This project argues for the relatedness of the authorial desire for textual self-representation visible in many works of American modernist fiction and the modern myth of the self-made man. I contend that the historical and cultural forces which shaped both phenomena in the latter half of the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries are not incidental but integral to the modern understanding of America. I also contend that these phenomena are the products of a particular historical anxiety about male gender identity and its relation to biological futurity. Specifically, American authors are wrestling with the implications of male-centered views of cultural reproduction, including the myth of the \"self-made\" man, by using their fiction to seek out an exclusively-male model for how creativity and textual authority function. The failures which haunt these attempts in American modernist fiction--the persistent failures of American fathers, the destructive and deformed portraits of male-female gender relations, the legacy of dead and unborn children--all stem from and gesture back towards an irreconcilable, phallogocentric vision of American fiction.
","abstract_html":"<p>This project argues for the relatedness of the authorial desire for textual self-representation visible in many works of American modernist fiction and the modern myth of the self-made man. I contend that the historical and cultural forces which shaped both phenomena in the latter half of the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries are not incidental but integral to the modern understanding of America. I also contend that these phenomena are the products of a particular historical anxiety about male gender identity and its relation to biological futurity. Specifically, American authors are wrestling with the implications of male-centered views of cultural reproduction, including the myth of the "self-made" man, by using their fiction to seek out an exclusively-male model for how creativity and textual authority function. The failures which haunt these attempts in American modernist fiction--the persistent failures of American fathers, the destructive and deformed portraits of male-female gender relations, the legacy of dead and unborn children--all stem from and gesture back towards an irreconcilable, phallogocentric vision of American fiction.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Camacho, Kenneth Michael"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Campus Access Dissertation","degree_discipline":"English Language and Literatures","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Robert H. Brinkmeyer, Jr.","Brian Glavey"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2010,"date_issued":"2010-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2010-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T04:37:21Z","subjects":["Arts and Humanities","English Language and Literature","Barnes","fatherhood","Hemingway","masculinity","self-made man","Toomer"],"languages":[],"rights":["© 2010, Kenneth Michael Camacho"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/319","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Robert H. Brinkmeyer, Jr.","Brian Glavey"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Camacho, Kenneth Michael"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["English Language and Literatures"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Campus Access Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Arts and Humanities","English Language and Literature","Barnes","fatherhood","Hemingway","masculinity","self-made man","Toomer"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["© 2010, Kenneth Michael Camacho"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/319"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This project argues for the relatedness of the authorial desire for textual self-representation visible in many works of American modernist fiction and the modern myth of the self-made man. I contend that the historical and cultural forces which shaped both phenomena in the latter half of the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries are not incidental but integral to the modern understanding of America. I also contend that these phenomena are the products of a particular historical anxiety about male gender identity and its relation to biological futurity. Specifically, American authors are wrestling with the implications of male-centered views of cultural reproduction, including the myth of the \"self-made\" man, by using their fiction to seek out an exclusively-male model for how creativity and textual authority function. The failures which haunt these attempts in American modernist fiction--the persistent failures of American fathers, the destructive and deformed portraits of male-female gender relations, the legacy of dead and unborn children--all stem from and gesture back towards an irreconcilable, phallogocentric vision of American fiction.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["The Art of Self-Making: American Modernist Fiction and the Performances of Identity and Authorship"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Robert H. Brinkmeyer, Jr.","Brian Glavey"],"dc:creator":["Camacho, Kenneth Michael"],"dc:description.abstract":["This project argues for the relatedness of the authorial desire for textual self-representation visible in many works of American modernist fiction and the modern myth of the self-made man. I contend that the historical and cultural forces which shaped both phenomena in the latter half of the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries are not incidental but integral to the modern understanding of America. I also contend that these phenomena are the products of a particular historical anxiety about male gender identity and its relation to biological futurity. Specifically, American authors are wrestling with the implications of male-centered views of cultural reproduction, including the myth of the \"self-made\" man, by using their fiction to seek out an exclusively-male model for how creativity and textual authority function. The failures which haunt these attempts in American modernist fiction--the persistent failures of American fathers, the destructive and deformed portraits of male-female gender relations, the legacy of dead and unborn children--all stem from and gesture back towards an irreconcilable, phallogocentric vision of American fiction.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/319"],"dc:rights":["© 2010, Kenneth Michael Camacho"],"dc:subject":["Arts and Humanities","English Language and Literature","Barnes","fatherhood","Hemingway","masculinity","self-made man","Toomer"],"dc:title":["The Art of Self-Making: American Modernist Fiction and the Performances of Identity and Authorship"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["English Language and Literatures"],"thesis:degree_level":["Campus Access Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T04:37:21Z"}