Dark and disturbing, yet strangely redemptive, Djuna Barnes’s 1936 modernist masterpiece Nightwood left even its greatest champion, T.S. Eliot, a bit bewildered. Guest Margaret Vandenburg, an expert in modernism, post-modernism and gender studies, joins us to illuminate Barnes’s tumultuous life and help us decipher her "ultimate breakup novel,” a work that casts its spell by turning the world upside down in subversive defiance of fascism.
Mentioned in this episode:
Nightwood by Djuna Barnes
Crazeby Margaret Vandenburg
An American in Paris by Margaret Vandenburg
Djuna: The Extraordinary Life of Djuna Barnes by Jon Macy
The Life and Work of Djuna Barnesby Phillip Herring
New YorkbyDjuna Barnes (collected journalism)
The Book of Repulsive Women and Other Poems by Djuna Barnes
Ladies Almanac by Djuna Barnes
“The Antiphon” by Djuna Barnes
Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 266 on Radclyffe Hall
Barnes’s 1922
For episodes and show notes, visit:
LostLadiesofLit.com
Subscribe to our substack newsletter.
Follow us on instagram @lostladiesoflit.
Email us: Contact — Lost Ladies of Lit Podcast
