Masters Theses

Date of Award

12-1991

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

English

Major Professor

Charles Maland

Committee Members

Mary Papke, Ron Baxter Miller

Abstract

This thesis presents a textual and contextual analysis of Fannie Hurst's novel Imitation of Life (1933), aiming to re-evaluate a novel by an author who was quite famous in the 1920s and 30s but who is nearly forgotten today. Imitation of Life is one of Hurst's most popular domestic melodramas in which the author explores gender and racial relationships. It was written at a time when she had not only established herself as a successful writer but had even become a public figure of some importance: she epitomized the successful "lady-writer" to millions of Americans. In spite of her overwhelming success, Hurst was never to be acknowledged by critics who overlooked the complexity of her writing and in general despised the genre of her novels: melodrama aimed at a feminine audience, a genre which had no place with the realist, modernist, and male-dominated literary canon.

In order to analyze and re-evaluate Hurst's novel, a definition of melodrama, an examination of relevant biographical information, and a survey of the critical reception to Hurst's works are of primary importance. Thus, the first chapter of the thesis gives a working definition of melodrama as a narrative type which appears in drama, prose fiction and film. This definition of melodrama is intended to avoid evaluating Hurst's novel through literary criteria which deprecate melodrama.

As melodrama is a particularly time-bound artistic form, the second chapter explores Fannie Hurst's socio-cultural background and her biography, thereby uncovering two major aspects underlying her writing: first, her inner conflict and effort to reconcile the widening gap between traditional values and radical changes in women's social position in the working world; second, the overwhelming public image which Hurst used to promote social issues such as women's and racial issues, and which boosted her literary career. Thus, Hurst in part appears as a 19th century literary survivor by writing domestic melodramas well into the first half of the 20th century, whereas her use of her public image definitely makes her part of the 20th century.

The third chapter consists of a narrative and stylistic analysis of Imitation of Life in view of the definition of melodrama and background information provided respectively in the first and second chapter. The sections dealing with the narrative structure and techniques show how Hurst uses both of these aspects skillfully and innovatively, demonstrating her outstanding abilities as a writer of melodrama. The analysis of the characterization shows how both the main and secondary characters reflect predominantly either traditional values or ground-breaking attitudes related to women's and racial issues. This contrast in the type of characters parallels Hurst's own experiences and the crucial preoccupations of American society at the beginning of this century, which she attempted to influence through her public persona and her writing.

The third chapter continues with a stylistic analysis of the novel which explores the different aspects of the modes of melodrama: excess, immediacy, and spectacle. If Hurst is rather successfully using excess and immediacy in order to heighten the melodramatic effects in her novel, she falls short in the melodramatic scope of grandiose public events, that is to say spectacle. This failure to use spectacle derives from her inability to melodramatize the black subplot in which the major spectacle scene of the novel occurs. Although the black subplot is highly propitious to melodramatic expression, the author is caught in her white patronizing perspective on racial problems. Hurst is unable to avoid the artificial tone pervading the black subplot, thereby precluding its very melodramatic impact.

The fourth and last chapter concentrates on the critical response to Hurst's novel since its publication. Although Fannie Hurst's works, such as Imitation of Life, have irremediably suffered from the passing of time, her writing from the position of a popular "lady-writer" in the 1920s and 1930s critiqued most often in negative terms, this survey on the critical reception of Hurst's novel and the analysis of the novel presented in the third chapter help to establish the importance of studying a popular genre such as melodrama, which still pervades American culture, its literature and cinema.'

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