A Re-Appropriation of Jerzy Kosinski's
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A RE-APPROPRIATION OF JERZY KOSINSKI’S MORAL UNIVERSE IN LIGHT OF EMMANUEL LEVINAS’ ETHICAL DEMAND FOR THE STRANGER by Charles Duane Carpenter APPROVED BY SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: __________________________________________ Dr. David Patterson, Chair __________________________________________ Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth __________________________________________ Dr. Nils Roemer __________________________________________ Dr. Peter Park Copyright 2017 Charles Duane Carpenter All Rights Reserved To my family’s undying support A RE-APPROPRIATION OF JERZY KOSINSKI’S MORAL UNIVERSE IN LIGHT OF EMMANUEL LEVINAS’ ETHICAL DEMAND FOR THE STRANGER by CHARLES DUANE CARPENTER, BA, MH, MA.TH DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of The University of Texas at Dallas in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN HUMANITIES THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS AUGUST 2017 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, I would like acknowledge Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth. You introduced me to the world of Holocaust literature, that is, its rich and infinite message. You guided me through a foreign, horrific environment, leading me like a Dantean figure through the horrors heaped upon horrors. But, unlike a Dantean figure, you gave me a language to engage the living, addressing the greatest pain of all, the pain of indifference. I want to thank Dr. David Patterson also for challenging my foundational assumptions and my forged sense of Self, displacing my cogito in order to transcend to Other. You introduced me to Emmanuel Levinas and taught me how to live in proximity the Other and understand more acutely Holocaust works. You even took your work a step further, teaching me by example how to translate the idea of proximity for the Other, for the many whom I’ve been called to serve. Thank you for treating me as a fellow scholar and friend, exemplifying the fact that in being oneself is always “to have one more responsibility,” which “opens up the horizons of social existence, making the whole surplus of our experience of friendship and love burst forth…” Additionally, I want to thank Dr. Nils Roemer who designed courses and conversations dealing with the lonely crowd, the voice of the individual, and, how, within the sprawling metropolis, the outsider voice is stifled, even to the point of silence. You taught me how this silence cannot continue in a free society. I want to offer a special thanks to Dr. Peter Park who assisted me in my pursuit of being a thoughtful, patient, and persistent writer. Each of your encouraging remarks I count as a constant strength. Your precision in helping me get this document to its current stage is a reminder of what kind of teacher I must aspire to be. v I also would like to thank the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary faculty and administration. Your financial support and academic environment has fueled my efforts in my pursuit of the PhD. Thank you for giving me the time and encouragement to successfully complete this daunting task. Last, and most importantly, I would like to thank Monica and our children. Monica, by your involvement in the lives of others, you embodied the link between the biblical command to show hospitality and elevating the Other. In our home, you have given me the space, time, energy and strength to accomplish this work. Thank you for not losing hope and persevering to the end. To our six children, thank you for allowing me to be distracted for a season and understanding the importance of dad’s work. June 2017 vi A RE-APPROPRIATION OF JERZY KOSINSKI’S MORAL UNIVERSE IN LIGHT OF EMMANUEL LEVINAS’ ETHICAL DEMAND FOR THE STRANGER Charles D. Carpenter, PhD The University of Texas at Dallas, 2017 Supervising Professor: Dr. David Patterson Jerzy Kosinski’s novel The Painted Bird has been described as a work built on the “unhallowed ground” of “evil” and “ruled” thematically “by cosmic terror.” Many argue that the work identifies the human condition as un-redeemably depraved; however, if one reads the orphan in The Painted Bird as a plum-line with ethical considerations, the aforementioned interpretation will be reconsidered. To this end, three questions are addressed in this dissertation: is there an ethical question related to the stranger; how does the orphan exist; and in what way does The Painted Bird address ethical witnessing? Put succinctly: is there a way to read The Painted Bird with a view toward ethics? I will address these question considering The Painted Bird (and other of Kosinski’s works) using Levinasian themes. Even though The Painted Bird has been treated under the auspice of Freudian, Heideggerian and Nietzschean critiques, these ways of reading fail to notice the ethical demand