Forthcoming June 2016, UVA Press
The concept of “Americanization,” of shedding ethnic origins and... more Forthcoming June 2016, UVA Press The concept of “Americanization,” of shedding ethnic origins and signs of “otherness” to embrace a constructed American identity, mirrors a common theme in American writing: a theme of self-fashioning and upward mobility. This theme surfaces in American literary, political, and sociological texts ranging from Jamestown narratives to immigrant memoirs, from slave narratives to Gone with the Wind, from the writings of Horatio Alger to those of Barack Obama. In my book, I argue that canonical American authors symbolically use clothing, as well as an evolving American fashion industry, to tell their stories of self-fashioning. Authors including Edith Wharton, Theodore Dreiser, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Nella Larsen, among others, map a shift in fashion from a class-conscious industry governed by Parisian designers to a transatlantic industry of mass consumption governed by fashion journalism. As the industry evolves, the characters of these texts increasingly enjoy opportunities for individual expression and identity construction, even as their sense of civic and/or community affiliation is reinforced.
I employ the term “democratic fashion” to convey the expression of American ideals of freedom and democracy through fashion, as reflected in the accessibility of fashion to all citizens, in fashion’s facilitation of individual self-expression, and in the comfort of the clothes themselves. The characters I examine reveal a knowledge of American fashion as they strategize their social mobility. While the early twentieth century works focus on the limitations of democratic fashion in transcending class boundaries, other texts expose how understanding fashion opens possibilities for characters to explore different classes as well as different identities. As American fashion grows more “democratic,” it becomes easier for the characters to transform themselves, and therefore their performances can be temporary rather than permanent roles. The value of the temporary performance is not in escapism, but in testing alternate identities in a quest for self discovery. However, the authors also show how fashion is a means to an end rather than an end unto itself. As they depict disillusionment with the American dream as a promise of happiness, they also show the unsustainable elation deriving from fashion.
Though very little of Gone with the Wind focuses on the marriage of Gerald O’Hara and Ellen Robil... more Though very little of Gone with the Wind focuses on the marriage of Gerald O’Hara and Ellen Robillard, their union is a crucial component of the novel and of Scarlett’s character development. Margaret Mitchell employs the marriage between Gerald and Ellen O’Hara to promote the incorporation of white ethnics into the fabric of American citizenry. In fact, she goes so far as to suggest that this incorporation is necessary for Americans to survive the modern world. I contrast Scarlett and the dark-featured Rhett Butler with the weaker, inbreeding Wilkes/Hamilton families. Finally, I illustrate how the racial politics of the novel, while portraying the assimilation of white ethnics and the interracial relations of nonwhite ethnics, nevertheless increase the imagined distance between whites and nonwhites. This discussion includes an analysis of the film version of the novel as well as the mixed race character of Dilcey. Through her Civil War novel, Mitchell prescribes a code of acceptable intermarriage (and thus assimilatory) practices for her contemporary culture.
Forthcoming June 2016, UVA Press
The concept of “Americanization,” of shedding ethnic origins and... more Forthcoming June 2016, UVA Press The concept of “Americanization,” of shedding ethnic origins and signs of “otherness” to embrace a constructed American identity, mirrors a common theme in American writing: a theme of self-fashioning and upward mobility. This theme surfaces in American literary, political, and sociological texts ranging from Jamestown narratives to immigrant memoirs, from slave narratives to Gone with the Wind, from the writings of Horatio Alger to those of Barack Obama. In my book, I argue that canonical American authors symbolically use clothing, as well as an evolving American fashion industry, to tell their stories of self-fashioning. Authors including Edith Wharton, Theodore Dreiser, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Nella Larsen, among others, map a shift in fashion from a class-conscious industry governed by Parisian designers to a transatlantic industry of mass consumption governed by fashion journalism. As the industry evolves, the characters of these texts increasingly enjoy opportunities for individual expression and identity construction, even as their sense of civic and/or community affiliation is reinforced.
I employ the term “democratic fashion” to convey the expression of American ideals of freedom and democracy through fashion, as reflected in the accessibility of fashion to all citizens, in fashion’s facilitation of individual self-expression, and in the comfort of the clothes themselves. The characters I examine reveal a knowledge of American fashion as they strategize their social mobility. While the early twentieth century works focus on the limitations of democratic fashion in transcending class boundaries, other texts expose how understanding fashion opens possibilities for characters to explore different classes as well as different identities. As American fashion grows more “democratic,” it becomes easier for the characters to transform themselves, and therefore their performances can be temporary rather than permanent roles. The value of the temporary performance is not in escapism, but in testing alternate identities in a quest for self discovery. However, the authors also show how fashion is a means to an end rather than an end unto itself. As they depict disillusionment with the American dream as a promise of happiness, they also show the unsustainable elation deriving from fashion.
