ALLEGORIES OF THE POSTMODERN: THE WORK OF WILFRED WATSON AND R. 11JRRAY SCHAFER by STEFAN HAAG M.A., The University of British Columbia, 1989 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Department of English) We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE August 1995 Stefan Haag, 1995 _______________________________ In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. (Signature) Department of 1&. The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada Date LJLr DE-6 (2/88) 11 Abstract The characteristic doubling of postmodern works of art is best seen in terms of an allegorical gesture that melancholics undertake in order to create life in an entity they consider dead and meaningless. Walter Benjamin has theorized the allegorical gesture and provides a basis for extending his un derstanding of modern allegory to the postmodern. The postinodern can be seen as a continuum that at its two extremes veers towards a deconstructive and a reconstructive impulse, respectively. While the former decentres meaning and authority, the latter reconstructs the two on the basis of an arbitrary al legorical construct that relies itself on audience belief which is generated in participatory rituals. Watson and Schafer exemplify the interdependencies of these two postrnodern impulses and their emblematical qualities. Further more, they illustrate how melancholics view the world, how they imbue their works with a political agenda, and how they try to indoctrinate their audiences. Ultimately, the allegorical construct is as ideological as what it brutally replaces. An outward sign of the violence that is at the root of the allegorical gesture can be seen in the many acts of violence in Watson and Schafer. Watson’s project ends in ambiguity because he ironically subverts his own authority so that the audience is left mocking the allegorical “mes sage.” Schafer, on the other hand, represses the challenge that this violence poses to his allegorical construct. Although he does not realize it, his work remains caught in ideology. Reconstructive postmodernisrn, as far as it depends on the author(ity) of allegory, is thus built on a validating act of the audience, which is a leap of faith rooted in ideology. 11] Table of Contents Abstract 11 Table of Contents 111 List of Figures V Acknowledgement Vi Dedication Vii Chapter 1 Prelude: The Argument and Biographical Sketches 1 Wilfred Watson R. Murray Schafer Stefan Haag Chapter 2 Visions of Beginning 29 Decolonizing the North: Obscuring the Program: Schafer’s Music in the Cold Watson’s “Sermon on Bears” Chapter 3 Foundations: The Postmodern Continuum and the Allegorical Gesture . 55 Contents Allegories of the Postinodern iv Chapter 4 The Work of Wilfred Watson: Last Judgements 90 Meaningful Reversals 122 Postmodern Multi-Consciousnesses 142 Chapter 5 The Work of R. Murray Schafer: Postmodern McLuhanesque Utopianism 168 From the Stage to a Wilderness Lake and Back Again: Murray Schafer’s Patria Cycle 171 The Village Fair as a Site for the Construction of Gender 190 Chapter 6 Left in a Maze 234 Labyrinths of Allegories: Allegories of Riddling: Schafer’s Labyrintheatre Watson’s Riddles Chapter 7 Coda: Reverberations 272 Bibliography 286 Appendix Descriptions of R. Murray Schafer’s Patria Cycle . 322 V List of Figures Fig. 1: Richard Rosenblum’s Manscape 74 Fig. 2: Schafer’s “Boustrophedon” (Ariadne 17) .... 239 Fig. 3: A fragmented delineation of Ariadne’s name (Ariadne 42-43) 241 Fig. 4 & 5: Labyrinths from Dicamus 246 & 247 Fig. 6: Overlaying of texts in Dicamus 248 Fig. 7 & 8: Crossed-out passages in Dicamus 249 & 250 Fig. 9: Four icons from Watson’s riddles 260 Fig. 10: Cryptographic private thoughts from Ariadne 262 Fig. 11: The Princess of the Stars on Two Jack Lake 281 vi Acknowledgement My greatest thanks go to my supervisor, Sherrill Grace, whose com ments on my drafts were always prompt, to the point and insightful. More over, her genuine interest in my project and her generosity and kindness were the encouragement I needed to persevere. I also would like to thank my dissertation committee, Richard Cavell, Peter Löffler, and Peter Quartermain, for numerous discussions and for their helpful comments on previous drafts. Shirley Neuman and the librar ians in Special Collections at the University of Alberta Library in Edmon ton permitted me to do research in the Wilfred Watson Papers as well as to quote from them. I also owe thanks to Wilfred and Sheila Watson, Murray Schafer, Diane Bessai, Thomas Peacocke, and Elizabeth Beauchamp, for time spent talking to me but also for valuable copies