Date of Award

Spring 1995

Abstract

In 1924, Dorothy Canfield Fisher (1879-1958) wrote, "I have always conceived of everyday life as needing very much the sort of constant effort at composition--that is shapeliness, elimination of unnecessary details, choice of details--as any other work of art." This quotation is the epigraph to my study of five of Fisher's early novels because it reveals a central theme of her fiction: that art is the creation of a daily life that successfully negotiates the "problems of living" (Fisher's phrase) that plague modern America. The five novels that I analyze--The Squirrel-Cage (1912), The Bent Twig (1915), The Brimming Cup (1921), The Home-maker (1924) and The Deepening Stream (1930)--show that Fisher defines these problems as finding meaningful work and creating sustaining marriages and family lives. Her protagonists' solutions to these problems comprise an "art of living," a phrase Fisher uses to summarize the lessons her protagonists learn in their quests to shape their lives.

As I explain in my introduction, Fisher's relationship with her mother was a defining element in her artistic development. Although her mother embraced an "art for art's sake" credo, Fisher felt that art should have a social purpose. Her fiction is rich with debates about art that reenact this split with her mother. Fisher forges a connection between two different artistic processes in her fiction: the ritualized shaping of domestic life, and the rigorous training of creating high art. Therefore, I argue that her position in American women's literature is transitional because she blends two women's literary traditions, regionalism and the kunstlerroman, broadening their boundaries.

Throughout my study, I structure my chapters according to the domestic processes that Fisher invokes in her fiction--carpentry, gardening and sewing--illuminating how her protagonists combine these domestic processes with their musical careers. I also describe the social movements that Fisher was interested in--the Arts and Crafts Movement, the Montessori method of education, Freudian psychology and daycare--and show how they partially provide Fisher with the solutions she seeks in remodeling family life for modern America.

Document Type

Dissertation

First Advisor

Melody Graulich

Department or Program

English

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Download

Share

COinS