Information to Users

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Information to Users INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter free, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zed) Road, Ann Arbor NO 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 A MAZING OF THE TEXT: THE SEARCH FOR SIGNIFICATION IN THE LABYRINTH OF FRENCH POETICS DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Margaret M. Bolovan, B.A., M.A. The Ohio State University 1997 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Charles D. Minahen, Advisor Professor Karlis Racevskis Advisor Professor Charles G. S. Williams Department of French and Italian UMI Number: 9721075 Copyright 1997 by Boloveui, Margaret Mary All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9721075 Copyright 1997, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Copyri^t By Margaret M. Bolovan 1997 ABSTRACT The labyrinth has enormous potential as a mythic symbol, potential which has been exploited by numerous writers over the centuries. In French poetics, the labyrinth has been used to signify many, often contradictory, concepts at once: the human condition, the poetic text, a prison, a tomb, an entrance to the underworld, a search for the ineffable, an initiation, or the renewal of life. The term is constantly being rearticulated to express new meanings. Given the wide range of significations associated with the labyrinth, there is great diversity in the way labyrinthine themes are manifest in various poetic texts. The circuitous nature of poetic discourse, including the reflective capacity of metaphor and the pluri-dimensional quality of mythic signification, is discussed in the introduction. In the ensuing chapters, this understanding of language is then applied to specific texts by Joachim Du Bellay, Théophile de Viau, Saint-Amant, Thomas Corneille, Jean Racine, Stéphane Mallarmé, and Marguerite Yourcenar. Poetry which employs images and structures of the labyrinth simultaneously tends to involve the poet’s contemplative wanderings, or deeper descents into self in a search for meaning. The labyrinth invariably involves a quest for truth, self-knowledge, or love, and an internal journey is generally inherent in the labyrinthine text. Such a quest can range from Saint-Amant’s spiritual wanderings to Phèdre’s descent into the labyrinth of self in Yourcenaris Feux. At the same time, as a mythic symbol, the labyrinth extends outside of any Individual work, and Intertextual analysis becomes an essential component of the search for signification. This search Is never easy, given the multifaceted nature of the labyrinth. This dissertation seeks to unravel the labyrinthine threads left In the “mille longs détours” of poetic discourse, primarily certain French poetic texts of the sixteenth to the twentieth century. Several of these texts contain explicit references to the labyrinth; others reveal mere traces of the Cretan myth but are structurally and/or symbolically labyrinthine In their own respect. The seminal threads uniting all these poetic endeavors resides both In the reconceptualizations of the labyrinth and In the labyrinthine search for signification which the writer and the reader undertake In approaching the text. Ill ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I express sincere appreciation to Professor Karlis Racevskis and Professor Charles G. S. Williams for their insights into the revisions of this dissertation. Special thanks are due to Professor Charles D. Minahen for his close and critical readings of the text. I would also like to acknowledge my mother Bridgette McHale Bolovan and my father Dr. Daniel T. Bolovan whose encouragement has seen me through all these years of education. Most especially, I would like to thank Ernie Bond whose support and inspiration have guided me in the successful completion of the dissertation. IV VITA December 22, 1965 ...........................................................Bom-Toledo, Ohio Spring 1988.........................................................................Edward Han/ey Prize for Excellence in French Literature, Kenyon College Gambler, Ohio June 20, 1988.................................................................... Baccalaureate Speaker Kenyon College 1988...................................................................................... B.A., cum laude, French Literature Kenyon College 1988-1990............................................................................Graduate Teaching Associate Graduate Research Associate, French Department of French and Italian The Ohio State University (CSU) 1990.......................................................................................M.A., French, CSU 1990-199 1............................................................................English Teaching Assistant Lycée Champolllon, Grenoble, France Summer 1991..................................................................... French Instructor, Upward Bound, Mercer University, Macon, Georgia 1991-199 6............................................................................Graduate Teaching and Research Associate, French, CSU 1992-199 3............................................................................Graduate Student Representative, Graduate Studies Committee, Department of French and Italian, CSU 1992-1996............................................................................Graduate French Proficiency Examination Coordinator, CSU 1996-1997............................................................................Lecturer, French, CSU FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: French and Italian Studies In: Dutch - Professor Harry Vredeveld Romanian - Professor Rodica Botoman TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract. ........................................................................................................ ii Acknowledgements ..................................................................................... iv Vita ................................................................................................................. V List of Figures................................................................................................ vii List of Abbreviations ...................................................................................... viii Introduction: Enter the Labyrinth............................................................ 