Fugitive truth and fragmentary consciousness: Mina Loy’s allegorical method in The Child and the Parent
Karla Kelsey
Feminist Modernist Studies May 4, 2026 DOI: 10.1080/24692921.2026.2688053 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that Mina Loy's The Child and the Parent uses allegorical structure as a philosophical method for critiquing gender and class within patriarchal culture. Reading Loy through Walter Benjamin's theory of allegory, the author contends that applying allegory to embodied experience yields "fugitive truth"—momentary illuminations of reality obscured by dominant discourse—and that Loy's method transforms personal memory into philosophical revelation. |
Abstract
ABSTRACT This essay examines how Mina Loy’s The Child and the Parent employs allegorical structure as a philosophical method for critiquing gender and class formations within patriarchal culture. Reading Loy’s autobiographical prose alongside Walter Benjamin’s theory of allegory, I argue that her innovative application of allegory to embodied experience generates fugitive truth: momentary illuminations of reality otherwise obscured by dominant discourse. Rather than mining Loy’s work for biographical content, this analysis demonstrates how her allegorical method transforms personal memory into philosophical revelation, illuminating the mechanisms through which subjects are constructed within the intersecting spaces of body, environment, thought, and material objects.