Swiping Stein: The Ambivalence of Hemingway Parodies

In his helpful inventory, "From Whom the Bull Flows," James McKeIIy enumerates the features of Hemingway's writing that tend to pop up in parody: banal diction, endless repetition, awkward grammar, obscure dialogue, stiff translations, clunky Anglicized speech, non-sequitur memories,...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Hemingway review 2010-09, Vol.30 (1), p.69-82
Main Author: Pollack-Pelzner, Daniel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
American literature
Anderson, Sherwood (1876-1941)
Authors
Bookstores
Criticism and interpretation
Growth industries
Hemingway, Ernest
Hemingway, Ernest (1899-1961)
Parodies
Portrayals
Stein, Gertrude
Stein, Gertrude (1874-1946)
Syntax
Translation
Valence
Works
Writers
Writing
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In his helpful inventory, "From Whom the Bull Flows," James McKeIIy enumerates the features of Hemingway's writing that tend to pop up in parody: banal diction, endless repetition, awkward grammar, obscure dialogue, stiff translations, clunky Anglicized speech, non-sequitur memories, unsympathetic female characters, posturing aficionados, glamorized writing labors, crudely numb heroes, self-glorifying tragedy - most of the major talking points for the anti- Hemingway camp, in short, but also most of the selling points for the pro-, only with the valence of the adjectives reversed: purified diction, powerful repetition, innovative grammar, and so on (547-562). Besides that lingering sense of friendship and the smug pleasure of deferred gratification, the longing for a feeling of superiority goes to the heart of parody: you show you know better than the writer you skewer, but you also rely on that writer to produce your effect.
ISSN:0276-3362
1548-4815
1548-4815
DOI:10.1353/hem.2010.a402881