American Expatriate Writing and the Paris Moment: Modernism and Place

by Donald Pizer

Montparnasse and its cafe life, the shabby working-class area of the place de la Contrescarpe and the Pantheon, the small restaurants and cafes along the Seine, and the Right Bank world of the well-to-do...for American writers self-exiled to Paris during the 1920s and 1930s, the French capital represented what their homeland could not a milieu that through the freedom of thought and action it permitted and the richness of life it offered, nurtured the full expression of the creative imagination. How these expatriates interpreted and gave modernist shape to the myth of "the Paris moment" in their writing is the altogether fresh focus of Donald Pizer's study of seven of their major works. Through careful readings of the texts, Pizer identifies both the common threads in the expatriates' response to the Paris moment and the distinctive expression each work gives to their shared experience. Most important, he addresses the neglected question of how the portrayal of the Paris scene helps shape a specific work's themes and form. He traces such experimental devices as fragmented or cubistic narrative forms, the dramatic representation of consciousness, and sexual explicitness, and explores the powerful and evocative tropes of mobility and feeding. As Pizer demonstrates, Paris between the two world wars was for the American expatriates more than a geographical entity. It was a state of mind, an experience that engendered the formal expression of a personal aesthetic. The engaging and significant interplay between artist, place and innovative self-reflexive forms composes, Pizer maintains the most distinctive contribution of expatriate writing to the literary movement called high modernism.

Genres: Nonfiction

Paperback

First published April 1, 1996

Reviews

[fwarg]

A not-too-heady literary theory book that explores the impact of Paris expatriation on modernist American writers. Pizer is interested in investigating the emotional resonance of this place for these authors and how Paris’ freedom of thought, richness of life, can allow an artistic spirit to be reborn (well, Henry Miller might say an artificial birth).

Lots of interesting reflections like on the tension between American morality and Paris life, or explorations of the metaphoric association between sexual and creative potency and the relationship between freedom of movement and freedom of self.

3 stars because I think Pizer really misses out on directly speaking to French culture, life and history as a way of underscoring his examples and theories. Like I buy what he’s saying but he needs more of a historicist’s eye. Also 3 stars because his section on Stein barely covers Paris at all.

[George Dibble]

3.5/5

A lot of really cool ideas here about creativity, about how others are viewed, about American-esque limitations that can be broadened. And applied wherever, not just in a place like Paris. But even Indianapolis, Indiana. Really beautiful ideas of non-linearity, cubism, of spaces and emphasis of location over narrative. Of pushing the bounds of art. Innovating. Expressing your self. Having your writing be self-reflexive. Of adventures in strange lands. Of marital problems, sadly, here, often never really fixed.

Read sporadically across the month. Usually in my bed at night my lamp tilted toward me warm I'd angle my pages just right and elbow the book in if I were to underline sentences, or annotate.

[Lisa]

I've tried to be honest with myself about how much my enjoyment of this book will translate into how much others will like it. I think it will touch two audiences - those who love the modern period and enjoy reading about all of its extraordinary characters and those who like to get lost in other, more fabulous times. However, I would most strongly recommend it to those of you least inclined to read it. Those not familiar with the literary magic of the 1920's, the "Lost Generation", and the artistic vibrancy of Paris during the war period.

Pizer covers a number of American legends, focusing on one of their important works from the period. Hemingway, Stein, Nin, etc are all compelling characters, the fact that they walked the same streets, ate at the same dinner parties, suffered and succeeded together in the one of the world's most beautiful cities makes for rich reading. Pizer does a good job of illustrating how the 'Paris Moment' deeply influenced their lives and their writing and he strikes a good balance with his accessible intellectualism.

[Eric McGuckin]

A bit academic, but interesting ideas, particularly about Hemingway.