1 Chapter 1 : Longing for the Ineffable: The Icarian Flight In Du Bellay’s L’Olive........................ 30 Chapter 2: The Contemplative Wanderings of Théophile de Vlau and Salnt-Amant .............................. 76 Chapter 3: Guidance and Error In Affairs of Love: Ariane, Bajazet, and the Knotted Thread ...................... 112 Chapter 4: Absence and Poetic Creation: Reflguring the Labyrinth In Mallarmé’s Mythe Moderne........................................... 141 Chapter 5: Deviations of the Heart in the Labyrinth of the World In Marguerite Yourcenaris Feux. .......................................174 Conclusion .................................................................................... 198 Appendix: Figures ..........................................................................................203 Bibliography ..........................................................................................208 VI Illustrations Figure 1 Labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral ...............................................203 Figure 2 Multicursal labyrinth ...................................................................204 Figure 3 Barthes’ diagram of signification in language and myth 204 Figure 4 Pinwheel labyrinth at Chantilly Gardens ................................. 205 Figure 5 Sef/rof emanating from the first sefirah ....................................206 Figure 6 Charting of the ten sefirot.......................................................... 207 VII Abbreviations BEL: Maurice Blanchot, L ’Espace littéraire. BM: Samuel Borton, Six Modes o f Sensibility. BR: Roland Barthes, Sur Racine. CEA: Jean-Claude Carron, Discours de l'errance amoureuse. Cl: Stéphane Mallarmé, Correspondance i. CM Robert Greer Cohn, Maiiarmé: igitur. CR Robert T. Corum
Recommended publications
  • The Crimson Hexagon. Books Borges Never Wrote
    Allen Ruch The Crimson Hexagon Books Borges Never Wrote “The composition of vast books is a laborious and impoverish- ing extravagance. To go on for five hundred pages developing an idea whose perfect oral exposition is possible in a few min- utes! A better course of procedure is to pretend that these books already exist, and then to offer a resume, a commen- tary… More reasonable, more inept, more indolent, I have preferred to write notes upon imaginary books.” (Jorge Luis Borges). he fiction of Borges is filled with references to encyclopedias that do not exist, reviews of imaginary books by fictional au- T thors, and citations from monographs that have as much real existence as does the Necronomicon or the Books of Bokonon. As an intellectual exercise of pure whimsical uselessness, I have cata- logued here all these “imaginary” books that I could find in the stories of the “real” Argentine. I am sure that Borges himself would fail to see much of a difference… Note: In order to flesh out some of the details, I have elaborated a bit - although much of the detail on these books is really from Borges. I have added some dates, some information on contents, and a few general descriptions of the book’s binding and cover; I would be more than happy to accept other submissions and ideas on how to flesh this out. Do you have an idea I could use? The books are arranged alphabetically by author. Variaciones Borges 1/1996 122 Allen Ruch A First Encyclopaedia of Tlön (1824-1914) The 40 volumes of this work are rare to the point of being semi- mythical.
    [Show full text]
  • A Collection of Ekphrastic Poems
    Utah State University DigitalCommons@USU Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects Honors Program 5-2010 Manuscripts, Illuminated: A Collection of Ekphrastic Poems Jacqueline Vienna Goates Utah State University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/honors Part of the Creative Writing Commons Recommended Citation Goates, Jacqueline Vienna, "Manuscripts, Illuminated: A Collection of Ekphrastic Poems" (2010). Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects. 50. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/honors/50 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Honors Program at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Manuscripts, Illuminated: A Collection of Ekphrastic Poems by Jacquelyn Vienna Goates Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of HONORS IN UNIVERSITY STUDIES WITH DEPARTMENTAL HONORS in English in the Department of Creative Writing Approved: Thesis/Project Advisor Departmental Honors Advisor Dr. Anne Shifrer Dr. Joyce Kinkead Director of Honors Program Dr. Christie Fox UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY Logan, UT Spring 2010 Abstract This thesis is a unique integration of creative writing and research of a specific literary tradition. As a student of art history and literature, and a creative writer, I am interested in fusing my interests by writing about art and studying the relationships between text and image. I have written a collection of ekphrastic poems, poems which are based on works of art. After reading extensively in this genre of poetry and researching its origins and evolution throughout literary history, I have come to a greater appreciation for those who write ekphrasis and what it can accomplish in the craft of writing.
