Gender on the Divide: The Dandy in Modernist Literature

In close readings of six major modernist writers, among them Willa Cather, Wallace Stevens, and Vladimir Nabokov, Jessica R. Feldman traces the significance of the dandy, not just as historical figure and fictional character but also as authorial presence and rhetorical mode. She shows that dandies, far from being foppish and shallow male figures, are women and men who personify the major conflicts within modernism.