of non- indifference. This dissertation considers Hatley, Ozsváth, and Patterson’s descriptions of Holocaust literature as essentially philosophical and ethical, the “universally necessary commandment that transcends all plots,” the commandment to hear and respond to the voice of vii the other. David Patterson describes the essential element of the Holocaust novel as the redemption of the self, “resurrected through responsibility couched in an absolute non- indifference.” Thus, the purpose of this dissertation is to reconsider The Painted Bird ethically, using Emmanuel Levinas’ ethical themes of non-indifference, proximity, infinity, the face and freedom. Even though The Painted Bird is the primary feature for this dissertation, Kosinski’s other works are considered, especially characters like Chance (in Being There) and Oscar (in Blind Date), showing them to be the suffering characters like the unnamed orphan in The Painted Bird. Other Holocaust works will be considered also using Levinasian themes in order to show how Holocaust genre is unique. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements.…….……….………………………………………………………………...v Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………......vii Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………..1 Chapter 1: The Ethical Question of the Stranger in Holocaust Literature……………………….20 Critical Engagement and Bypassing Trends..………………………………..…………...22 Where Does Holocaust Literature Point and How?...........................................................26 Genre Characteristics and Holocaust Literature……………..…..……..….………….....40 Philosophical and Religious Approaches to Holocaust and its Limits………..………....48 Proximity as an Important Feature to Appropriate Holocaust Criticism………………...58 Holocaust Literature and Sacred Literature?.....................................................................69 Questions for The Painted Bird...………………………………………………………..76 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….…………79 Chapter 2: Kosinski, Judaism as an Ethical Foundation……………………………...………….83 Biographical Sketch…………………………………………...……….….…....………..85 Foundation for Kosinski’s Jewish References.………………………….….…….….…..88 Kosinski and His Ethical Responsibility in Story-telling……………….....…………….99 Biblical References and Hospitality: Foundation for Reading The Painted Bird………109 The Orphan as the Levinasian Stranger………………………………………..….……116 Chapter 3: The Painted Bird: A Whispering Ethic in an Unethical World….….….……..……126 The Phenomenological Foundation to Reading Jerzy Kosinski……….……….……....131 Chapter 4: An Incomplete Hermeneutic and Reading Kosinski Ethically…….….......……..…142 ix Erotic scenes as Phenomenological……………………………………………..……...163 Kosinski’s Grounding and Ethical Storytelling……………………….……………......171 Widening Perspective and Kosinski’s Ethics………………………..…..………...…...177 Chapter 5: Foundation for Kosinski’s Moral Universe………….……...………..…….….……185 Escape as Physically and Humanly Harmful…………………..…..….……….………188 Escape as Moral?.............................................................................................................196 Connection to Holocaust Literature…………………………………….....……….…...214 Chapter 6: Phenomenology: Kosinski, Levinas and Holocaust Literature………......…….…...218 Ethical Consideration of Kosinski’s work in light of his Journey Vignettes..………….231 Characters and Characteristics: Garbos and the Orphan in The Painted Bird.................253 Chapter 7: Moral Universe: Kosinski and the Responsibility for the Other ….……………......264 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………....273 Biographical Sketch………………….…………………………………….…….…….……….285 Curriculum Vitae…………………………..…….………………….…….……………………286 x INTRODUCTION Jerzy Kosinski’s novel The Painted Bird has been described as a work built on the “unhallowed ground” of “evil” and “ruled” thematically “by cosmic terror.”1 Many argue that the work identifies the human condition as un-redeemably depraved;2 however, if one reads the orphan in The Painted Bird as a plum-line with ethical considerations the aforementioned interpretation should be reconsidered. To reconsider the aforementioned interpretation (which is pervasive) three questions need to be addressed: is there an ethical question related to the stranger; does the stranger exist as a passive, valueless victim or as an ethical question that demands a responsible answer; and in what way does this work constitute ethical witnessing ?3 Put succinctly: is there a way to read The Painted Bird with ethical considerations? If so, how might this be done; what hermeneutical guise offers a legitimate way to read the work with a view towards an ethic? Both James Hatley and Zsuzsanna Ozsváth understand Holocaust literature as fundamentally philosophical, demanding an ethic that transcends all plots.4 If this is the case a philosophical 1 Lawrence Langer, The Holocaust and the Literary Imagination