    [Show full text]
  • Don Quixote and Legacy of a Caricaturist/Artistic Discourse
    Don Quixote and the Legacy of a Caricaturist I Artistic Discourse Rupendra Guha Majumdar University of Delhi In Miguel de Cervantes' last book, The Tria/s Of Persiles and Sigismunda, a Byzantine romance published posthumously a year after his death in 1616 but declared as being dedicated to the Count of Lemos in the second part of Don Quixote, a basic aesthetie principIe conjoining literature and art was underscored: "Fiction, poetry and painting, in their fundamental conceptions, are in such accord, are so close to each other, that to write a tale is to create pietoríal work, and to paint a pieture is likewise to create poetic work." 1 In focusing on a primal harmony within man's complex potential of literary and artistic expression in tandem, Cervantes was projecting a philosophy that relied less on esoteric, classical ideas of excellence and truth, and more on down-to-earth, unpredictable, starkly naturalistic and incongruous elements of life. "But fiction does not", he said, "maintain an even pace, painting does not confine itself to sublime subjects, nor does poetry devote itself to none but epie themes; for the baseness of lífe has its part in fiction, grass and weeds come into pietures, and poetry sometimes concems itself with humble things.,,2 1 Quoted in Hans Rosenkranz, El Greco and Cervantes (London: Peter Davies, 1932), p.179 2 Ibid.pp.179-180 Run'endra Guha It is, perhaps, not difficult to read in these lines Cervantes' intuitive vindication of the essence of Don Quixote and of it's potential to generate a plural discourse of literature and art in the years to come, at multiple levels of authenticity.
    [Show full text]
  • Empirically Identify and Analyze Trained and Untrained Observers
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 052 219 24 TE 499 825 AUTHOR Hardiman, George W. TITLE Identification and Evaluation of Trained and Untrained Observers' Affective Responses to Art Ob'ects. Final Report. INSTITUTION Illinois Univ., Urbana. Dept. of Art. SPONS AGENCY Office of Education (DREW), Washington, D.C. Bureau of Research. BUREAU NO BR-9-0051 PUB DATE Mar 71 GRANT OEG-5-9-230051-0027 NOTE 113p. EDRS PRICE EDRS Price MF-$0.65 HC-$6.58 DESCRIPTORS *Affective Behavior, *Art Expression, *Color Presentation, *Data Analysis, Factor Analysis, *Measurement Instruments, Rating Scales ABSTRACT The objectives of this study were twofold: (1) to empirically identify and analyze trained and untrained observers affective responses to a representative collection of paintings for the purpose et constructing art differential instruments, and (2) to use these instruments to objectively identify and evaluate the major affective factors and components associated with selected paintings by trained and untrained observers. The first objective was accomplished by having 120 trained and 120 untrained observers elicit a universe of 12,450 adjective qualifiers to a collection of 209 color slides of paintings. Data analyses yielded subsets of adjective qualifiers most characteristic of trained and untrained observers' affective decoding of the 209 slides. These subsets served as a basis for constructing separate art differential instruments for trained and untrained observers' use in subsequent analyses. The second objective was achieved by having 48 trained and 48 untrained observers rate 24 color slides of paintings on 50 scale art differential instruments. Trained and untrained observers' art differential ratings of the 24 paintings were factor analyzed in order to identify the major affective factors associated with the paintings.
