Toward an ethics of response: Reading 'queerness' in modernist women's literature

In this dissertation I employ insights from contemporary theories of ethical reading to conduct a case study of feminist critics' reaction to the "queerness" of modernist women's writing. The aim is to develop a set of practices and principles capable of ethically responding to "queerness" in literary texts and everyday life. In my first chapter I utilize theories of ethical reading set forth by Jane Gallop, Eve Sedgwick, Santiago Colas, and Krista Ratcliffe to develop a preliminary framework of ethical response. In my next two chapters I take this framework into the field to see what it can tell us about how feminist critics react to two types of queerness in modernist women's literature: experimental-poetic language and characters that move across gender, race, and sexuality. In my second chapter, I look at how feminist critics respond to the experimental-poetic language of H.D. and Gertrude Stein and I argue that Adalaide Morris' "close listening" enacts an ethical stance that is more desirable than Gilbert and Gubar's approach. My third chapter considers how feminist critics engage characters that move across identities of race, gender, and sexuality in Nella Larsen and Willa Cather's fiction. In my conclusion I use the insights gained from my analysis of feminist criticism, along with the framework that emerged in my first chapter, to articulate a "road-tested set of equipment" that readers can use to ethically respond to queerness in literary texts and everyday life.