Djuna (Magill Book Reviews)

Djuna Barnes, the author of the cult classic NIGHTWOOD (1936), remains one of the most mysterious and intriguing figures of modern American literature. Her legendary acerbic wit, her inventive prose “on the verge of poetry,” her friendship with some of the most famous artists of this century, and her unusual family background, combined with a distinctly individual sexual nature, have resulted in an image of an author hovering on the fringe of public consciousness.

Phillip Herring, a James Joyce scholar, has attempted to “understand Djuna Barnes” in terms of her contacts with the modernist writers she associated with and the “facts” of her family interaction as disclosed in her novel RYDER (1928) and her play THE ANTIPHON (1958). His presentation of the traditional conception of modernism, emphasizing James Joyce, T.S. Eliot and others, and Barnes’s place in this artistic endeavor, is competent if conventional, and his research on the intricate, tension-driven relationships of Barnes’s life with family and friends covers considerable material available only in separate sources or personal reminiscences.

During the past ten years, however, a serious examination of Barnes’s life and work spearheaded by many notable feminist scholars has resulted in interpretations at considerable variance with Herring’s, and a storm of controversy erupted in response to the publication of his book. The issues of contention are how successfully Herring has conveyed Barnes’s participation in modernist culture and how effectively he has dealt with the possibilities of incest in her family and Barnes’s reactions to familial pressures in her work. These areas of dispute are not likely to be settled in the immediate future.

Beyond this problem, Herring’s book is also limited by sections in which Barnes seems temporarily to disappear from the narrative, by discussions of Barnes’s work that tend toward summary and do not engage Barnes’s imaginative use of language, and by his difficulty with capturing the essence of Barnes’s famous wit. Herring does provide many examples of Barnes’s wit in conversation, though, and sufficient information on Barnes’s acquaintances and the people she had more intimate relationships with to supply a starting point for understanding an elusive, enigmatic, and talented writer.

Sources for Further Study

Boston Globe. December 3, 1995, p. 74.

Chicago Tribune. November 26, 1995, XIV, p. 5.

The Nation. CCLXI, November 20, 1995, p. 628.

The New York Times Book Review. C, November 26, 1995, p. 12.

The Village Voice. November 7, 1995, p. SS15.

The Washington Post Book World. XXV, November 12, 1995, p. 5.