    [Show full text]
  • Time, Infinity, Recursion, and Liminality in the Writings of Jorge Luis Borges
    Kevin Wilson Of Stones and Tigers; Time, Infinity, Recursion, and Liminality in the writings of Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) and Pu Songling (1640-1715) (draft) The need to meet stones with tigers speaks to a subtlety, and to an experience, unique to literary and conceptual analysis. Perhaps the meeting appears as much natural, even familiar, as it does curious or unexpected, and the same might be said of meeting Pu Songling (1640-1715) with Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), a dialogue that reveals itself as much in these authors’ shared artistic and ideational concerns as in historical incident, most notably Borges’ interest in and attested admiration for Pu’s work. To speak of stones and tigers in these authors’ works is to trace interwoven contrapuntal (i.e., fugal) themes central to their composition, in particular the mutually constitutive themes of time, infinity, dreaming, recursion, literature, and liminality. To engage with these themes, let alone analyze them, presupposes, incredibly, a certain arcane facility in navigating the conceptual folds of infinity, in conceiving a space that appears, impossibly, at once both inconceivable and also quintessentially conceptual. Given, then, the difficulties at hand, let the following notes, this solitary episode in tracing the endlessly perplexing contrapuntal forms that life and life-like substances embody, double as a practical exercise in developing and strengthening dynamic “methodologies of the infinite.” The combination, broadly conceived, of stones and tigers figures prominently in
    [Show full text]
  • He Dreams of Giants
    From the makers of Lost In La Mancha comes A Tale of Obsession… He Dreams of Giants A film by Keith Fulton and Lou Pepe RUNNING TIME: 84 minutes United Kingdom, 2019, DCP, 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround, Aspect Ratio16:9 PRESS CONTACT: Cinetic Media Ryan Werner and Charlie Olsky 1 SYNOPSIS “Why does anyone create? It’s hard. Life is hard. Art is hard. Doing anything worthwhile is hard.” – Terry Gilliam From the team behind Lost in La Mancha and The Hamster Factor, HE DREAMS OF GIANTS is the culmination of a trilogy of documentaries that have followed film director Terry Gilliam over a twenty-five-year period. Charting Gilliam’s final, beleaguered quest to adapt Don Quixote, this documentary is a potent study of creative obsession. For over thirty years, Terry Gilliam has dreamed of creating a screen adaptation of Cervantes’ masterpiece. When he first attempted the production in 2000, Gilliam already had the reputation of being a bit of a Quixote himself: a filmmaker whose stories of visionary dreamers raging against gigantic forces mirrored his own artistic battles with the Hollywood machine. The collapse of that infamous and ill-fated production – as documented in Lost in La Mancha – only further cemented Gilliam’s reputation as an idealist chasing an impossible dream. HE DREAMS OF GIANTS picks up Gilliam’s story seventeen years later as he finally mounts the production once again and struggles to finish it. Facing him are a host of new obstacles: budget constraints, a history of compromise and heightened expectations, all compounded by self-doubt, the toll of aging, and the nagging existential question: What is left for an artist when he completes the quest that has defined a large part of his career? 2 Combining immersive verité footage of Gilliam’s production with intimate interviews and archival footage from the director’s entire career, HE DREAMS OF GIANTS is a revealing character study of a late-career artist, and a meditation on the value of creativity in the face of mortality.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Jorge Luis Borges the GOSPEL ACCORDING to MARK
    1 Jorge Luis Borges THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK (1970) Translated by Norrnan Thomas di Giovanni in collaboration with the author Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), an outstanding modern writer of Latin America, was born in Buenos Aires into a family prominent in Argentine history. Borges grew up bilingual, learning English from his English grandmother and receiving his early education from an English tutor. Caught in Europe by the outbreak of World War II, Borges lived in Switzerland and later Spain, where he joined the Ultraists, a group of experimental poets who renounced realism. On returning to Argentina, he edited a poetry magazine printed in the form of a poster and affixed to city walls. For his opposition to the regime of Colonel Juan Peron, Borges was forced to resign his post as a librarian and was mockingly offered a job as a chicken inspector. In 1955, after Peron was deposed, Borges became director of the national library and Professor of English Literature at the University of Buenos Aires. Since childhood a sufferer from poor eyesight, Borges eventually went blind. His eye problems may have encouraged him to work mainly in short, highly crafed forms: stories, essays, fables, and lyric poems full of elaborate music. His short stories, in Ficciones (1944), El hacedor (1960); translated as Dreamtigers, (1964), and Labyrinths (1962), have been admired worldwide. These events took place at La Colorada ranch, in the southern part of the township of Junin, during the last days of March 1928. The protagonist was a medical student named Baltasar Espinosa. We may describe him, for now, as one of the common run of young men from Buenos Aires, with nothing more noteworthy about him than an almost unlimited kindness and a capacity for public speaking that had earned him several prizes at the English school0 in Ramos Mejia.
