The Lady Doc
As if to echo my thoughts on last week's panel in Cody, Victoria Lamont and I brought radically different perspectives to our respective talks Friday at the Western Literature Association conference in Boise. We each addressed Caroline Lockhart's 1912 novel "The Lady Doc" and we didn't overlap a tiny bit.
Victoria is an eminent literary scholar with a keen eye toward how novelists, especially women novelists, viewed the changing early-century society, as suffragists sought the vote and other women entered the workforce. She compared Lockhart's portrayal with other portrayals of female doctors, noting how novelists struggled to mesh the competent scientific professionalism of the occupation with the standard view of women as stay-at-home nurturers. (In the case of The Lady Doc, Lockhart suggests a woman who has given up all femininity -- and, in fact, much of what we admire in doctors -- in her quest for a buck.)
I am not an eminent literary scholar. I am more of a journalist. So I dug up some dirt. In my view, Lockhart's portrayal of The Lady Doc is tied up with her personal feelings toward the woman who clearly served as the model for her novel's character. There was a real lady doctor in Cody, Wyoming, in 1912, and in a later reissue of the novel Lockhart provided a key that erased any doubt as to where she got her material. My research into Lockhart's life has provided what I see as pretty powerful indications of how Lockhart got into the position of writing this book/slash/attack.
The perspectives were wildly different, but equally valid. What a magical thing is the creation of literature: involving societal forces, personal resentments, imagination and skill. I came away from our panel with a richer appreciation for not just this novel, but fiction in general.
I'm always interested in feedback, via info at johnclaytonbooks dot com
Victoria is an eminent literary scholar with a keen eye toward how novelists, especially women novelists, viewed the changing early-century society, as suffragists sought the vote and other women entered the workforce. She compared Lockhart's portrayal with other portrayals of female doctors, noting how novelists struggled to mesh the competent scientific professionalism of the occupation with the standard view of women as stay-at-home nurturers. (In the case of The Lady Doc, Lockhart suggests a woman who has given up all femininity -- and, in fact, much of what we admire in doctors -- in her quest for a buck.)
I am not an eminent literary scholar. I am more of a journalist. So I dug up some dirt. In my view, Lockhart's portrayal of The Lady Doc is tied up with her personal feelings toward the woman who clearly served as the model for her novel's character. There was a real lady doctor in Cody, Wyoming, in 1912, and in a later reissue of the novel Lockhart provided a key that erased any doubt as to where she got her material. My research into Lockhart's life has provided what I see as pretty powerful indications of how Lockhart got into the position of writing this book/slash/attack.
The perspectives were wildly different, but equally valid. What a magical thing is the creation of literature: involving societal forces, personal resentments, imagination and skill. I came away from our panel with a richer appreciation for not just this novel, but fiction in general.
I'm always interested in feedback, via info at johnclaytonbooks dot com
