Among many modernist artists, Mina Loy remains one of the most complex and allusive. Recent posthumous exposure of Loy's life and work adds to this precarity. A significant piece of Loy's life that is especially complex to contemporaries is her time spent writing. By establishing Loy's subjective relationship with her Victorian upbringing, this paper seeks to show examples of its influence on her search for originality. Mainly, the paper examines Loy's concept of originality, where that concept may have come from, and how it is reflected in her literature. The paper analyzes three of Loy's literary works, her poems \"Virgins Plus Curtains Minus Dots\" (1914) and \"Apology of Genius\" (1922), and her novel Insel (1930s), to establish Loy's unique concept of originality and how it developed over time amid complex artistic moments.
","abstract_html":"<p>Among many modernist artists, Mina Loy remains one of the most complex and allusive. Recent posthumous exposure of Loy's life and work adds to this precarity. A significant piece of Loy's life that is especially complex to contemporaries is her time spent writing. By establishing Loy's subjective relationship with her Victorian upbringing, this paper seeks to show examples of its influence on her search for originality. Mainly, the paper examines Loy's concept of originality, where that concept may have come from, and how it is reflected in her literature. The paper analyzes three of Loy's literary works, her poems "Virgins Plus Curtains Minus Dots" (1914) and "Apology of Genius" (1922), and her novel <em>Insel</em> (1930s), to establish Loy's unique concept of originality and how it developed over time amid complex artistic moments.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Phillips, Peyton L"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts (MA)","degree_level":"Masters Thesis","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Christopher Spaide","Charles Sumner","Ery Shin"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2026,"date_issued":"2026-05-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2026-05-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:45:55Z","subjects":["Modernism","Mina Loy","Originality","Poetry","Insel","Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies","Modern Literature","Women's Studies"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/1198","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Christopher Spaide","Charles Sumner","Ery Shin"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Phillips, Peyton L"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2026-06-01T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Masters Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts (MA)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Modernism","Mina Loy","Originality","Poetry","Insel","Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies","Modern Literature","Women's Studies"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/1198"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Among many modernist artists, Mina Loy remains one of the most complex and allusive. Recent posthumous exposure of Loy's life and work adds to this precarity. A significant piece of Loy's life that is especially complex to contemporaries is her time spent writing. By establishing Loy's subjective relationship with her Victorian upbringing, this paper seeks to show examples of its influence on her search for originality. Mainly, the paper examines Loy's concept of originality, where that concept may have come from, and how it is reflected in her literature. The paper analyzes three of Loy's literary works, her poems \"Virgins Plus Curtains Minus Dots\" (1914) and \"Apology of Genius\" (1922), and her novel Insel (1930s), to establish Loy's unique concept of originality and how it developed over time amid complex artistic moments.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["\"Ostracized as we are with God\": Mina Loy's Anti-career and the Search for Originality"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Christopher Spaide","Charles Sumner","Ery Shin"],"dc:creator":["Phillips, Peyton L"],"dc:date.available":["2026-06-01T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Among many modernist artists, Mina Loy remains one of the most complex and allusive. Recent posthumous exposure of Loy's life and work adds to this precarity. A significant piece of Loy's life that is especially complex to contemporaries is her time spent writing. By establishing Loy's subjective relationship with her Victorian upbringing, this paper seeks to show examples of its influence on her search for originality. Mainly, the paper examines Loy's concept of originality, where that concept may have come from, and how it is reflected in her literature. The paper analyzes three of Loy's literary works, her poems \"Virgins Plus Curtains Minus Dots\" (1914) and \"Apology of Genius\" (1922), and her novel Insel (1930s), to establish Loy's unique concept of originality and how it developed over time amid complex artistic moments.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/1198"],"dc:subject":["Modernism","Mina Loy","Originality","Poetry","Insel","Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies","Modern Literature","Women's Studies"],"dc:title":["\"Ostracized as we are with God\": Mina Loy's Anti-career and the Search for Originality"],"thesis:degree_level":["Masters Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts (MA)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:45:55Z"}