NORMATIVE DISRUPTIONS: the DIEGETIC READING of ANACHRONISM in TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN NOVELS a Dissertation

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NORMATIVE DISRUPTIONS: the DIEGETIC READING of ANACHRONISM in TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN NOVELS a Dissertation NORMATIVE DISRUPTIONS: THE DIEGETIC READING OF ANACHRONISM IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN NOVELS ________________ A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Department of English University of Houston ________________ In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy ________________ By Jeffrey R. Villines May, 2018 NORMATIVE DISRUPTIONS: THE DIEGETIC READING OF ANACHRONISM IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN NOVELS _______________ An Abstract of a Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Department of English University of Houston _______________ In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy _______________ By Jeffrey R. Villines May, 2018 Villines iv ABSTRACT Much of the discourse on literary anachronism remains fixated on questions of error and intent: Anachronisms are assumed to be flawed attempts to recreate the historic real, and scholars who deal with them tend to insist an anachronism can only be meaningful if it was placed intentionally by an author for a specific purpose. This is not only a reductive understanding of what anachronisms are, it limits the range of critical and theoretical approaches by which an anachronism can be discussed. This dissertation addresses this problem by asserting a new way of approaching anachronism that bypasses the question of authorial intent entirely. This dissertation contends that anachronisms should be read, not as errors in history, but as wholly accurate depictions of a different history which, instead of being subordinated to the historic real, can be compared to it as a distinct reality. The first chapter demonstrates the process of reading an anachronism diegetically by applying it to William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! Subsequent chapters complicate the same process by exploring anachronisms that deviate from our understanding of anachronism in key ways. Chapter Two uses Kurt Vonnegut’s Timequake to examine the potentials for an anachronism that does not depend on historicism to reveal its divergence. In Chapter Three, anachronistic racial attitudes in Harry Turtledove’s The Guns of the South allow us to consider how the discussion of anachronism is complicated by an absence of agreed-upon historic facts. Finally, Chapter Four reads Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind as the narrative of an attempt to construct an anachronism, and consequently analyzes the effects of an anachronism that is attempted by the characters, within the diegesis of a work. This dissertation represents the beginning of a larger project, considering new articulations and applications of a misunderstood temporal paradox. Villines v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank W. Lawrence Hogue, who worked with me so patiently across all my years at the University of Houston. His diligent (sometimes merciless) questioning really put me through my paces and helped me be certain of my scholarship and preparation. My understanding of Barthes and Bakhtin, as well as of Postmodern literature, owes much to his instruction, and I do not think my critical history of anachronism would be near so complete without the variety of critical approaches I studied in his class. Maria Gonzalez, though I never had her in class, has been a guiding presence throughout my career at UH. Time after time, she has stepped in to help me with my pedagogy, professionalism, and scholarship. She selflessly stepped into my prospectus committee at the last minute, and even more selflessly agreed to take on the role of my dissertation director in this last semester. Though most of the research for this dissertation was performed under the guidance of Professor Hogue, most of the pages were written under Professor Gonzalez. She really helped keep me on track when things looked bleak, and convinced me that finishing was possible. Without my committee—Lorraine Stock, James Zebroski, Cedric Tolliver, and Steven Deyle—there would be no completed dissertation. They are more, though, than signatures on the page. They have each let me voice my ideas about time and anachronism around the halls of UH, and have recommended views or scholars that I should consider in my work. Of course, I mustn’t neglect Karen Fang, who served on the committee for my prospectus (which was partially cinema-focused) but not on the committee for my dissertation (in which film is almost completely absent). There was half a sentence in my prospectus in which I took it for granted that anachronisms are never errors, but wholly accurate depictions Villines vi of a different reality. Although my committee unanimously advised me to narrow my focus as I moved forward to the dissertation, it was Professor Fang who called particular attention to this half-sentence… which proved to be the genesis of this entire dissertation. Special thanks to my colleagues in the International Association of the Fantastic in the Arts, but most especially to Andrew Ferguson, who guided me through my first conferences and pointed me to my first temporal theorists, and to Arthur Evans, editor of Science Fiction Studies whose own work on anachronism confirms the relative silence on the subject. Thank you as well to my fellow Ouachita alumni, Benjamin Utter and Brandon O’Brien, who were helpful with the theology in Chapter Two. Thank you to my mother-in-law, Mary Partin, who for the past five years has generously shared her home, her car, and her coffee. But most importantly, thank you to my wife of nearly ten years, Alli. She has been my most persistent sounding-board, therapist, and proofreader. She kept me from hiding in the bushes of jargon, and constantly encouraged me to pursue the more exciting parts of my research. She has seen to it that I am more than my bibliographies, and more than my CV. She gave me my accordion so I didn’t go crazy for lack of an outlet in these past few months. There is much she has done for which I am both thankful and impressed. Particularly since, in nearly a decade of marriage and seven years of graduate study, not once has she ever murdered me. Villines vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................................ V INTRODUCTION: ON ANACHRO-DIEGETIC READING .................................................................. 1 A DEFINITION OF ANACHRONISM ................................................................................................................ 2 “The effect of a paradoxical tension…” ................................................................................................ 2 “…between an artifact…” ..................................................................................................................... 5 “…and the setting which contains it…” ................................................................................................ 6 “…despite the temporal impossibility or unlikeliness for that containment” ........................................ 6 Notes on Direction and Kind ................................................................................................................. 7 Departure from Previous Definitions .................................................................................................. 14 PREVIOUS SCHOLARSHIP AND CONCEPTIONS OF ANACHRONISM .............................................................. 19 The Specter of Intent ............................................................................................................................ 19 Why Assumptions Have Gone Unquestioned ....................................................................................... 26 ANACHRO-DIEGETIC READING: A METHODOLOGY................................................................................... 29 THE ARRANGEMENT OF THIS DISSERTATION ............................................................................................ 31 CHAPTER ONE: DEMONSTRATING ANACHRO-DIEGITIC READING WITH WILLIAM FAULKNER’S ABSALOM, ABSALOM! .................................................................................... 36 DESIGNING SUTPENS ................................................................................................................................. 37 FOUR VIEWS ON AN ANACHRONISM .......................................................................................................... 41 INCIDENT, RECKONING, AND FORTIFICATION (A FIFTH VIEW) .................................................................. 49 In the Historic Real .............................................................................................................................. 49 In the Diegesis ..................................................................................................................................... 52 CHAPTER TWO: ANACHRONISM WITHOUT HISTORY IN KURT VONNEGUT’S TIMEQUAKE ................................................................................................................................. 65 THE TROPIC RECURRENCE OF AWARENESS, PARADOX, AND AWARENESS PARADOXES ........................... 66 VONNEGUT’S MOST POSTMODERN NOVEL ............................................................................................... 72 Villines viii Summary of a Non-Existent Novel ....................................................................................................... 75 Clean, Concentric Circles: The Purported Structure .........................................................................
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