    [Show full text]
  • The Pennsylvania State University the Graduate School College Of
    The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of Arts and Architecture CUT AND PASTE ABSTRACTION: POLITICS, FORM, AND IDENTITY IN ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONIST COLLAGE A Dissertation in Art History by Daniel Louis Haxall © 2009 Daniel Louis Haxall Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2009 The dissertation of Daniel Haxall has been reviewed and approved* by the following: Sarah K. Rich Associate Professor of Art History Dissertation Advisor Chair of Committee Leo G. Mazow Curator of American Art, Palmer Museum of Art Affiliate Associate Professor of Art History Joyce Henri Robinson Curator, Palmer Museum of Art Affiliate Associate Professor of Art History Adam Rome Associate Professor of History Craig Zabel Associate Professor of Art History Head of the Department of Art History * Signatures are on file in the Graduate School ii ABSTRACT In 1943, Peggy Guggenheim‘s Art of This Century gallery staged the first large-scale exhibition of collage in the United States. This show was notable for acquainting the New York School with the medium as its artists would go on to embrace collage, creating objects that ranged from small compositions of handmade paper to mural-sized works of torn and reassembled canvas. Despite the significance of this development, art historians consistently overlook collage during the era of Abstract Expressionism. This project examines four artists who based significant portions of their oeuvre on papier collé during this period (i.e. the late 1940s and early 1950s): Lee Krasner, Robert Motherwell, Anne Ryan, and Esteban Vicente. Working primarily with fine art materials in an abstract manner, these artists challenged many of the characteristics that supposedly typified collage: its appropriative tactics, disjointed aesthetics, and abandonment of ―high‖ culture.
    [Show full text]
  • JOURNAL of VIROLOGY VOLUME 57 * MARCH 1986 * NUMBER 3 Arnold J
    JOURNAL OF VIROLOGY VOLUME 57 * MARCH 1986 * NUMBER 3 Arnold J. Levine, Editor in Chief Michael B. A. Oldstone, Editor (1988) (1989) Scripps Clinic & Research Foundation Princeton University La Jolla, Calif. Princeton, N.J. Thomas E. Shenk, Editor (1989) David T. Denhardt, Editor (1987) Princeton University University of Western Ontario Princeton, N.J. London, Ontario, Canada Anna Marie Skalka, Editor (1989) Bernard N. Fields, Editor (1988) Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. Harvard Medical School Nutley, N.J. Boston, Mass. Robert A. Weisberg, Editor (1988) Robert M. Krug, Editor (1987) National Institute of Child Health Sloan-Kettering Institute and Human Development New York, N.Y. Bethesda, Md. EDITORIAL BOARD James Alwine (1988) Hidesaburo Hanafusa (1986) Lois K. Miller (1988) Priscilla A. Schaffer (1987) David Baltimore (1987) William S. Hayward (1987) Peter Model (1986) Sondra Schlesinger (1986) Tamar Ben-Porat (1987) Roger Hendrix (1987) Bernard Moss (1986) Manfred Schubert (1988) Kenneth I. Berns (1988) Martin Hirsch (1986) Fred Murphy (1986) June R. Scott (1986) Michael Botchan (1986) John J. Holland (1987) Opendra Narayan (1988) Bart Sefton (1988) Thomas J. Braciale (1988) Ian H. Holmes (1986) Joseph R. Nevins (1988) Charles J. Sherr (1987) Joan Brugge (1988) Robert W. Honess (1986) Nancy G. Nossal (1987) Saul J. Silverstein Barrie J. Carter (1987) Nancy Hopkins (1986) Abner Notkins (1986) (1988) John M. Coffin (1986) Peter M. Howley (1987) J. Thomas Parsons (1986) Patricia G. Spear (1987) Geoffrey M. Cooper (1987) Alice S. Huang (1987) Ulf G. Pettersson (1986) Nat Sternberg (1986) Donald Court (1987) Steve Hughes (1988) Lennart Philipson (1987) Bruce Stillman (1988) Richard Courtney (1986) Tony Hunter (1986) Lewis I.
