Typescript and notes for The Avante-garde Woman

ca.1957

Minda Lothar, author of RAGE OF JOY: THE DIVINE SARAH BERNHARDT (1968), a novel based on the life of actress Sarah Bernhardt, also wrote a paper analyzing what she termed the Avante-garde Woman personality type, primarily drawing upon women associated with the theater as her models for discussion. The typescript and notes for Minda Lothar's The Avante-garde Woman consist of 12 folders, each containing one section of the work. Textual evidence suggests that Lothar wrote this paper in 1957, but it appears never to have been published. The first chapter features analysis of the Avant-garde type as represented by fictional women, such as Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary, Henrik Ibsen's Nora Helmer and Hedda Gabler, Arthur Wing Pinero's Paula Tanqueray, and Tennessee Williams' Blanche Du Bois. In the second chapter, Lothar discusses real life actresses such as Sarah Bernhardt, Eleanora Duse, Gertrude Lawrence, and Tallulah Bankhead, as well as the French novelist George Sand. In the third and final chapter, Lothar examines the different ways these women dealt with the challenges each faced in their lives. Also included is an outline for the paper.