Dos Passos and the Ideology of the Feminine is an original contribution to traditional Dos Passos scholarship, which tends to focus on the author's political agenda. In this book, Janet Casey takes a cultural studies approach that situates both the author and his finest fiction in relation to representations and theorizations of gender in the 1920s and 1930s. Its primary focus is the manner in which Dos Passos responds to prevalent ideas about the feminine, as well as the way that such ideas have affected his ongoing reputation.

Modernity and urbanity have long been considered mutually sustaining forces in early twentieth-century America. But has the dominance of the urban imaginary obscured the importance of the rural? How have women, in particular, appropriated discourses and images of rurality to interrogate the problems of modernity? And how have they imbued the rural-traditionally viewed as a locus for conservatism-with a progressive political valence?

Touching on such diverse subjects as eugenics, reproductive rights, advertising, the economy of literary prizes, and the role of the camera, A New...

Dos Passos and the Ideology of the Feminine is an original contribution to traditional Dos Passos scholarship, which tends to focus on the author's political agenda. In this book, Janet Casey takes a cultural studies approach that situates both the author and his finest fiction in relation to representations and theorizations of gender in the 1920s and 1930s. Its primary focus is the manner in which Dos Passos responds to prevalent ideas about the feminine, as well as the way that such ideas have affected his ongoing reputation.