Ethnic Modernisms

Ethnic Modernisms

This page intentionally left blank

Ethnic Modernisms Anzia Yezierska, Zora Neale Hurston, Jean Rhys, and the Aesthetics of Dislocation Delia Caparoso Konzett

ETHNIC MODERNISMS Copyright Delia Caparoso Konzett, 2002. S o f t c o v e r r e p r i n t o f t h e h a r d c o v e r 1 s t e d i t i o n 2 0 0 2 9 7 8-0 - 3 1 2-2 9 3 4 5-1 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First published 2002 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS. Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. I S B N 9 7 8-1 - 3 4 9-3 8 7 4 6-5 I S B N 9 7 8-0 - 2 3 0-1 0 7 5 3-3 ( e B o o k ) D O I 1 0. 1 0 5 7 / 9 7 8 0 2 3 0 1 0 7 5 3 3 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Konzett, Delia Caparoso. Ethnic modernisms : Anzia Yezierska, Zora Neale Hurston, Jean Rhys, and the aesthetics of dislocation / by Delia Caparoso Konzett. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. I S B N 9 7 8-1 - 3 4 9-3 8 7 4 6-5 1. American literature Women authors History and criticism. 2. Emigration and immigration in literature. 3. Women and literature United States History 20th century. 4. Yezierska, Anzia, 1880? 1970 Criticism and interpretation. 5. American literature 20th century History and criticism. 6. Hurston, Zora Neale Criticism and interpretation. 7. Rhys, Jean Criticism and interpretation. 8. African Americans in literature. 9. Ethnic groups in literature. 10. Expatriation in literature. 11. Immigrants in literature. 12. Modernism (Literature) 13. Jews in literature. I. Title. PS228.E55 K66 2002 810.9 920691 dc21 2002069379 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Design by Letra Libre, Inc. First edition: November 2002 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Dedications For Matthias & For My Parents, Antonio and Magdalina

This page intentionally left blank

Contents Acknowledgments Permissions Abbreviations ix xi xiii Introduction Ethnic Modernisms and Their Avant-Gardes 1 Chapter I Anzia Yezierska and the Experience of the Assimilated Jew 19 Introduction The New Immigration as Ethnic Catalyst The Experience of Immigrant English in Hungry Hearts The Conscious Pariah: Toward a Transnational Aesthetics From Hollywood to Hester Street: The Image of the Assimilated Jew in Hungry Hearts the Film Chapter II Black Folk Culture and the Aesthetics of Dislocation in Zora Neale Hurston 69 Introduction Race, Nation and Art: The Harlem Renaissance The Folk in Harlem: Zora Neale Hurston s Urban Folklore The Transnational Perspective: The Experience of the African Diaspora in Tell My Horse and Moses, Man of the Mountain Getting in Touch with the True South : Pet Negroes, White Crackers and Racial Staging in Seraph on the Suwanee Chapter III White Mythologies: Jean Rhys s Aesthetics of Posthumanism 127 Introduction Wide Sargasso Sea: White Masks and Their Creolization

An Expatriate among Expatriates: The Banality of Exile Good Morning, Midnight: Commodity, Distraction, and the Displaced Masses Concluding Remarks on the Marketability of Ethnicity 167 Notes 169 Works Cited 187 Index 197

Acknowledgments This study has benefited greatly from the help and commentary of Miriam Hansen, Katie Trumpener, Angel Medina, Mary Lou Emery, Donald Marshall, Charles Musser, and Matthias Konzett as well as the excellent anonymous readers supplied by Palgrave. I would also like to thank the editors of American Literature, Journal of Film and Video, and Journal of Caribbean Literature, in which early versions of chapters have appeared. At Palgrave, my appreciation goes to Kristi Long for her very generous help and support, as well as Roee Raz and Meg Weaver for their assistance in preparing this manuscript. This study was also made possible through a dissertation grant from the Mellon Foundation. And for their support and love, I am especially grateful to my family.

This page intentionally left blank

Permissions We gratefully acknowledge permission to reprint from the following: Zora Neale Hurston, from Seraph on the Suwanee. Copyright 1948 by Zora Neale Hurston. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Inc. Zora Neale Hurston, from Tell My Horse. Copyright 1938 by Zora Neale Hurston. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Inc. Zora Neale Hurston, How It Feels to Be Colored Me in I Love Myself When I am Laughing, Ed. Alice Walker (New York: The Feminist Press, 1979. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Zora Neale Hurston arranged by Victoria Sanders & Associates. Zora Neale Hurston, from the unpublished manuscript The Death of Sugar Foot in the James Welden Johnson Memorial Collection of Negro Arts and Letters, Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Zora Neale Hurston arranged by Victoria Sanders & Associates. Zora Neale Hurston, from the unpublished manuscript The Funeral of Harlem s Sheik in the James Welden Johnson Memorial Collection of Negro Arts and Letters, Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Zora Neale Hurston arranged by Victoria Sanders & Associates. Jean Rhys, from Good Morning, Midnight (W. W. Norton, New York: 1986.) Copyright 1938 by Jean Rhys. Reprinted by permission of Jean Rhys Estate arranged by Sheil Land Associates. Jean Rhys, from Wide Sargasso Sea (W. W. Norton, New York: 1982). Copyright 1966 by Jean Rhys. Reprinted by permission of Jean Rhys Estate arranged by Sheil Land Associates. Cover Jacket: Wyndham Lewis, from portfolio Timon of Athens (1913 14). Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Mrs. G. A. Wyndham Lewis.

This page intentionally left blank

Author s Abbreviations for Frequently Cited Texts AS RE AM FVH S AICNB SBF CM PF M SF HS CS HS TMH MMM PNS SS WSS VID Chapter I The American Scene (Henry James) Reflections in Exile (Edward Said) Towards a Definition of American Modernism (Daniel Joseph Singal) The Free Vacation House (Anzia Yezierska) Salome of the Tenements (Anzia Yezierska) All I Could Never Be (Anzia Yezierska) Chapter II The Souls of Black Folk (W. E. B. DuBois) How It Feels to Be Colored Me (Zora Neale Hurston) The Politics of Fiction, Anthropology, and the Folk: Zora Neale Hurston (Hazel V. Carby) Muttsy (Zora Neale Hurston) The Death of Sugar Foot (Zora Neale Hurston) The Funeral of Harlem s Sheik (Zora Neale Hurston) Color Struck (Zora Neale Hurston) Story in Harlem Slang (Zora Neale Hurston) Tell My Horse (Zora Neale Hurston) Moses, Man of the Mountain (Zora Neale Hurston) The Pet Negro System (Zora Neale Hurston) Seraph on the Suwanee (Zora Neale Hurston) Chapter III Wide Sargasso Sea (Jean Rhys) Voyage in the Dark (Jean Rhys)

xiv Ethnic Modernisms Q ALMM SM GMM Quartet (Jean Rhys) After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie (Jean Rhys) The Salaried Masses: Duty and Distraction in Weimar Germany (Siegfried Kracauer) Good Morning, Midnight (Jean Rhys)