Masters Theses

Date of Award

12-1991

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

English

Major Professor

Mary Pepke

Committee Members

Allison Ensor, Charles Maland

Abstract

Zona Gale won a Pulitzer Prize in 1921 for the dramatization of her novel Miss Lulu Bett. Today, however, when her name is mentioned, the reply most often heard is, "Who?" How can authors who are well-known and well-reputed in their day lose relatively all public recognition? What or who determines whether an author is to be a major critical figure (i.e. included in the "literary canon"), is to be a minor one, or, even worse, is to be forgotten? Understandably, the case cannot be made that every author should be included in the canon. But what about an author who was so very popular in her day that she won a Pulitzer Prize and commanded a wide readership? What can happen to exclude so completely from recognition someone once so popular? Gale not only had a wide readership, but she was also considered by the major critics of her day to be one of the important realist writers comparable to Sherwood Anderson and Sinclair Lewis. The questions posed here take on more weight when the writer about which they are asked seemed to be entrenched in the literary canon at one time in her career. Many factors, significant and insignificant, seem to determine the rise or fall of an author's reputation in the scholarly community. Paul Lauter in his article entitled "Race and Gender in the Shaping of the American Literary Canon: A Case Study from the Twenties" discusses those factors that have had influence in the establishment of the "literary canon." Lauter's proposed reasons for the exclusion of many valuable authors from the canon easily apply to Zona Gale. He states that "three important factors" (23) have determined who and what are to be included in and excluded from the "literary canon." These factors are "the professionalization of the teaching of literature, the development of an aesthetic theory that privileged certain texts and the historiographic organization of the body of literature into conventional 'periods' and 'themes'" (23). Gale seems to have been affected by all of these factors. By tracing her reception from her own day to the present using The MLA International Bibliography, The Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, The Humanities Index, history books, printing histories, and other such reference materials, one can determine the reasons for Gale's widespread popularity at one time and the reasons that she is now virtually unknown. Developing a new perspective on how the literary canon should be determined makes it possible to reassess Gale's value and her contributions then finally to recognize the value of her work to scholars and general readers today. Three of Gale's most sophisticated novels will be used as the criteria for determining her value as a writer: Birth (1918), Miss Lulu Bett (1920), and Faint Perfume (1923).

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