Journal of American Studies of Turkey

11 (2000) : 107-108

Book Review

A Discussion of the Ideology of the American Dream in the Culture’s Female Discourses: The Untidy House by Adrianne Kalfopoulou. 2000, 199 pages. Available from: The Edwin Mellen Press, Box 450, Lewiston, New York 14092-0450, USA.

Bilge Mutluay

Adrianne Kalfopoulou’s study is a deconstructionist reading of selected woman characters in American fiction ranging from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (1850) to Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987).

The introduction, "Unhousing the (gendered) self in American Culture," starts with explaining the suggestions of the word "untidiness" and the Derridean term "diffèrance" with its connotations—"play," "difference," and "deferral." Derrida's understanding of "difference" enables Kalfopoulou to examine "values of consistency which have excluded or marginalized alternative cultural patterns" (3). She also mentions established critics like Perry Miller and Sacvan Bercovitch to ground her argument on previous criticisms of The Scarlet Letter. The archetypal antinomian Anne Hutchinson, the prototypical woman standing against established norms and behaviour patterns, is examined in the background of the creation of Hester's character. The introduction lists the novels and short stories which are going to be studied throughout the book.

The first chapter, "Hester's Ungathered Hair," deals exclusively with Hester of The Scarlet Letter. Juxtaposing Hester and the Indian princess Pocahontas, who renounces "her Indian self with her marriage to a white man" (19), Kalfopoulou focuses on Hester's singularity in terms of her needlework and her motherhood to show how Hester becomes "the other" in the society. The famous forest scene of the novel presents Hester's need and longing for wholeness which is not fulfilled and Hester "ultimately finds fulfillment in her maternal role, the only role left for her at the novel's end" (30). Hawthorne's ambivalent feelings toward Hester is explained through his remarks of disapproval to another influential woman of the period, Margaret Fuller. Hawthorne was skeptical about the way Margaret Fuller led her life and did not refrain from voicing his opinions.

The discussion of the second chapter, "Out of the Father's House: Toward a Chronology of Desire," centers around Gertrude Stein's "Melanctha" (1909). Starting with Harriet Beecher Stove's Uncle Tom's Cabin the section refers to and partially examines a number of other works like Anzia Yezierska's Bread Givers (1925), Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), Tillie Olsen's "I Stand Here Ironing" (1956), and Grace Paley's "A Conversation with my Father" (1960). The marginal "mulatto" woman character Melanctha is compared and contrasted with other characters of the works mentioned within the subtext of female bonding.

The third chapter, "Shaman: Daughter's Texts/Mothers' (Con)texts," deals with the marginal daughters of Hisaye Yamamoto's "Seventeen Syllables" (1921), Thalia Selz's "The Education of A Queen" (1962), Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior (1975), and Gayl Jones' Corregidora (1975). This section discusses daughters' "otherness," marked by their mothers' foreignness and their submission to patriarchy. To create a regenerative power in their lives, the daughters must come to terms with their mothers' experiences and learn to use their legacies positively.

The fourth chapter, "Borders of the Self: Visiting the Possible," focuses on Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping (1981) and Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987) to discuss "a 'feminine space' which overwhelms the patriarchal home structure and redefines it" (129). The houses in both novels are deprived of a father figure, which is considered as a blessing. Unfortunately, due to a number of reasons, the characters undergo loss, grief, and a subsequent identity crisis until they find redemption through a male counterpart, however contradictory this may seem. The saviour male characters in these novels do not function as agents of patriarchy. They possess maternal qualities of nurturing and healing.

In an attempt to close the opening title of the introduction, the conclusion is entitled "Coming Home" which brings the works discussed together around the context of domesticity. This section reexamines the works mentioned in terms of the scarred female body, moving out of the father's patriarchal house, the journey toward selfhood, the daughter's understanding of her mother's experiences and accepting maternal substitutes.

Adrianne Kalfopoulou’s book has sections of brilliant observations but at times falls into cliches by almost forcing the Derridean term “diffèrance.” Despite the scope of the covered material, her reason for choosing the selected discourses—apart from the characters’ marginality deriving from their foreignness or singularity—remains unexplained. Kalfopoulou does not adequately explain as to why such a selection would be sufficient to examine "the culture's female discourses" and why this discourse is limited to the selected works. The study, therefore, does not explain why other well-known texts on American marginality, like Alice Walker's The Color Purple or Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club, are left out.

The discussions on the female characters’ development are detailed, yet the relationship between “the ideology of the American Dream” and the characters' portrayal seems to fall short, contrary to the promise of the title. American Dream and its consequences are mentioned only cursorily throughout the work.

Kalfopoulou's reading of individual works are quite interesting, especially the sections in which she tends to move toward a historicist approach by mentioning the authors' own experiences in relation to the characters. Hawthorne's disapproval of Margaret Fuller's life clarifying his ambivalence to Hester or Stein's lesbianism explaining Melanctha's choices are noteworthy examples.

The context of this study would interest the literature and women's studies students and scholars as well as those who are interested in reading applications of deconstructionist literary theory.