Lucia Berlin: A Critical Biography

Abstract

My thesis is the first work of extended academic scholarship on the American short story writer Lucia Berlin (1936–2004). It is also her first biography. Although she was not well known during her lifetime, Berlin became an unexpected bestseller in 2015, with the publication of A Manual for Cleaning Women. The thesis charts the evolution of Berlin’s style, tracing her wide-ranging influences, analysing her textual and formal innovations, and investigating her impact on the later American short story. Throughout, I take the approach of ‘critical biography’: that is, I tell the story of Berlin’s life but am also concerned with situating her in her literary historical context and offering close analyses of key works. The introduction introduces Berlin and her reputation, surveying existing critical writing on her fiction. Six chapters then follow, each dealing with a distinctive period in Berlin’s life. Chapter One (1949–1957) tells the story of her adolescence and explores early influences, including Don Quijote, the Chilean ‘Generación del Cincuenta’, and the novels of Ramón J. Sender. I also examine Berlin’s earliest works, including a poem and two unpublished short stories. The next four chapters alternate and interweave critical biography with textual analysis. Chapter Two (1958–1961) situates Berlin within her first literary network, the ‘Black Mountain’ poets. I describe the tension she felt between her nascent countercultural identity and the mainstream publishing world which she was attempting to break into. Chapter Three dissects Berlin’s correspondence over this period, demonstrating that in her letters, she experimented with the stylistic and formal techniques that later formed her short fiction. Chapter Four (1971–1991) focuses on Berlin’s ‘California years’, during which she built a network of literary friends in the Bay Area, including book artists, editors and publishers. Chapter Five looks at this era in more detail, analysing not only Berlin’s prose, but also her books as collaborative artworks. Chapter Six (1994–2004) focuses on Berlin’s final decade, during which she became an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Colorado at Boulder. I examine her unpublished essays about pedagogy and the creative life, produced as part of her applications for tenure, and use this to explore a new phase in her writing style. Finally, a brief Conclusion explores the afterlife of Berlin’s work, and interrogates how she has been read, marketed, categorised, and perhaps miscategorised — for instance, as a ‘dirty realist’ or as a writer of autofiction.