This dissertation analyzes the convergence of modernism, print culture, feminism, True Womanhood, and the early careers of four female writers. At this crucial moment, Gertrude Stein, Dorothy Parker, Edna Ferber, and Alice Dunbar-Nelson each publicly negotiated with the dominant rhetorical and ideological registers of the emerging magazine market, infusing the available means of representation with new, sometimes transformative meanings. In the 1910s and 1920s, magazines served to spread a conservative ideology of womanhood more widely and rapidly than at any previous historical moment. This study asks how a writer secures a paycheck from an organ whose purpose was to promote the very politics she resists in her own writing. How did female writers construct their identities early in their careers while also challenging popular constructions of female identity from within a rapidly expanding print culture? To understand early twentieth century American literature, we must understand the strategies women used to ensure that a variety of experiences of modernity—female, working woman, Jewish, lesbian, African-American—found expression in print culture.
There is no single pattern of negotiation; each woman responds in her own way. Stein retained control, persistently making it difficult for venues with a certain claim to modernism to refuse her critique. Parker developed an aesthetic of ironic wit, using humor to challenge conservative ideologies and to draw readers into a critique of themselves. Dunbar-Nelson conflated the passing narrative with the more popular romance narrative to develop a powerful critique of racism and sexism in magazine culture, while Ferber used business rhetoric to create the nation’s most popular and controversial female protagonist. Each author posed important challenges to the ideological positions of their magazines and reading audiences. Each of these writer’s responses provides a powerful example of how periodical culture required that female writers both perform and subvert popular constructions of womanhood to achieve success.