Repossessing Papa: A Narcissistic Meditation

Begins with an examination of the problems Hemingway studies faces considering various contemporary critical systems. Spilka then shifts to a discussion of Hemingway’s recognition of the socially coded sexual expectations to “put out for the troops” evident in A Farewell to Arms and Catherine’s war madness. Closes with a comparison of the aggressively subservient Catherine to the sexually tyrannical Catherine Bourne of The Garden of Eden. Also published as “Repossessing Papa: A Narcissistic Meditation for Literary Throwbacks” in Rereading Modernism: New Directions in Feminist Criticism, edited by Lisa Rado, 231-52. New York: Garland, 1994

Nina Baym’s Benevolent Reading of the Macomber Story

Though he agrees with Baym’s contention that the lion’s point of view is transferred to Margot, Spilka objects to the rest of her reading, characterizing her logic as unfair and contradictory. Spilka takes issue, for example, with Baym’s assertion that big-game hunting is dangerous only for the animal, woefully overpowered by human technology (guns and cars). See Baym’s “Actually, I Felt Sorry for the Lion” in New Critical Approaches to the Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway, edited by Jackson J. Benson, 112-20. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1990

Hemingway’s Quarrel with Androgyny

Thorough treatment of Hemingway’s lifelong fascination with androgyny, beginning in his childhood and culminating in his writing of The Garden of Eden. Spilka contends that an early blending of the feminine and masculine and specific boyhood readings (e.g., Wuthering Heights (1847) and Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886)) helped shape Hemingway’s androgynous nature, influencing his later writing and relationships with women. Spilka writes: “Androgyny seems to have been a childhood condition that initially promised great happiness to Hemingway but was soon resisted and repressed; a wounding condition, then, that could be overcome only through strenuous male activities, athletic and creative, as with his active or vicarious devotion to a variety of manly sports and his serious dedication to writing as to an athletic discipline.” Spilka argues that Hemingway’s growing anxiety with androgyny took the form of three stages: acceptance of his feminine aspects, rejection of those same feminine aspects, and final reacceptance of those submerged feminine strains later in life. Devotes the final third of his study to an analysis of The Garden of Eden and its manuscript

The Importance of Being Androgynous

Previously published in Hemingway’s Quarrel with Androgyny, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990

Repossessing Papa: A Narcissistic Meditation for Literary Throwbacks

Also published as “Repossessing Papa: A Narcissistic Meditation” in Hemingway Repossessed, edited by Ken Rosen, 37-49. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1994

Abusive and Nonabusive Dying in Hemingway’s Fiction

Applies theories of domestic violence to “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” to show Harry as the classic verbal abuser who is rewarded with a heavenward journey. Argues that later Hemingway texts depicting non-abusive deaths such as in To Have and Have Not and For Whom the Bell Tolls reveal the author’s growing embarrassment over the earlier story’s warped view of manliness