Turncoats, Traitors, and Fellow Travelers: Culture and Politics of the Early Cold War

197 Pages·2008·0.85 MB·English

by  Arthur Redding

TURNCOATS, TRAITORS, AND FELLOW TRAVELERS

TURNCOATS, TRAITORS,
AND
FELLOW TRAVELERS
Culture and Politics of the Early Cold War
Arthur Redding
UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI
Jackson
www.upress.state.ms.us
The University Press of Mississippi is a member of the Association of
American University Presses.
Copyright © 2008 by University Press of Mississippi
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
First printing 2008
∞
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Redding, Arthur F., 1964–
Turncoats, traitors, and fellow travelers : culture and politics of the
early Cold War / Arthur Redding.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60473-005-0 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. American
literature—20th century—History and criticism. 2. Cold War in
literature. 3. Politics in literature. 4. Politics and literature—United
States—History—20th century. 5. Cold War in motion pictures.
6. Politics in motion pictures. I. Title.
PS228.C58R43 2008
810.9’3582825—dc22
2007045717
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
This book is lovingly dedicated to Natasha Barykina, fellow traveler

CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
CHAPTER ONE.
CULTURAL FRONTS 3
CHAPTER TWO.
CLOSET, COUP, AND COLD WAR
F. O. Matthiessen’s From the Heart of Europe 37
CHAPTER THREE.
WHAT’S BLACK AND WHITE AND RED ALL OVER?
The Cold War and the Geopolitics of Race 57
CHAPTER FOUR.
WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A MAN
Masculinity, Deviance, and Sexuality 79
CHAPTER FIVE.
THE DREADED VOYAGE INTO THE WORLD
Nomadic Ethics 98
CHAPTER SIX.
FRONTIER MYTHOGRAPHIES
Savagery and Civilization in John Ford 133
NOTES 153
WORKS CITED 167
INDEX 177

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work would not have been possible without the immense support and assis-
tance of a host of friends and allies. Seetha Srinivasan, director the University
Press of Mississippi (UPM), initially encouraged me to lasso my ideas into book
form. She has provided keen oversight and great encouragement throughout the
writing of this work, as have others among the superb staff at University Press
of Mississippi, including Walter Biggins and Anne Stascavage. Thanks as well to
copyeditor Robert Burchfi eld. I thank James Smethurst and Bill Mullen, initial
readers of the manuscript, for their generous receptiveness to these ideas and for
the critical acumen of their responses to my writing, as well as for the inspiring
example of their own formidable scholarship in the fi eld.
I am truly indebted to my colleagues at York University, Oklahoma State
University, and the University of Silesia. I would like to thank Ross Arthur
in particular for his generous managerial assistance and Lauren Dodd for her
speedy and capable proofreading.
William Decker and Elizabeth Grubgeld have proven for many years now to be
the most loyal of friends and the most trusted of readers. Others who have offered
insight, criticism, and support include Jon Beasley-Murray, Vermonja Alston,
Tatiani Rapatzikou, Marcus Boon, Leslie Sanders, Lesley Higgins, Jason Sperb,
Amanpreet Dhami, Tom Kerr, Eileen Schell, Simona Fojtová, Joan Redding,
Douglas Shields Dix (whose Deleuzean readings of Paul Bowles and Jane Bowles
have helped to inspire this work), Don Sparling, the late Karla Smith and the entire
Smith family, Mischelle Booher, Thadeusz Rachwal, Agnieszka Pantuchowicz, Cary
Nelson, Jonathan Arac, Ed Walkiewicz, Christine Bold, and Paul Bové.
My warmest regards, of course, go out to my students in Canada, the United
States, and in central and eastern Europe. Many of the ideas herein were hashed
out in collaboration with York University graduate students in two seminars on
the Cold War and U.S. literature. I am deeply grateful to have had the oppor-
tunity to work with so dazzling a group of students, and I am everywhere
indebted to their striking responses to the materials. I would like to give special
thanks John Dale for his inspired readings of Patricia Highsmith’s work.
ix