Though very little of Gone with the Wind focuses on the marriage of Gerald O’Hara and Ellen Robil... more Though very little of Gone with the Wind focuses on the marriage of Gerald O’Hara and Ellen Robillard, their union is a crucial component of the novel and of Scarlett’s character development. Margaret Mitchell employs the marriage between Gerald and Ellen O’Hara to promote the incorporation of white ethnics into the fabric of American citizenry. In fact, she goes so far as to suggest that this incorporation is necessary for Americans to survive the modern world. I contrast Scarlett and the dark-featured Rhett Butler with the weaker, inbreeding Wilkes/Hamilton families. Finally, I illustrate how the racial politics of the novel, while portraying the assimilation of white ethnics and the interracial relations of nonwhite ethnics, nevertheless increase the imagined distance between whites and nonwhites. This discussion includes an analysis of the film version of the novel as well as the mixed race character of Dilcey. Through her Civil War novel, Mitchell prescribes a code of acceptable intermarriage (and thus assimilatory) practices for her contemporary culture.
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The concept of “Americanization,” of shedding ethnic origins and signs of “otherness” to embrace a constructed American identity, mirrors a common theme in American writing: a
theme of self-fashioning and upward mobility. This theme surfaces in American literary, political, and sociological texts ranging from Jamestown narratives to immigrant memoirs, from slave narratives to Gone with the Wind, from the writings of Horatio Alger to those of Barack Obama. In my book, I argue that canonical American authors symbolically use clothing, as well as an evolving American fashion industry, to tell their stories of self-fashioning. Authors including Edith Wharton, Theodore Dreiser, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Nella Larsen, among others, map a shift in fashion from a class-conscious industry governed by Parisian designers to a transatlantic industry of mass consumption governed by fashion journalism. As the industry evolves, the characters of these texts increasingly enjoy opportunities for individual expression and identity construction, even as their sense of civic and/or community affiliation is reinforced.
I employ the term “democratic fashion” to convey the expression of American ideals of freedom and democracy through fashion, as reflected in the accessibility of fashion to all citizens, in fashion’s facilitation of individual self-expression, and in the comfort of the clothes themselves. The characters I examine reveal a knowledge of American fashion as they strategize their social mobility. While the early twentieth century works focus on the limitations of democratic fashion in transcending class boundaries, other texts expose how understanding fashion opens possibilities for characters to explore different classes as well as different identities. As American fashion grows more “democratic,” it becomes easier for the characters to transform themselves, and therefore their performances can be temporary rather than permanent roles. The value of the temporary performance is not in escapism, but in testing alternate identities in a quest for self discovery. However, the authors also show how fashion is a means to
an end rather than an end unto itself. As they depict disillusionment with the American dream as a promise of happiness, they also show the unsustainable elation deriving from fashion.
Wilkes/Hamilton families. Finally, I illustrate how the racial
politics of the novel, while portraying the assimilation of white ethnics and the interracial relations of nonwhite ethnics, nevertheless increase the imagined distance between whites and nonwhites. This discussion includes an analysis of the film version of the novel as well as the mixed race character of Dilcey. Through her Civil War novel, Mitchell prescribes a code of acceptable intermarriage (and thus assimilatory) practices for
her contemporary culture.
The concept of “Americanization,” of shedding ethnic origins and signs of “otherness” to embrace a constructed American identity, mirrors a common theme in American writing: a
theme of self-fashioning and upward mobility. This theme surfaces in American literary, political, and sociological texts ranging from Jamestown narratives to immigrant memoirs, from slave narratives to Gone with the Wind, from the writings of Horatio Alger to those of Barack Obama. In my book, I argue that canonical American authors symbolically use clothing, as well as an evolving American fashion industry, to tell their stories of self-fashioning. Authors including Edith Wharton, Theodore Dreiser, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Nella Larsen, among others, map a shift in fashion from a class-conscious industry governed by Parisian designers to a transatlantic industry of mass consumption governed by fashion journalism. As the industry evolves, the characters of these texts increasingly enjoy opportunities for individual expression and identity construction, even as their sense of civic and/or community affiliation is reinforced.
I employ the term “democratic fashion” to convey the expression of American ideals of freedom and democracy through fashion, as reflected in the accessibility of fashion to all citizens, in fashion’s facilitation of individual self-expression, and in the comfort of the clothes themselves. The characters I examine reveal a knowledge of American fashion as they strategize their social mobility. While the early twentieth century works focus on the limitations of democratic fashion in transcending class boundaries, other texts expose how understanding fashion opens possibilities for characters to explore different classes as well as different identities. As American fashion grows more “democratic,” it becomes easier for the characters to transform themselves, and therefore their performances can be temporary rather than permanent roles. The value of the temporary performance is not in escapism, but in testing alternate identities in a quest for self discovery. However, the authors also show how fashion is a means to
an end rather than an end unto itself. As they depict disillusionment with the American dream as a promise of happiness, they also show the unsustainable elation deriving from fashion.
Wilkes/Hamilton families. Finally, I illustrate how the racial
politics of the novel, while portraying the assimilation of white ethnics and the interracial relations of nonwhite ethnics, nevertheless increase the imagined distance between whites and nonwhites. This discussion includes an analysis of the film version of the novel as well as the mixed race character of Dilcey. Through her Civil War novel, Mitchell prescribes a code of acceptable intermarriage (and thus assimilatory) practices for
her contemporary culture.