Feeling America Otherwise: Ground as an Earth That Quakes by Jessica Eileen Jones Department of Literature Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Walter Mignolo, Supervisor ___________________________ Florencia Garramuño ___________________________ Michael Hardt ___________________________ Wahneema Lubiano ___________________________ Richard Rosa Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Literature in the Graduate School of Duke University 2015 i v ABSTRACT Feeling America Otherwise: Ground as an Earth That Quakes by Jessica Eileen Jones Department of Literature Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Walter Mignolo, Supervisor ___________________________ Florencia Garramuño ___________________________ Michael Hardt ___________________________ Wahneema Lubiano ___________________________ Richard Rosa An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Literature in the Graduate School of Duke University 2015 i v Copyright by Jessica Eileen Jones 2015 Abstract The artists and writers of my dissertation -- Robert Smithson, Ed Roberson, Rodolfo Kusch, Alejandra Pizarnik, Nancy Holt, Lygia Clark, and Clarice Lispector -- teach us to feel the ground on which we stand as an earth that quakes, and this feeling implies a radical reconfiguration of our relation to the world, one which makes perception, language, art, and world otherwise. Against an aesthetics of representation, predicated on a regime of pleasurable feeling and form which neutralizes the world into an empty space filled with objects, and which I argue lingers as the hegemonic framework for the study of American literature, they offer an understanding art and literature as an embodied engagement with the weight of a world that presses in and pulls down. I call this feeling an aeisthesis of ground and offer it as a way to rethink the ethics of our relation to the world. From this trembling ground, these artists and writers struggle to make the world and our relation to it otherwise. In so doing, they contribute to the project of decolonizing the aesthetic imaginary of the Americas. They propose a different point of departure for the study of American literature, one which allows us to cultivate unlikely lines of kinship between authors and texts on both sides of the Rio Grande. Engaging the work of these authors and artists contributes to current work in the humanities which has turned to aesthetics as a way to rethink our human relation to the world in the face iv of our global ecological crisis. It, however, also radically departs from these efforts precisely in its point of departure, remaking this relation from the more unsteady ground of American art, letters, and life that these artists help us unfold. v For my parents vi Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... ix Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... x Introduction: Feeling America Otherwise: Ground as an Earth That Quakes ..................... 1 Floor: Aesthetics in the City as Patio of Objects ................................................................. 9 Ground: Feeling an Earth That Quakes ............................................................................. 30 Walking as Method .............................................................................................................. 39 Chapter One: What the Feet Can See: Walking Art out of the United States and Into America ........................................................................................................................................ 41 Walking as Method .............................................................................................................. 42 Study One: "A Tour of the Monuments of Passaic, New Jersey," or the Making of the Garden State .......................................................................................................................... 52 Study Two: "Fredrick Law Olmstead and the Dialectics of the Landscape," or Walking Central Park ........................................................................................................... 65 Study Three: "Incidents of Mirror-Travel in the Yucatan," or What the Feet Can See 71 Study Four: Walking out of the United States and Into America, or Walking the Spiral Jetty ............................................................................................................................. 86 Chapter Two: Unfolding Clarice Lispector, or Writing From the Ground ......................... 94 Os Fatos Antecedentes (The Preceding Facts): Nothing Comes from Nothing........... 95 Off the Wall and Into the World: Grounding Aesthetics ................................................ 98 The Worldly Weight of Making: The Consequences of Writing World From the Ground ................................................................................................................................. 118 vii Chapter Three: "So on This Ground / Write": The Worldly Weight of Words ................. 135 An Invocation ...................................................................................................................... 135 La Barra del Bar: The Sign From Above .......................................................................... 145 Leaving the Bar: The Sign From Below ........................................................................... 169 Coda: To See The Earth Before the End of the World .......................................................... 205 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 210 Biography ................................................................................................................................... 222 viii List of Figures Figure 1: Robert Smithson, Bridge Monument Showing Wooden Side-walks, 1967 ................ 55 Figure 2: Robert Smithson, The Fountain Monument: Side View, 1967. .................................. 57 Figure 3: Robert Smithson, A Nonsite: Franklin, New Jersey, Painted wooden bins, limestone; with Work on paper: gelatin-silver prints and typescript mounted on mat board, 1968 ................................................................................................................................... 64 Figure 4: Nancy Holt, Smithson Making Mirror Displacement in the Yucatan, 1969 ............. 72 Figure 5: Robert Smithson, Mirror Trail in Franklin Quarry, New Jersey, 1973 ..................... 73 Figure 6: Robert Smithson, Mirror Span in Great Notch Quarry, New Jersey, 1968 ............... 74 Figure 7: Robert Smithson, Fourth Yucatan Mirror Displacement, 1969. ................................ 76 Figure 8: Robert Smithson, Fifth Yucatan Mirror Displacement, 1969. ................................... 77 Figure 9: Gianfranco Gorgoni, Smithson at Spiral Jetty,1970. ................................................. 89 Figure 10: Lygia Clark, Descoberta da linha orgânica (Discovery of the Organic Line), Oil on canvas and wood, 1954. ...................................................................................................... 106 Figure 11: Lygia Clark, Série: Quebra da moldura (Series: Breaking the Frame), Maquette, 1954. ............................................................................................................................................ 107 Figure 12: Lygia Clark, Bicho ponta (Pointed Critter), Aluminum, 1960.............................. 108 Figure 13: Lygia Clark, Invertebrado (Invertebrate), Aluminum, 1960. ................................ 109 Figure 14: Lygia Clark, Caminhando (Walking), Scissors, tape and paper, 1963. ............... 118 Figure 15: Ed Roberson, "Formula for the Poem Dance," Etai-Eken, 1975. ........................ 171 Figure 16: Ed Roberson, "Kokopelli: hand-drawn illustration," 2010. ............................... 172 Figure 17: Ed Roberson, "there is a way you can draw," Etai-Eken, 1975. ......................... 191 ix Acknowledgements Nothing comes from nothing. This dissertation would not exist as it is - I would not exist as I am - if it weren’t for all of the amazing and beautiful people who I feel so lucky to have in my life. They have given me laughter and music and poetry and wisdom and have taught and continue to teach me much of what is in the pages that follow. Thank you to my parents, Joan Eileen Jones and George Patrick Jones. For telling me “this is the year of the hoodie!” For traveling to see me in a conference when all the other presentations were in a language you did not understand. For sending me care packages and Halloween cards that you both take time to sign, even though I am old. For having us grow up with the grandparents in our lives. For tears in your eyes when you meet my airplane. And for dinners and cooking and wine together. Thank you for life and unconditional love and heart, and for always keeping things always in perspective. This entire journey would not have