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8Villucci

Taylor VillucciProfessor K. J. EvansLIT4033 September 26, 2014Mina Loy and the Victorian: How Loy Attempted to Disassemble the Victorian Woman IdealMake it newEzra Pound

With the turn of the twentieth century, society was rapidly modernizing and moving towards a seemingly never-ending goal of wanting to experience new ideas and things. However, though the treatment of women may have improved, and they were becoming more than just domesticated homemakers, their images were mainly restricted to that of a subdued virgin or mother figure. Mina Loy was a woman who was not content to be labeled with domesticity or adhere to the norms that society tried to push onto women at that time. Loy used modernist and futurist ideas in her works, such as untraditional syntax, and unorthodox topics and diction, to break down the image of the Victorian lady and push the boundaries on how woman were viewed in society. In the Victorian era, women were viewed as docile, domesticated creatures whose only sphere of relevance was in the family. However, Loy and the futurists believed in completely erasing the past, such as social divisions and stereotypes, and setting a new order. This erasure of the past is evident in Aphorisms on Futurism through Loys The first two lines Die in the Past/Live in the Future of the poem are the fundamental ideas of the futurist movement and can be considered a driving force for the destruction of the Victorian image of women. This is shown due to the While futurists werent specifically focused on liberating women from social confines, Virginia Kouidis from Mina Loy American Modernist Poet states that Loys poetry begins to appear feminine in its exploration of female oppression while also futurist inspired in its aggressive assertion of selfhood (8). This line of thinking is continues when she states, Forget that you live in houses, that you may live in yourself as it sheds the idea that women are defined by their role as a homemaker. As Loys Aphorism on Futurism futurist ideas worked to break down the Victorian woman image, it also depicted the modernist manifestation of the rejection of nostalgic European values through the directness of the content. The Victorian image was carefully constructed: women were held in a rigid caste of domestication and purity that gave them little room to grow. As Alex Goody points out in Modernist Articulations, Loys experiences in Italy inspired her to be more direct compared to the repression and denial of Victorian England (43). This directness is shown through the short aphorisms in the poem. Instead of having a romantic poem, Loy just states her desires and wishes for the future in a free verse format. An example of such directness is seen with The Future is limitlessthe past a trail of insidious reactions. This line compares the nostalgic European values to a trail of insidious reactions which only further highlights her modernist, direct approach to poetry. Loy clearly and directly states her view of the Victorian era as harmful choices and reactions that need to be laid to rest, while the future is open to be acted on. To further encapsulate her disdain for the restrictions placed on women, but also further the empowerment of women and their bodies, Loy creates her own manifesto with Feminist Manifesto. This manifesto is a response to the problematic gender politics of futurist ideas that was found in the The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism by Marinetti (Goody, 42). In her manifesto, Loy calls out the division of women, which is seen between mothers and mistresses, and addresses that every woman is her own person and isnt going to be confined to such titles. These divisions are part of the Victorian era where women were either homely and pure, or scandalous women and Loy is trying to eradicate those strict classifications. This directness, as it was seen in other works, was learned from the Italian futurists who valued action and violence and whom shes disagreeing with in this manifesto. Pointing out the issue that has been prevalent and pushed upon woman in society by calling the division an illusion that is in their interest to demolish just highlights the fact that Loy is willing to use fierce language to highlight the fact that women cannot be labeledthey are humans who will recognize their own strengths and weaknesses as conscious individuals. To continue with a modern style, Loy decides to alter the typography of her manifesto instead of keeping with a traditional formatting of writing, like the font and structure remaining consistent throughout. By choosing to bold, enlarge, and underline certain phrases, such as Absolute Demolition and the mistress & the mother, Loy further illustrates her modernist influences and draws the readers eye to the key phrases that Loy considers important and worthy of attention. The changing of typography illustrates that there is a new era with writing. Loy is pushing the limit on how text is printed and read, just as she is pushing the idea that the role of women is changing in society. These modernist influences on the typography create a parallel on how Loy is trying to rid society of the Victorian woman image. By straying away from traditional methods of typography, shes leading the public to stray away from their preconceived notions of literary works. This, in turn, leads them to become more open-minded and rid themselves of their preconceived notions of women. The Feminist Manifesto also furthered her push to break down Victorian woman ideals and view of woman through the use of unorthodox language. It was considered extremely inappropriate for any woman to talk about childbirth, as seen in the backlash Loy received from her poem Parturition. However, Loy uses her manifesto to bring it to the forefront, to embrace the topic as something to be discussed. She even goes as far to say that women were prohibited from any [advantageous bargain] and even entirely debarred maternity due to the fact that its just whats going to happen to married woman. The choice is taken away since its understood that its expected of woman in society to have children. Loy fights these notions by singling it out, and saying that woman have a right to maternity and they should feel and recognize thats what they want to do. Loy is arguing for the will of the woman to come first, which is completely against the Victorian woman image. In her Songs to Joannes, Loy employs the unorthodox syntax, that came with modernism, to destroy the idea that woman cannot be sexual beings like men. In XIV of Songs to Joannes the poem ends with No love or the other thing/Only the impact of lighted bodies. The unusual spacing between love and or shows a pause in the reading, like a comma would give, but without any punctuation. Like the message it is trying to convey, how the two people dont feel love for each other yet have sexual relations, the spacing was strange and inappropriate at the time. The modern syntax is also shown in XXVI of Songs to Joannes. Shedding our pretty pruderiesFrom slit eyes

