UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations 1-1-2005 Gothic analogues in Kay Boyle's Death of a Man: Modernist perspective and political reality Cara A Minardi University of Nevada, Las Vegas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/rtds Repository Citation Minardi, Cara A, "Gothic analogues in Kay Boyle's Death of a Man: Modernist perspective and political reality" (2005). UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations. 1786. http://dx.doi.org/10.25669/wu9l-jomj This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Thesis has been accepted for inclusion in UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. GOTHIC ANALOGUES IN KAY BOYLE’S DEATH OF A MAN: MODERNIST PERSPECTIVE AND POLITICAL REALITY by Cara A. Minardi Bachelor of Arts University of Nevada, Las Vegas 2001 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Master of Arts Degree in English Department of English College of Liberal Arts Graduate College University of Nevada, Las Vegas May 2005 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 1428573 Copyright 2005 by Minardi, Cara A. All rights reserved. INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI UMI Microform 1428573 Copyright 2005 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest 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. Thesis Approval I7NTV The Graduate College University of Nevada, Las Vegas May 15 ■ 20 05 The Thesis prepared by Cara A. Minardi Entitled Gothic Analogues In Kav Boyle’s Death of a Man; Modernist Perspective and Political Reality is approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts In English________________________________ l(c/h bn(À^pd^iLc<^ Examination Committee Chair Dean of the Graduate College Examination Committee Member Examinationa Cœnjnittee Member Graduate College Faculty Representative 11 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT Gothic Analogues in Kay Boyle'sDeath of a Man: Modernist Perspective and Political Reality by Cara A. Minardi Dr. Darlene Unrue, Examination Committee Chair Distinguished Professor of English University of Nevada, Las Vegas In order to flesh out obscured meanings of Death o f a Man, one must understand the political and social milieu between 1917-1936 in America and Europe. Incorporating a new historicist approach, this paper considers the social and political warnings contained in Boyle's Death o f a Man. That American critics rejected Boyle's novel is evidence of American biases toward Europe during a period of American isolationism. The novel itself confronts European attitudes that in many cases were the result of The Treaty of Versailles and that led to World War II. Viewing Boyle's novel as a piece of Gothic writing overlaid with modernist technique enables us to see the novel in a different light. Considering the historical period, I analyze reasons scholars have misunderstood the novel. Furthermore, I ask that Death o f a Maris importance be reconsidered in terms of Boyle's canon as well as the modernist canon as a whole. Ill Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................... iii INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 1 KAY BOYLE; THE MAKING OF AN ARTIST AND ACTIVIST 6 CHAPTER 2 DEATH OF A MAN IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT............................ 19 CHAPTER 3 THE TRADITIONAL GOTHIC MODEL............................................25 CHAPTER 4 GOTHIC ANALOGUES IN DEA TH OF A MAN................................33 CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................53 WORKS CITED................................................................................................................ 58 WORKS CONSULTED....................................................................................................60 VITA.............................. 62 IV Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION In the 1929 fall issue of transition magazine William Carols Williams predicted that Kay Boyle's work would never gain proper acclaim. According to Williams, Boyle's pieces "are of a high degree of excellence; for that reason they will not succeed in America, they are lost, damned. Simply, the person who has a comprehensive, if perhaps disturbing view of what takes place in the human understanding at moments of intense living, and puts it down in its proper shapes and colors, is anathema to United Statesers and can have no standing with them" (Bell 133). He was right. To this day only two books have been dedicated solely to Boyle, Sandra Whipple-Spanier's Kay Boyle: Artist and Activist, published in 1986, and Joan Mellen's Kay Boyle: Author o f Herself, published in 1994. While this paper does not encompass Boyle's entire canon, it does provide reconsideration of one novel. Death o f a Man. In some ways, it is difficult to place Death o f a Man within Boyle's canon. It is normally considered part of her political period, and critics stop with that point. Feminists, trying to revive interest in Boyle, often give Death o f a Man only a few sentences in passing and focus instead on her novels that are more obviously feminist. However, the incorrectly identified pro-Nazi character depiction has given many scholars and critics a difficult time with Death o f a Man. In his 1936 review, Henry Seidel Canby of The Saturday Review wrote that the book was the depiction of a "likable Nazi" and that the text itself was "outside the range of Miss Boyle's powers" Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. (12). Canby considered the book "incomplete, unconnected, impressionistic and partial" (12). Many reviewers agreed. \LGndion\ Times Literary Supplement ûie anonymous reviewer claimed that "the glamour which Miss Boyle cast over the National- Socialist movement in Austria seem[ed] anything but true" and that the novel "flounder[ed] all through in a mist of unreason and inexpressible sentiment. The reviewer concluded that Boyle "indulged her romantic manner to the exclusion of almost everything else, and the result is not very happy." In Time, another anonymous reviewer observed that "the love affair between Dr. Prochaska and Pendennis involves much political talk" ("Nazi Idyll"). Reviewers from the New Republic and the Forum agreed. However, some reviewers, such as Helen Moran, were kinder. Moran states, "Unfortunately, it is a book, wherein the talent for short stories is used wastefully" (443). While Mark Van Doren's review for the Nation claimed that Boyle attempted to "hypnotize the reader into a state which might be called mystical fascism," he added, "So topical is she here that many of her pages would be unintelligible to one not conversant with the foreign news" (494). Few reviews were positive; one of them was by A. C. Boyd and appeared in The London Mercury. Boyd claimed, "Boyle's nervous and emotive prose is an admirable instrument for conveying the undercurrents in the life of the people in this small mountain town" (562). Boyd observed the characters' "consuming passion for one another" and their separation that is "subtly worked into the pattern of current events" (562). Negative perceptions remained until September 1989 when the book was re- released in paperback and reviewed by Steve Kettmann in the San Francisco Chronicle. In his review, Kettmann stated that the "fresh confident prose carries the narrative to a Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. realm in which our conceptions about the obvious ignominy of anyone associated with Nazism loses much of their focus. This effect led contemporary reviews of the book to charge Boyle with pro-Nazism, but that was clearly not her point" (E5). Though Kettmann called Death o f a Man