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Modernist Con(tra)ceptions: Olive Moore's Reluctant Husbandry

Description

Olive Moore's Spleen incorporates the concerns of modernist textual development with women's corporeal identity through its criticism of women's corporeal and cultural entrapments within maternity. Moore refigures women's identity and narrative without abandoning their physical and literary footing, enacting a reluctant husbandry of the monstrous maternal and the modernist text.

Abstract

This paper argues that in her novel, Spleen (1930), Olive Moore enacts a reluctant husbandry of the monstrous maternal and the modernist text. Despite her continual criticism of women's corporeal and cultural entrapments, and of women's complicity within them, Moore suggests that the modernist text, like the modern woman, can be refigured without abandoning its physical and literary footing.

This paper draws on two primary examples from the novel: Ruth's reconception of maternity and its consequences, and the new, modern woman of Joan Agnew. Ruth's decision to "make something new" with her repellant pregnancy, results in a mute and deformed son, and Ruth becomes monstrous both in her initial rejection of the pregnancy and in her misconception of her son. Ruth also describes Joan Agnew as "monstrous" in her modernity despite the fact that the "emancipated woman wanted no children. Women kept their figures and their jobs."

This paper concludes by suggesting that, for Moore, the modernist text's burden is to refigure narrative as well as the shape of women's identity. The crux of this identity for women is located in women's obligation and complicity to maternity. Moore proposes that rather than abandoning the body, the artist can use it to reconfigure the modernist subject and text. As Moore experiments with how to relate the story of Ruth, she also refashions the text and story so that it, like women's bodies, is complicated by both broken and fluid moments, incorporating the concerns of modernist textual development with women's corporeal identity.

To request the entire paper, please email dickinsr@colorado.edu. For additional information on Olive Moore, visit the Dalkey Archive Press at the Center for Book Culture.


Modernist Con(tra)ceptions: Olive Moore's Reluctant Husbandry Description Olive Moore's Spleen incorporates the concerns of modernist textual development with women's corporeal identity through its criticism of women's corporeal and cultural entrapments within maternity. Moore refigures women's identity and narrative without abandoning their physical and literary footing, enacting a reluctant husbandry of the monstrous maternal and the modernist text. Abstract This paper argues that in her novel, Spleen (1930), Olive Moore enacts a reluctant husbandry of the monstrous maternal and the modernist text. Despite her continual criticism of women's corporeal and cultural entrapments, and of women's complicity within them, Moore suggests that the modernist text, like the modern woman, can be refigured without abandoning its physical and literary footing. This paper draws on two primary examples from the novel: Ruth's reconception of maternity and its consequences, and the new, modern woman of Joan Agnew. Ruth's decision to "make something new" with her repellant pregnancy, results in a mute and deformed son, and Ruth becomes monstrous both in her initial rejection of the pregnancy and in her misconception of her son. Ruth also describes Joan Agnew as "monstrous" in her modernity despite the fact that the "emancipated woman wanted no children. Women kept their figures and their jobs." This paper concludes by suggesting that, for Moore, the modernist text's burden is to refigure narrative as well as the shape of women's identity. The crux of this identity for women is located in women's obligation and complicity to maternity. Moore proposes that rather than abandoning the body, the artist can use it to reconfigure the modernist subject and text. As Moore experiments with how to relate the story of Ruth, she also refashions the text and story so that it, like women's bodies, is complicated by both broken and fluid moments, incorporating the concerns of modernist textual development with women's corporeal identity. To request the entire paper, please email dickinsr@colorado.edu. For additional information on Olive Moore, visit the Dalkey Archive Press at the Center for Book Culture.	Renée Dickinson home teaching philosophy syllabi assignments exams dirty dozen research Olive Moore Virginia Woolf J. K. Rowling Florence Nightingale Don DeLillo Thomas Pynchon Anzia Yezierska professional vita personal photos r-n-r.org contact