A Moveable Feast - Implications of Sexual Identity and Androgyny

Implications of Sexual Identity and Androgyny

In discussion of other issues related to the memoir, the literary critic J. Gerald Kennedy of Louisiana State University pointed out the artificially heroic nature of Hemingway's self-portrait in A Moveable Feast. He contrasted it with the sexual ambiguity and fascination with androgyny found in Hemingway's unfinished novel, The Garden of Eden. Kennedy examines how textual evidence from both published material and unpublished papers from the collection at the JFK Library seem to project a contrasting picture of Hemingway's sexuality. Noting that the clumsy "created" nature of the young Hemingway in A Moveable Feast is well-established as fraudulent (e.g., Hemingway had access to large sums of money during the time he was in Paris, yet portrayed himself as "starving"), Kennedy points out that Hemingway writes as if he were the only person in his literary circle in Paris who was sexually stable and healthy, in contrast to F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein. This self-assured image, however, is in stark contrast with the confused and experimenting protagonist of The Garden of Eden.

Kennedy notes significant textual clues, such as a fascination with androgynous haircuts and the redacted sections of A Moveable Feast, which refer to the period when Hemingway was having an affair with his second wife Pauline while still married to Hadley. Kennedy concluded Hemingway's "obsession" with indistinct gendering was central to his character, a conclusion also alleged by the critic Mark Spilka and biographer Kenneth Lynn.