Nonhuman Animals and Decorative Modernism in Djuna Barnes and Mina Loy

Abstract

With a focus on their depiction of the use of nonhuman animal materials this article examines how Barnes and Loy's modernism specifically negotiates and disrupts the uncertain boundary between natural and cultural meanings in their engagements with fashion and the decorative. The article considers animal fashions and the limits of the human in Djuna Barnes's writing, from early pieces such as ‘Vaudeville’ (1915) and ‘Madame Collects Herself’ (1918) to her late poetry, and in her journalism for New York newspapers, Vanity Fair, Charm and elsewhere. It also explores Mina Loy's engagement with decoration and fashion through her poetry, in her essay on ‘Modern Poetry’ and in her work as a designer and inventor (including her design for a ‘Horse Ear Hat’). The article argues that, through motifs of animal decorations in women's fashion, Barnes and Loy imagine animal-human confluences that deconstruct those dualisms and hierarchies that sustain an exploitative anthropocentric economy and a patriarchal cultural elitism.

Keywords:

• Djuna Barnes
• Mina Loy
• modernism
• nonhuman animal
• fur
• fashion
• decoration

Acknowledgements

This article is supremely indebted to my colleague Eric White who enabled my first encounter with Mina Loy's ‘verrovoile’ and ‘Horse Ear Hat’. I am very grateful to Sophie Oliver for sharing her PhD thesis chapter ‘Make It New Jersey!: Barnes in Charm magazine 1924–28’ which was invaluable for my understanding of Barnes's and Loy's contributions to Charm magazine. I am also deeply thankful for the conversation with Alix Beeston that inspired me to write the opening to this article.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).