of books, scores, and typescripts. I am grateful to Scott Taylor for many anecdotes about the Watsons and McLuhan as well as for his hospitality during a research trip to Edmonton. Courteously, R. Murray Schafer and Shirley Neuman (for NeWest Press) have given me permission to reproduce material from books for which they hold copyright. Finally, I have been fortunate enough to have the wholehearted sup port of my parents and of my wife Hélène. To Hélène I am also grateful for reading drafts and offering suggestions but mostly for the ongoing dia logue. In recognition of their contribution, I happily dedicate my dis sertation to my parents and to Hélène. x C CD’ CD. .CD CD’ CD CD CD < CD r CD ‘1 -t CD ri (‘2 CD 1 Chapter 1 Prelude The Argument This dissertation is not about two authors but about al— legories of the postmodern or, more precisely, about what I understand to be a continuum of the postmodern that veers at its one extreme toward a deconstructive impulse and at its other toward a reconstructive impulse. I use the authors mere ly as case studies that shed light upon discontinuous, post- modern attempts to confront contemporary crises of loss and desacralizat ion. Bringing together two authors who depict two discontinuous moments in a discontinuous postmodernity means (to a certain extent at least) accepting discontinuity as an organizing prin ciple for this enquiry. This dissertation, then, does not aim at a tight unity because the result would be a sense of closure that impugns the discontinuity of the postmodern. Still, formal affinities do exist between the authors. While not strong enough to provide a centre to the disserta tion, they are strong enough to justify gathering the authors in one place to be analyzed with regard to their relations to postmodernism in general and postmodern allegory in particular. Such formal affinities are their exclusion from Canadian canons of theatre and poetry, their use of performative media, and, Prelude Allegories of the Postinodern 2 most importantly, their use of allegory as their primary method of composition. Even though at times I seem to compare the authors--an im pression, imagined or real, that cannot be avoided in a study that of necessity must organize its material in a way that usually indicates comparison--it is not the primary objective of this dissertation to do so. As well, this dissertation is not a study of influence. The authors in question, to my knowledge, have not influenced each other, and I do not try to trace any mutual influences on them. This dissertation, furthermore, is neither an analysis of the authors’ entire work nor an exhaustive literary scrutiny of selected works from a variety of angles. Rather it is a study of selected works under specific criteria that I consider rele vant to the postmodern. Hence it is a study in the history of ideas. Finally, when considering Murray Schafer’s international reputation as composer, readers may find it strange that I ex clude his music. Nevertheless, I do so quite deliberately. It is my contention that his Patria cycle is primarily a multi media accomplishment (not primarily a musical accomplishment) that deserves attention from many disciplines because it com ments on our cultural condition in the late twentieth century. These comments, I think, are more easily accessible through a study that is situated somewhere between literature and theatre criticism than in musical criticism because the latter has to Prelude Allegories of the Postmodern 3 find a way of relating its semiotics to culture at large. This (necessary but difficult) harmonization of semiotic codes seems too much of a detour for a dissertation that in any case is neither focussed on Schafer’s work alone, nor on Schafer as one of two authors, but on allegories of the postmodern. 1 The schism between music and culture is a result of the fact that music is a non-conceptual semiotic system. (As Leonard Bernstein has shown in his Charles Eliot Norton lec tures with regard to Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, the status of “program” music collapses under close scrutiny so that only “absolute” music remains [ch. 21.) On the one hand, this semi otic condition of music serves as an advantage and accounts for the special philosophical status of music in the work of many aestheticians (such as Eduard Hanslick, who argued against Schopenhauer and Wagner by maintaining an “absolute” status for music), but, on the other, it also causes a deep-rooted in compatibility with other disciplines of enquiry. 4 Biographical Sketches Wilfred Watson was R.