5 - More Theories, Many Gendered, Some Psychological: The Mid-1980s to Mid-1990s

Summary

LINDA WAGNER-MARTIN, in the introduction to her Hemingway: Seven Decades of Criticism (1998), pointed out that “critics both mature and newly trained have in the 1990s found fresh patterns, unpredictably complex insights, throughout Hemingway’s fiction” (4), and that forty percent of the essays in the new collection were by women, as opposed to earlier collections by primarily male scholars writing about an author thought of as extremely male.

Not all Hemingway scholarship published in the period leading up to Wagner-Martin’s comment featured complex insights, however. For instance, Gregory Sojka’s 1985 book on angling tells us little new about The Sun Also Rises: “the outdoor activities surrounding and including fishing serve as a healthy outlet for physical energy and provide a source of momentary spiritual rebirth” (67). In contrast, that same year Jim Hinkle, who memorized the entire The Sun Also Rises, took an unusual tack, following Grebstein by examining the humor in the novel in great detail and providing new insights. Hinkle began by pointing out buried puns in the novel, such as Jake’s statement that “I spent a little money and the waiter liked me. He appreciated my valuable qualities” (Hinkle 32; SAR 237; my emphases); or Jake’s “I never slept with the electric light off. That was another bright idea” (Hinkle, ibid., SAR 152). Hinkle also lists Jake’s literal statements that have double meaning, such as when he hears that Brett has gone to San Sebastian with Cohn, and says that the two “turned a corner” (Hinkle 33; SAR 89). Similarly Jake’s admonition to Mike, “Pipe down” (SAR 180), simultaneously asks him not to make a disturbance and answers his question of how bullfighters get into their tight pants (Hinkle 40). Sometimes the joke occurs over two lines, such as Cohn’s statement “I can’t stand it any more,” followed by, “He lay there on the bed” (Hinkle 36; SAR 198). According to Hinkle, Hemingway allows Bill to make an anti-Semitic joke, seemingly knowing part of Cohn’s Spanish telegram — “Vengo Jueves Cohn” (SAR 132; I come Thursday, Cohn) — Hinkle says that Bill considers “Cohn” redundant to “Jueves,” which he translates as Jew (38). Hinkle also finds a concealed pun in Brett’s description of a sexual wound: “a friend of my brother’s came home that way from Mons.