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Nostalgia and Materialism: Negotiating Modernity through Houses in Wharton, Fitzgerald and Cather

Stoffer, Heidi Marie

Abstract Details

2015, PHD, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English.
Literary critics have identified nostalgia as a prominent theme in early twentieth-century American literature, yet these critics have been divided in their assessments of how nostalgia functions in these novels. Some have argued that nostalgia is a form of escapism and regression, a way of avoiding the increasing modernization of society occurring at the turn of the century. Others view nostalgia as a progressive way of critiquing the present, of rejecting modernity, and as a return to the past in order to apply traditional ideals in an attempt to revise or compensate for the present. Both of these explanations of nostalgia privilege the past over the present and imply that modernity is a condition to be overcome. This study suggests that nostalgia functions in a more complex way than previous theories have accounted for and allows for a negotiation of past and present that facilitates adaptation to, and ultimately acceptance of, modernity. Through examination of three early twentieth-century novels—The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and The Professor’s House by Willa Cather—nostalgia is revealed as a means of transition to a new era by sustaining a connection to the familiarity of the past and acts as a continual process of determining what aspects of history are compatible with the modern world and what elements must be left in the past. Both psychoanalytic and cultural materialist approaches are used in this dissertation in order to reveal the complicated interplay between identity and material objects that occurs through nostalgia, particularly in the early twentieth century. More specifically, this study focuses on representations of houses and the objects within them to show how these objects evoke nostalgia and connections to tradition while they simultaneously allow for participation in a distinctly modern consumer society. This dual nature of nostalgia was, in fact, used as a marketing strategy at the turn of the century at a time when concerns over one’s authenticity, in relation to anxieties regarding the perceived inauthenticity of modernity, were at an all-time high. Ultimately, this dissertation suggests that the early twentieth-century novel highlights the crucial role that nostalgia plays in enacting a negotiation between past and present that, rather than forcing modernity to conform to history, allows for the integration of elements of the past into modern life and the critical distance to more fully comprehend the gap between past and present.
Tammy Clewell (Advisor)
Kevin Adams (Other)
Kenneth Bindas (Committee Member)
Kevin Floyd (Committee Member)
Robert Trogdon (Committee Member)
242 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Stoffer, H. M. (2015). Nostalgia and Materialism: Negotiating Modernity through Houses in Wharton, Fitzgerald and Cather [Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1429543427

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Stoffer, Heidi. Nostalgia and Materialism: Negotiating Modernity through Houses in Wharton, Fitzgerald and Cather. 2015. Kent State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1429543427.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Stoffer, Heidi. "Nostalgia and Materialism: Negotiating Modernity through Houses in Wharton, Fitzgerald and Cather." Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1429543427

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)