Date of Award

Spring 2026

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Department

English Language and Literatures

First Advisor

Catherine Keyser

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the patriarchal nostalgia that resulted from men’s perceived feminization in modernity and how it manifests in the narrative framing of modern women in modernist literature. Niel Herbert from Willa Cather’s A Lost Lady and Jason Compson from William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury each embody contrasting masculine responses to the feminization of white manhood. Niel exemplifies the mourning of white masculinity that does not hinge on being antithetical to femininity, a sentiment which Greg Forter similarly identifies in Cather. Jason personifies an aggressive masculinity and repudiates women, blaming them, and other minority groups, for his own deficiencies in navigating modernity. In facing their declining patriarchal power, Niel and Jason grasp for control through their narrative authority, pushing their own insecurities onto the sexually liberated modern women of their fixations. Though Marian Forrester and Caddy Compson both survive modernity through embracing their sexualities, Niel and Jason silence them, attempting to frame them as fallen women responsible for breaking masculine continuity. In dissecting their contrasting narrative styles and points of idealization, this thesis seeks to enhance our understanding of men’s paradoxical temporal longing as they are left yearning for a past they feel has been irrevocably corrupted by modern women.

Rights

© 2026, Grace Nicole Becker

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