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Love, Loss, Nostalgia, and Regret: American Modernists

Love, Loss, Nostalgia, and Regret: American Modernists. HUM 2213: British and American Literature II Spring 2015 Dr. Perdigao February 18-20, 2015. F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940). Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald born September 24, 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota

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Love, Loss, Nostalgia, and Regret: American Modernists

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  1. Love, Loss, Nostalgia, and Regret: American Modernists HUM 2213: British and American Literature II Spring 2015 Dr. Perdigao February 18-20, 2015

  2. F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) • Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald born September 24, 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota • Family moved to Buffalo, NY, in 1898 after furniture business fails; father was a salesman with Proctor & Gamble; moved to Syracuse, NY in 1901, back to Buffalo in 1903 • Family moved back to St. Paul in 1908, F. Scott Fitzgerald enrolled in St. Paul Academy; first story published in school journal • Enrolled in Newman School in Hackensack in 1911, wrote and produced four plays and three stories • Attended Princeton University in 1913; became involved in literary and dramatic activities; published stories, plays, and poems • Left Princeton citing illness but actually poor grades, returned in 1916 • Joined army as second lieutenant in 1917, reported to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; started work on novel

  3. F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) • Transferred to Kentucky in 1918; sent off manuscript to Charles Scribner’s Sons, publishers; stationed in Georgia, Alabama; met Zelda Sayre; Scribners rejected novel; revised; rejected again; sent to NY awaiting overseas duty but war ended • Engaged to Zelda in 1919; worked at advertising agency; she broke the engagement due to his “uncertain” future; he moved to St. Paul; This Side of Paradise accepted by Scribners; magazine stories accepted • 1920: Engaged again; married; lived in CT; published This Side of Paradise and first short story collection; moved to NYC • Fitzgeralds travel to England, France, Italy in 1921; returned to St. Paul; daughter Frances Scott (Scottie) was born • The Beautiful and the Damned and Tales of the Jazz Age published in 1922; moved to Long Island • 1924: traveled to France; Zelda’s affair; traveled to Italy • The Great Gatsby published in 1925; rented Paris apartment; met Hemingway

  4. F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) • Moved to Hollywood to write a screenplay for flapper film “Lipstick” in 1927; never produced • Back to Europe: Paris, Italy, Riviera in 1928-1929 • Zelda suffered a nervous breakdown in 1930; Fitzgerald sent her to Malmaison Clinic, Valmont Clinic in Switzerland, Swiss clinic Prangins; Fitzgerald stayed in Switzerland • Returned to the US for father’s funeral in 1931; family moved back to Montgomery; worked on screenplay for Jean Harlow • 1932: Zelda’s health deteriorated; she was admitted to the Phipps Clinic at Johns Hopkins • 1933-4: Completed Tender is the Night; published; Zelda’s breakdown • Fitzgerald became ill in 1935

  5. F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) • 1936: Zelda hospitalized; mother died • 1937: Six-month contract from MGM • 1939: Fired from new film due to drinking; worked as freelance scriptwriter; started new novel about Hollywood • Zelda released from hospital; Fitzgerald died of heart attack on December 21, 1940; buried in Maryland • Zelda reentered hospital in 1947, died in fire on March 10, 1948 • 1975: F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda reburied in Maryland; 1986 daughter Scottie buried with them

  6. Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) • Born July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois; spent youth in Michigan, summers at cabin with family • Newspaper reporter for Kansas City Star, developed a journalistic style • Experience in World War I: wanted to enlist but his father forbade it, suffered from poor eyesight; volunteered as ambulance driver for the American Red Cross, ambulance unit in Italy, 1918; Austrian mortar shells hit, shrapnel in Hemingway’s leg, shot by machine gun bullets, recovery in Milan • Started writing short stories when home, rather than “get a job” or go to college (at parents’ urging), submitted stories to Saturday Evening Post, got work at Toronto Star • Married Hadley Richardson, moved to Paris in the twenties; met Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos • 1925 collection In Our Time, followed by The Sun Also Rises (1926)

  7. Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) • Married Pauline Pfeiffer; while she was pregnant, wrote A Farewell to Arms in Paris, but was forced to return to the US in 1928; moved to Key West (lived there for 12 years), wrote final draft there; learned of father’s death in the same year—result of suicide caused by failing health (diabetes, angina, headaches) and failed real estate endeavor in Florida • Spent time between falls in Wyoming, winters in Key West, summers in France and Spain • 1932—published book about bullfighting Death in the Afternoon • In a 1933 short story collection, “After the Storm” focuses on Spanish passenger liner lost at sea • During Depression, in 1931, bought Key West house at 907 Whitehead Street with money from film rights to A Farewell to Arms, went on African safari, bought boat for deep-sea fishing upon return in Keys

  8. Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) • Depression-era life worked into two stories, become part of To Have and Have Not (1937), only novel set in the United States, in Key West • 1935 Green Hills of Africa, nonfictional account of safari • 1937, traveled to Spain as correspondent during the Spanish Civil War, met Martha Gellhorn, supported Loyalists, as anti-fascists (not Communist sympathizer) • Separated from Pauline, away from Key West, lived in Cuba with Martha, then, because of tumultuous weather, sought respite in Idaho • For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) • Split with Martha, met Mary Welsh, married in 1946, after war, received Bronze star for work as correspondent