We sidle upTo Nature--- --- --- that irate pornographist

Loy uses the spacing to illustrate the first two lines. By creating a distance between the first two and last three lines, the reader will imagine a couple hiding away from a judging society. This shows that society still casts judgment against personal choices. The petty pruderies are the constraints cast on women to uphold societys moral standings, compared to the irate pornographist which is the natural instinct to have sexual intercourse. By using the dashes to push the last line further out, and lining it up pruderies, Loy highlights the contrast. This contrast creates a statement as to how women are sexual beings, just as men, yet could not express that side of themselves due to the Victorian ideals placed upon them by society. As well as using unusual syntax, the Songs to Joannes uses diction and risqu topics to break down the Victorian woman. As Kouidis points out in Modern Articulations, the mainstream American audience was scandalized by the subject matter of the poems (98). People were not supposed to have intimate relations unless the pair had been married. Even then, the discussion of such acts did not exist at all. By writing lines such as From their incognitoes/In seismic orgasm, and Whose rivers run no fresher/Than a trickle of saliva, Loy is unashamed of discussing the risqu subject matter of sexual intercourse and instead uses it as a way to empower herself and women as a whole against the rigid morals society set. Loy suggests that the unveiling of sexual attitudes is central to any deeply effective cultural revolution (Kinnahan 50). By writing about such relations, it contradicts the pure, chaste image that society thought women were suppose to uphold and creates the discussion that women should have sexual freedom and be comfortable with themselves. These unorthodox ideas and choice of diction just further illustrates how Loy was trying to get rid of the past ideas of what woman had to do, and continue to show how they have the right to do as men do, as they wish to do, as they decide to do for themselves. The unfair and unequal double standard in regards to sexual independence is shown again in Virgins Plus Curtains Minus Dots. Loy once again uses the unusual syntax and subject matter with underlying themes to show how women were subjugated and controlledthis time with the construct of virginity. By portraying women as innocent virgins whom are scared of their own sexuality, as seen with the lines Virgins may whimper/Transparent nightdresses made all of lace/Virgins may squeak/My dear I should faint, society is perpetrating the pure, chaste ideal. As Goody states, the virgins are condemned to a cloistered, repressed existence where the actual meaning of their virginity is meaningless (109). The paradox this creates, that they must value and uphold their virginity while their virginity is just a social construct and meaningless, Loy purposefully uses to show how ridiculous the notion of sexual repression is. Its just a tool to keep the Victorian woman ideal and all the women it affects, in place and effective. The syntax is very futurist in the fact that it doesnt use punctuation, and if it does, it is irregular. The pauses, such as Mens eyes look into things/Our eyes look out are comparable to pauses that happen in conversations. Loy uses these pauses and spaces in a somewhat ironic fashion since women were always looking out, staring at the world they were barely allowed to be a part of due to the societal restrictions placed upon them. Loy recognizes the sexual, and social, repression that women face due to the Victorian woman ideal into the twentieth century, and used her poetry to battle this.Taking on the disassembling of the Victorian woman idea and how society views women was not an easy task, nor is it over today. The idea that a woman needs to remain pure until marriage, and then transform into a homely mother figure whose realm remains in the house is still around in todays society more than a century later. However, at the turn of the twentieth century, Mina Loy used her modernist and futurist influences to try and break down the stereotypes and societal pressures against women. By using untraditional syntax, and unorthodox diction and ideas, Loy managed to shock society and bring the gender issues to the forefront. This new way of writing, in conjunction with the futurist ideas of erasing the past, creating a new future and being direct with intentions, is a driving force in how Mina Loy changed societys view of women and tried to disassemble the Victorian ideal of women. While the job was too big for just one person, Mina Loy will be remembered as modernist poet who vied for the changing view of women in society.

Works CitedBurke, Carolyn. Becoming Modern: The Life of Mina Loy. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1996. Print.Goody, Alex. Modernist Articulations: A Cultural Study of Djuna Barnes, Mina Loy and Gertrude Stein. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Print.Kinnahan, Linda A. Poetics of the Feminine: Authority and Literary Tradition in William Carlos Williams, Mina Loy, Denise Levertov, and Kathleen Fraser. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1994. Print.Kouidis, Virginia M. Mina Loy, American Modernist Poet. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1980. Print.Ramazani, Jahan, Richard Ellmann, and Robert O'Clair. "Mina Loy." The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry: V. I. New York: W.W. Norton, 2003. 268-83. Print.