New Old Forms: Djuna Barnes’s and Virginia Woolf’s Return to the Archaic as Experimental Modernist Form

The following paper posits that High Modernism regards experimental literature purely in terms of form, not content; and how this regard is rooted in the gendering of literature i.e. masculine signaling “experimental” and feminine signaling “traditional.” As a result, the modernist canon is rooted i...

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Main Author: Elaine Hsieh Chou
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAES 2018-04-01
Series:Angles
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/angles/1008
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author Elaine Hsieh Chou
author_facet Elaine Hsieh Chou
author_sort Elaine Hsieh Chou
collection DOAJ
description The following paper posits that High Modernism regards experimental literature purely in terms of form, not content; and how this regard is rooted in the gendering of literature i.e. masculine signaling “experimental” and feminine signaling “traditional.” As a result, the modernist canon is rooted in the exclusion of the other, notably texts that disrupt conservative views on gender and sexuality. I show how, contrary to popular belief, Djuna Barnes’s Ladies Almanack and Virginia Woolf’s Orlando are two experimental modernist texts, both in terms of their “archaic” language and in terms of their sexual politics. The fact that both texts are indeed experimental forces Modernism to reexamine its exclusionary practices and how it defines experimentalism.
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spelling doaj-art-69e9ba49f3be4cbeb4dbd6408c29de3d2025-08-20T01:55:01ZengSAESAngles2274-20422018-04-01610.4000/angles.1008New Old Forms: Djuna Barnes’s and Virginia Woolf’s Return to the Archaic as Experimental Modernist FormElaine Hsieh ChouThe following paper posits that High Modernism regards experimental literature purely in terms of form, not content; and how this regard is rooted in the gendering of literature i.e. masculine signaling “experimental” and feminine signaling “traditional.” As a result, the modernist canon is rooted in the exclusion of the other, notably texts that disrupt conservative views on gender and sexuality. I show how, contrary to popular belief, Djuna Barnes’s Ladies Almanack and Virginia Woolf’s Orlando are two experimental modernist texts, both in terms of their “archaic” language and in terms of their sexual politics. The fact that both texts are indeed experimental forces Modernism to reexamine its exclusionary practices and how it defines experimentalism.https://journals.openedition.org/angles/1008literaturegenderBarnes DjunaWoolf VirginiasexualitySapphism
spellingShingle Elaine Hsieh Chou
New Old Forms: Djuna Barnes’s and Virginia Woolf’s Return to the Archaic as Experimental Modernist Form
Angles
literature
gender
Barnes Djuna
Woolf Virginia
sexuality
Sapphism
title New Old Forms: Djuna Barnes’s and Virginia Woolf’s Return to the Archaic as Experimental Modernist Form
title_full New Old Forms: Djuna Barnes’s and Virginia Woolf’s Return to the Archaic as Experimental Modernist Form
title_fullStr New Old Forms: Djuna Barnes’s and Virginia Woolf’s Return to the Archaic as Experimental Modernist Form
title_full_unstemmed New Old Forms: Djuna Barnes’s and Virginia Woolf’s Return to the Archaic as Experimental Modernist Form
title_short New Old Forms: Djuna Barnes’s and Virginia Woolf’s Return to the Archaic as Experimental Modernist Form
title_sort new old forms djuna barnes s and virginia woolf s return to the archaic as experimental modernist form
topic literature
gender
Barnes Djuna
Woolf Virginia
sexuality
Sapphism
url https://journals.openedition.org/angles/1008
work_keys_str_mv AT elainehsiehchou newoldformsdjunabarnessandvirginiawoolfsreturntothearchaicasexperimentalmodernistform