Evelyn Scott's Contribution to American Literary Modernism, 1920-1940 a Study of Her Trilogy the New Woman in the Narrow House, Narcissus, and the Golden Door

“This is a valuable contribution to the study of the American modernist tradition and one of its significant authors.”

-Prof. Ronna Privett
Lubbock Christian University

“This work serves as a portal: an introduction to Evelyn Scott herself and to her first major contributions to the American modernist canon.”

-Prof. Tim Edwards
University of West Alabama

Foreword by Tim Edwards, Ph.D.
Preface
Chapter 1.
INTRODUCTION
American Modernism
Biographical Background>br> Final Writings
Scott’s Modernist Trilogy
Scott’s poem “Women”
Chapter 2.
THE EVOLUTION OF THE NEW WOMEN
The American Girl
Suffrage Movement
Henry James’ Isabel Archer
Henry James’ Daisy Miller
The Women Novelists
Edith Wharton’s May Archer
World War I
Breakdown of Traditional Roles
Edith Wharton’s Lily Bart
Willa Cather’s Antonia Shimerda
Willa Cather’s Lena Lingard
Willa Cather’s Naturalism
Kate Chopin’s Edna Pontellier
Evolution of the American Girl
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Daisy Buchanan
Ernest Hemingway’s Brett Ashley
William Faulkner’s Caddy Compson
The New Woman and the Women Modernists
Chapter 3.
“A BIRD ALIVE IN A SNAKE”S BODY”: THE WOMEN OF THE NARROW HOUSE
Omission of Women from the Modernist Canon
Dissonance Between Male and Female Writers
Critical Reception of The Narrow House
Epigraph: William Blake’s “The Clod and The Pebble”
The Women of The Narrow House
Public and Private Spheres
Winnie Farley
Alice Farley
Alice’s Freudian Characterization
Comparison to Gertrude Stein’s Stylistics
Alice and Edith Wharton’s Lily Barth
Alice and Kate Chopin’s Edna Pontellier
Scott’s Fictionalized Experience in Escapade
Metaphoric Use of Darkness
Chapter 4.
“NOUGHT LOVES ANOTHER AS ITSELF: FROM NEW WOMEN TO MODERN WOMAN
Public Discourse on the New Woman
Critical Reception of Narcissus
Structure of Narcissus
Epigraph: William Blake’s “A Little Boy Lost”
The Effects of the Industrial Age
Gertrude Stein’s Melanctha Herbert
Willa Cather’s Marion Forrester
Zora Neale Hurston’s Janie Crawford
Julia Farley
Julia’s Relationship with Husband Laurence
Laurence’s Impression of Julia
Laurence’s Self-Assessment
Julia and Her Lover, Dudley Allen
Autobiographical Basis for Dudley Allen
Julia’s Second Lover Charles Hurst
Character Link to The Narrow House
May and Paul
Edith Wharton’s Newland Archer
Chapter 5.
THE LOVE AND DEATH OF IDEOLOGY IN THE GOLDEN DOOR
The Narrow Space of the Modern Woman
The New Woman in the Character of Nina Gannet
Julia Farley as Aunt Julia
Satirizing the Golden Door of Opportunity
Women’s Movement into the Public Sphere
Critical Reception of The Golden Door
Scott’s Rejected Ideologies
Epigraph: William Blake’s “The Divine Image”
Politics and The Golden Door
Scott’s use of Stream of Consciousness
Characterization of Paul Mercer
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jay Gatsby
Idealism and Mr. Matthews
Continued Exposé of the New Woman/Modern Woman
The Aging Julia Farley
May’s Acceptance of the Ideal Life
Gertrude Stein’s Gentle Lena
Nina Gannett: The New/Modern Woman
Realization of the Fallen ideal of Golden Opportunity
Chapter 6.
THE OTHER WOMEN: EVELYN SCOTT’S OEUVRE
Difficult Times and Mental Illness
Neglect of Literary Historians
Rejection by the Male Modernists
Omission of Women from the Modernist Canon
Scott’s Artistry of Modernism
Scott’s Methodology
Scott as Social Critic
The Historical Novels
Migrations
The Wave
A Calendar of Sin
Scott’s Artistic Trilogy
Eva Gay
Breathe Upon These Slain
Bread and a Sword
The Shadow of the Hawk
Ideals, A Book of Farce & Comedy
Scott’s Response to Pound’s Exhortations to “Make New”
The Modernist Experience for Women Writers
WORKS CITED
INDEX

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