Hemingway?s Primitivism: A Quest for Primal Authenticity: 76 (Modern American Literature)

In this timely book, the author explores new ways of reading Hemingway’s work, considering nature, gender and American identity. Through forensic analysis of Hemingway’s fiction, the author traces his early experiences of post-frontier America and the decline of the American primitive. He shows how, based on actual experience, Hemingway’s unique brand of primitivism later influences his travels in both Spain and Africa. Each source of primal inspiration: the American Indian, the Spanish corrida and the African safari influences the other in a tripartite primitivism. By illuminating Hemingway’s quest for primal authenticity, whereby the Other as “savage” is negated by his nuanced understanding of traditions, the author shows how Hemingway’s depictions empower women, challenge white male superiority, and privilege nature. Hemingway’s transatlantic and transcontinental quest for authentic primitivism is also a transnational and transcultural quest, an attempt to understand a more complex version of history.

Peter Rooney was a professor of Literature at the Irish American University for over 15 years. His other work on Hemingway has been published in the Irish Journal of American Studies. He has also lectured on Hemingway at Trinity College Dublin, where he now teaches in the School of English.