    [Show full text]
  • Masterpiece: Don Quixote, 1955 by Pablo Picasso
    Masterpiece: Don Quixote, 1955 By Pablo Picasso Keywords: line, shape, pen & ink Grade: 5th Month: May Activity: The Mighty Pen (and Ink) Meet the Artist: Picasso was born in Spain in 1881. His father was an artist who taught at a local university and he encouraged Pablo at an early age to pursue his artistic talents. At the age of 11, Pablo and was sent to art. Picasso’s artworks changed significantly through his career and he created hundreds of paintings and sculptures. He married and had 4 children. When they were younger, he was a fantastically fun dad. He would draw on tablecloths, did magic tricks and would prepare birthday dinner celebrations made up entirely of chocolate. He became most well known for his Cubist paintings. Cubism emphasized line, shape and color. It was a modern art style that is not realistic in nature, but based geometric shapes. It started out with neutral colors, but eventually became a very colorful style. Picasso was very outspoken, opinionated and eccentric. He never threw anything out, hated the telephone, and refused to dust his studio. He loved keeping an odd assortment of pets, including goats, reptiles, a monkey and always some Afghan Hounds. He loved any publicity and made sure he was always reading something about himself. He was a prolific painter, and even in his 90th year, he painted 200 paintings. He was still working on the day he died, at 92, of heart failure. Don Quixote is a 1955 sketch by Pablo Picasso of the Spanish literary hero and his sidekick, Sancho Panza.
    [Show full text]
  • By Fernando Herrero-Matoses
    ANTONIO SAURA'S MONSTRIFICATIONS: THE MONSTROUS BODY, MELANCHOLIA, AND THE MODERN SPANISH TRADITION BY FERNANDO HERRERO-MATOSES DISSERTATION Submitted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Art History in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2014 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Jonathan D. Fineberg, Chair Associate Professor Jordana Mendelson, New York University Assistant Professor Terri Weissman Associate Professor Brett A. Kaplan Associate Professor Elena L. Delgado Abstract This dissertation examines the monstrous body in the works of Antonio Saura Atares (1930-1998) as a means of exploring moments of cultural and political refashioning of the modern Spanish tradition during the second half of the twentieth century. In his work, Saura rendered figures in well-known Spanish paintings by El Greco, Velázquez, Goya and Picasso as monstrous bodies. Saura’s career-long gesture of deforming bodies in discontinuous thematic series across decades (what I called monstrifications) functioned as instances for artistic self-evaluation and cultural commentary. Rather than metaphorical self-portraits, Saura’s monstrous bodies allegorized the artistic and symbolic body of his artistic ancestry as a dismembered and melancholic corpus. In examining Saura’s monstrifications, this dissertation closely examines the reshaping of modern Spanish narrative under three different political periods: Franco’s dictatorship, political transition, and social democracy. By situating Saura’s works and texts within the context of Spanish recent political past, this dissertation aims to open conversations and cultural analyses about the individual interpretations made by artists through their politically informed appropriations of cultural traditions. As I argue, Saura’s monstrous bodies incarnated an allegorical and melancholic gaze upon the fragmentary and discontinuous corpus of Spanish artistic legacy as an always-retrieved yet never restored body.
    [Show full text]
  • Duchamp's Labyrinth: First Papers of Surrealism, 1942*
    Duchamp’s Labyrinth: First Papers of Surrealism, 1942* T. J. DEMOS Entwined Spaces In October of 1942, two shows opened in New York within one week of each other, both dedicated to the exhibition of Surrealism in exile, and both represent- ing key examples of the avant-garde’s forays into installation art. First Papers of Surrealism, organized by André Breton, opened first. The show was held in the lavish ballroom of the Whitelaw Reid mansion on Madison Avenue at Fiftieth Street. Nearly fifty artists participated, drawn from France, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, and the United States, representing the latest work of an internationally organized, but geopolitically displaced, Surrealism. The “First Papers” of the exhibition’s title announced its dislocated status by referring to the application papers for U.S. citi- zenship, which emigrating artists (including Breton, Ernst, Masson, Matta, Duchamp, and others) encountered when they came to New York between 1940 and 1942. But the most forceful sign of the uprooted context of Surrealism was the labyrinthine string installation that dominated the gallery, conceived by Marcel Duchamp, who had arrived in New York from Marseilles in June of that year. The disorganized web of twine stretched tautly across the walls, display parti- tions, and the chandelier of the gallery, producing a surprising barrier that intervened in the display of paintings.1 The second exhibition was the inaugural show of Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century Gallery on Fifty-seventh Street, which displayed her collection of Surrealist and abstract art. Guggenheim gave Frederick Kiesler free rein to design *I am grateful for the support and criticism of Benjamin H.
    [Show full text]