Female Trouble: Dorothy Parker, Katherine Anne Porter, and Alcoholism

Abstract

"Female Trouble: Dorothy Parker, Katherine Anne Porter, and Alcoholism" brings together Dorothy Parker, Katherine Anne Porter and their fiction over a common problem: their alcoholism and the "female trouble" they encountered in a culture that asked them, as heterosexual women, to subordinate their bodies, desires, and career aspirations to their male partners. The women alcoholics---authors and characters---are scrutinized and punished as they transgress culturally determined roles and behaviors for women.