Modernism/modernity

Van Dusen, Wanda.
Portrait of a National Fetish: Gertrude Stein's "Introduction to the Speeches of Marichal Pitain" (1942)
Modernism/modernity - Volume 3, Number 3, September 1996, pp. 69-92

The Johns Hopkins University Press

Wanda Van Dusen - Portrait of a National Fetish: Gertrude Stein's "Introduction to the Speeches of Marechal Petain" - Modernism/Modernity 3:3 Modernism/Modernity 3.3 (1996) 69-92 Portrait of a National Fetish: Gertrude Stein's "Introduction to the Speeches of Maréchal Pétain" (1942) Wanda Van Dusen Gertrude Stein's "Introduction to the Speeches of Maréchal Pétain" was drawn out of the Random House papers held at Columbia University by Wanda Van Dusen, a former Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, San Diego. I say "former" since in the fall of 1995 Wanda took her own life and thus ended what looked to be a promising academic career. The reasons for Wanda's suicide probably will never be known, and this is not the occasion to speculate on them. Rather, it is time to present --and celebrate-- the work of a remarkable scholar, someone highly regarded within the Literature Department at UCSD and a friend to her fellow students and professors. As someone who worked closely with her in seminars and then as her dissertation director I respected her intelligence, resourcefulness, and humor. Her death has stunned and saddened us all. Wanda was well on her way to completing her dissertation at the time of her death. Her project involved the gender of modernism as seen through the optic of three authors: Irmgard Keun, Michel Leiris, and Gertrude Stein. The exceptional qualities of this dissertation can be seen in the essay that follows, which would...