Telling it slant: Perspective relocation in novels by Twain, Wharton, Cather and Roth

Tracy L Bryson, Purdue University

Abstract

This dissertation foregrounds a feminine perspective in four American novels ranging in publication date from 1889 to 1934: Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889), Edith Wharton's The Reef (1912), Willa Cather's The Professor's House (1925), and Henry Roth's Call It Sleep (1934). In my discussion of three of the four novels, I relocate the viewpoint for understanding the events of each story from that of the male protagonist to that of the primary female character. In my discussion of The Reef, I relocate to a different epistemology the way in which we as readers have been encouraged to understand the female protagonist's position. Relocating perspectives in each narrative changes our understanding of each story's plot and characters significantly. Sandy in A Connecticut Yankee becomes an active participant in effecting her own objectives through ploys remarkably like Hank Morgan's own. Anna in The Reef presents us with a logical, coherent method of understanding actions that, to many readers, have not only seemed irrational but have also made the novel incoherent. Lillian St. Peter in The Professor's House can be seen to operate from a definite set of values or aesthetics as strong as the professor's, altering the location of the moral center of the story from that of the professor to one shared between him and the character whom he most readily condemns. By her ambiguity and narrative skill, Genya in Call It Sleep belies the stereotypes under which she is most often interpreted and becomes the heretofore overlooked mentor in this Künstlerroman. Foregrounding these feminine perspectives results in novels that are richer in texture and possibility than previously interpreted.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Flory, Purdue University.

Subject Area

American literature|Womens studies

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