  9. Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) • Across the River is only publication between 1940-1950, bad reviews • Created stories about the sea that become Islands in the Stream, published in 1970 • Story about Cuba leads to The Old Man and the Sea, finished in 6 weeks, written in 1951, published in 1953; mother died, publisher Charles Scribner died, ex-wife Pauline died after quarrel • Appeared in Life magazine, more than 6 million copies sold overnight • Safari with Mary after publication, after Spanish bullfights, two plane crashes, Hemingways reported dead, read own obituaries • 1953 awarded Pulitzer Prize • Returned home to Cuba in 1954, wrote new account of safari, learned he won the Nobel Prize • Film Old Man and the Sea released 1958, between 1957-8, work on A Moveable Feast (published posthumously), about Paris, nostalgia and regret

  10. Ernest Hemingway (1899-1940) • When away in Idaho, revolution in Cuba occurred, fear of losing all possessions, bought home in Idaho • Traveled to Spain, wrote story about competing matadors • Began to show signs of mental illness; could not cut down manuscript, later published as The Dangerous Summer • Returned to Cuba for the last time in 1960 • Mary went to NY, Ernest to Spain; showed signs of memory loss, paranoia, insomnia, depression, sent to NY, developed paranoia about FBI following him, was hospitalized—diagnosed with diabetes, cirrhosis, depression, resulting in electroshock therapy • Could not write, tried to reorder A Moveable Feast

  11. Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) • Mary found him with shotgun, had him readmitted to the Mayo clinic; on the way to the clinic, he tried to walk into propellers of plane; underwent more shock treatments and was again released • After two nights home, went to basement, Sunday, July 2, 1961, got gun, shot himself in foyer

  12. Nella Larsen (1891-1964) • Born in Chicago as Nellie Walker; daughter of white Danish mother Marie Hanson and black West Indian father Peter Walker • Father died when Larsen was young; mother remarried Scandinavian Peter Larsen • Larsen claimed to have lived in Denmark, returned to attend University of Copenhagen, but scholars have not found support • Studied at Fisk University, studying nursing (1907-1908), then Lincoln Hospital School of Nursing in NYC (1912-1915); worked for Tuskegee Institute’s Andrew Memorial Hospital as head nurse, then NYC’s Board of Health • 1919—married research physicist Dr. Elmer S. Imes; went from working class to African American middle class • Employed at 135th Street branch of NY Public Library; met writers in Harlem; entered Library School of the NY Public Library in 1922

  13. Nella Larsen (1891-1964) • Carl Van Vechten claimed to have discovered her, introduced her to Knopf publishers • Walter White, former director of NAACP, had encouraged Larsen to complete Quicksand • Van Vechten introduced novel to his publisher; W. E. B. Du Bois praised the novel • Quicksand (1928): Helga Crane, daughter of white mother and black father; teacher at Naxos; travels to Denmark; considered exotic; returns to America; questions of race in America, abroad: South: Chicago: Harlem: Copenhagen: NYC: South; desire for control over her body and identity—resulting in quicksand, loss of autonomy and agency • Passing (1929): Irene Redfield, Clare Kendry; passing in America; racial identity; psychological doubles; themes of racial passing, class and social mobility, and female desire

  14. Nella Larsen (1891-1964) • Harmon Foundation’s bronze medal for achievement in literature • Guggenheim Fellowship in creative writing (1930) • Wrote in Spain and France • Divorce in 1933 • Failure to publish third novel • Loss of status in return to nursing • Stopped writing in the late 1930s • Charges of plagiarism for story “Sanctuary” (1930); Sheila Kaye-Smith’s story “Mrs. Adis” published in 1922 • Lost connections to other New York writers; former husband died in 1941; worked as nurse in NYC hospitals until death in 1964

  15. Race, Gender, and Sexuality • Recovery of her work in 1970s • Contemporary critics questioning endings of stories: sacrifice of independent female identities • Marriage and death as themes • Conflicting ideas about racial and sexual identities, a black and feminine aesthetic • Ideology of romance—marriage and motherhood • Repressed female sexual experience • Ideas about black female sexuality—insisting on chastity like the purity of Victorian bourgeoisie (McDowell xiii)

  16. Redefining Race, Gender, and Sexuality • How does one identify him/herself and why? What happens when academics, philosophers, and sociologists change the terms on you? • What does it mean to be black, middle class, and a woman? • Ideology: Social constructions that can confine groups; system of beliefs established and becomes part of “cultural norm” • Race, class, and gender are constructs; we created race through language (real but manmade) • Carole Vance writes, “Sexuality is simultaneously a domain of restriction, repression, and danger as well as a domain of exploration, pleasure, and agency” (qtd. in McDowell xiv). • Ideas of pleasure and danger in both texts • 19th century ideas about sexuality but flirtation with “female sexual desire” connects them to the liberation of the 1920s (McDowell xiv).

  17. Emancipation Acts • Passing as “a device for encoding the complexities of human personality, for veiling women’s homoerotic desires, and for subverting simplistic notions of female self-actualization” (Thadious M. Davis 253) • Female sexuality—ideas about domestic sphere in relation to a “woman’s quest for satisfaction and completion” (Davis 253). • Passing ends with “irreparable breakdown of illusions about emancipatory strategies or possible futures for women” (Davis 253).

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