NARCISSISTIC SUICIDE: ERNEST HEMINGWAY BETWEEN EXISTENTIAL NARRATIVE AND THE (META)FEMININE PARADOX
NARCISSISTIC SUICIDE: ERNEST HEMINGWAY BETWEEN EXISTENTIAL NARRATIVE AND THE (META)FEMININE PARADOX

Summary/Abstract: An emblematic prose master of The Lost Generation, Ernest Hemingway owes quite a lot to his classic 19th century predecessors: to Mark Twain as well as to Walt Whitman; to Stephen Crane the first American naturalist fiction writer, but likewise to Stephen Crane the fine poet, so accurately anticipating modern metaphor. Yet my concern here focuses on the particular lyrical influence upon Hemingway’s style and vision of the least expected poet, herself a champion of minimalism. For some years now Hemingway’s works and personality have been privileged objects of a certain interest revival, on the part of filmmakers, literary critics, scholars and students alike, who have once again fallen under his spell. Here I have preferred a return to Hemingway’s African safari setting and also some hints at his Spanish setting – in a couple of short stories which I hope to defamiliarize. Although (the title of) my paper here may echo the Canadian literary theorist Linda Hutcheon’s now canonic book about “narcissistic narrative” and “the metafictional paradox” (as postmodern rather than modern prose characteristics) – this essay actually represents a re-reading in a refreshing poetic key of Hemingway’s bestknown (and most obviously self-reflexive) short-stories. Moreover, by the ‘(meta)feminine paradox’ I mean literature/poetry of women about/beyond femininity – and particularly Emily Dickinson’s verse. Because, despite his self-(un)masking cynicism, Hemingway’s writings do evince deep poetic qualities, just waiting to be re(dis)covered.

• Details
• Contents