Literature) The Poetry of Female Radicalism in Depression-Era America Summary This thesis examines womens’ poetry of the radical Left and organised labour movement of the Depression-Era United States and investigates the relationship between poetry and politics during this period. In so doing, it shows that women poets were concerned with precisely that problem: of poetry’s political function. The work of individual poets and the acts of collective cultural production explored in this thesis articulate a radical, politically transformative poetics at a time when the continued existence of poetry was perceived to be under threat from scientific advance and wider cultural changes. Juxtaposing analysis of Left modernist poets with poets of the labour movement, the chapters focus on three individual poets including Muriel Rukeyser (1913-1980), Genevieve Taggard (1894-1948) and Miriam Tane (1916-2007). To provide an understanding of the role of poetry within a specific political movement and to establish the context in which Tane’s poetry was produced, two chapters are included which analyse the educational culture and the collective cultural production of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union. One chapter focuses on the history of the ILGWU’s educational and cultural activities and the other analyses collections of poetry which the union produced. This thesis challenges the existing paradigm in which the study of American radical Left and labour poetry has been isolated from any broader enquiry about its relationship to class, American political history and also to literary modernism. This thesis advances two main arguments: that the poets considered in this thesis conceived of poetry as a politically transformative force; that these politically transformative understandings of poetry were rooted in in an engagement with the ideological and material contexts of the social movements to which these writers belonged. 4 Furthermore, this thesis considers poetry in terms of the material context of its publication, and the political uses to which it was put. 5 Contents Table of Figures........................................................................................................................... 7 Acknowledgments ....................................................................................................................... 8 Bibliographical Note ................................................................................................................... 9 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 10 0.1 From Utopia to the Dinner Table: A Discussion of the Political and Cultural Context... 10 0.2 Remembering Anew: The Position of the Thesis in Relation to Existing Criticism ......... 13 0.3 Tracing the Contours of Silence: The Scope and Methodology of the Thesis .................. 19 0.4 Mapping the Journey from Utopia to the Next Meal: An Outline of Structure and Content ................................................................................................................................................ 25 Chapter 1: “Exchange is creation”: The Revolutionary Poetics of Muriel Rukeyser ........ 30 1.1 A Brief Cultural History of the Second Law of Thermodynamics ................................... 31 1.2 Entropy and Economics .................................................................................................... 34 1.3 “Mathematics is a language”: Willard Gibbs as Theoretical Treatise .............................. 38 1.4 The Political Mechanics of “The Book of the Dead” ....................................................... 46 Chapter 2: The Poetics of Class-Consciousness: Reading Genevieve Taggard in the Context of the New Masses. ...................................................................................................... 66 2.1 “You’ll never be the same again”: Reading the New Masses in the 1930s. ..................... 72 2.2 Genevieve Taggard and the Critique of Individualism ..................................................... 76 2.3 Taggard’s Poetics of Collective Class-Consciousness ...................................................... 81 Chapter 3: The Role of Education and Literature within the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union ....................................................................................................... 101 3.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 101 3.2 “Wiping Out Social Illiteracy”: The Educational Culture of the ILGWU ...................... 101 3.3 “Builders of a New Culture”: The Role of Literature within the ILGWU’s Educational Department ............................................................................................................................ 114 Chapter 4 - Poetry Collections of the ILGWU ..................................................................... 127 4.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 127 4.2 Tools in Their Hands, for Building New Minds: A General Description of ILGWU Poetry Collections ................................................................................................................. 130 4.2 “Master of the world I’ve made”: Poems by and for Workers and Garment Workers Speak .............................................................................................................................................. 131 4.3 Poems as Usable Objects ................................................................................................ 137 4.4 Labour and the Imagination ............................................................................................ 142 4.5 “Ideas Plus Organisation”: The ILGWU as a Political and Imaginative Force .............. 154 4.6 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 164 6 Chapter 5: The Lyric Justice Poetry of Miriam Tane ......................................................... 166 5.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 166 5.2 Tane’s Lyric Justice Poems ............................................................................................ 170 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 202 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 205 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 215 7 Table of Figures Figure 1 - "The Nation’s Circulation." New Masses. 14 July, 1936. Print. .................... 73 Figure 2 - "You’ll never be the same again." New Masses. 19 May, 1936. Print. .......... 75 Figure 3 - Genevieve Taggard. "Life of the Mind, 1935." New Masses. 1 Jan., 1935. Print. ................................................................................................................................ 82 Figure 4 - "We Light Our First Candle." New Masses. 1 Jan., 1935. Print. .................... 83 Figure 5 - EduTravel. New Masses. 7 April, 1936. Print. ............................................... 91 Figure 6 – Intourist. New Masses. 7 April, 1936. Print. ................................................. 92 Figure 7 - "Author! Author!" Justice. 1 Sept., 1939. Print. ......................................... 119 Figure 8 – “Psalm of the Unorganized.” Poems by and for Workers. Booklet. 1941. TS. Tamiment Library, New York. Print. ............................................................................ 138 Figure 9 - "Work." Poems by and for Workers. Booklet. 1941. TS. Tamiment Library, New York. ..................................................................................................................... 140 8 Acknowledgments Above all, this is for my parents, Anne and Douglas Veitch, and for my brother, John Veitch. This thesis would not exist were it not for the support they have given me. I would also like to thank many friends who provided support, relief, and intellectual stimulation throughout the years. In particular, I would like to thank my dear friends; Angharad Brodie, Sarah Taylor, Fiona Land, Rose McConnachie, Clare Donaldson, Lyndsay Craig, Lynda McMinn, Frances Direen, Tristan LeFranc, Ruaridh Cole and Andy MacKenzie. I am also grateful to my friends at Sussex University; Chiara Alfano, Joanna Freer, Alex Pestell, Martin Trigg-Knight, Angelos Koutsourakis, Nozomi Lynette Uematsu, Jenny Greenshields, Donna MacPherson and Katie Reid. I also thank all the girls of the Sussex University badminton team for their good humour, grace and extreme skill under fire. I am deeply grateful to my supervisors,