The Life and Work of Dorothy Parker

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the literary production and biography of the American writer Dorothy Parker. It includes excerpts from many of her best-known works, a stylistic analysis, as well as an examination of her conventions and importance to the body of 20th Century American literature.

From the Paper:

"Parker achieved initial popularity shortly after World War I with her light verse and short stories. Although her writing certainly does not seem acrimonious or unladylike to contemporary readers, it was most decidedly received as such by many critics during her heyday. Her cynical narratives and poesy advanced a kind of a general nationwide agitation, a focal point for social conventions that were coming under scrutiny and ridicule by the "lost generation" of which Parker was a part. The primary reason for this cacophonous reception was the fact that Parker unapologetically sought to expand a woman's equal rights to include sexual relationships; she held that if infidelity was included among these sexual "rights" for men, then women should be free to exercise the same prerogative."

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