University of California Santa Cruz the (Dis
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ THE (DIS)UNITY OF THE WESTERN MODERN PROJECT A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in LITERATURE by Shawna R. Vesco June 2015 The Dissertation of Shawna R. Vesco is approved: ______________________________ Professor Wlad Godzich, Chair ______________________________ Professor Christopher Connery ______________________________ Professor Tyrus Miller ______________________________ Professor Kitty Millet ________________________________________ Tyrus Miller Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies ! Copyright ! by Shawna R. Vesco 2015 ! Table of Contents List of Figures.............................................................................................................p.v Abstract......................................................................................................................p.vi Acknowledgements...................................................................................................p.vii Dedication................................................................................................................p.viii Introduction "Our Modern Disorientation"................................................................................p.1-18 I. "Break with the Star: Literature, Community, Technology II. "Writing in the Aftermath of Blanchot (a methodology)" Chapter One "Écriture: The Disappearance of Literature"....................................................p.19-p.58 1.1 "Introductory Remarks" 1.2 "(In)completion of the Absolute" 1.3 "An écriture of Un-working" 1.4 "Of fragments and dis-asters: Breaking with the One (Star)" 1.5 "Outside écriture" 1.6 "Un-working anonymity: The ethics of écriture" 1.7 "Materiality as Interruption Chapter Two "Literary Communism: A Technology of Un-working".................................p.59-p.101 2.1 "Introductory Remarks" 2.2 "Détournement" 2.3 "Technology" 2.4 "Un-working (désoeuvrément)" 2.5 "'Chatter about fraternity,' or, La comparution vs. écriture" 2.6 "Literary Communism and deproletarianization" Chapter Three "Like a Signal, Dispersed: Écriture and Technology in Tom McCarthy"...p.102-p.140 3.1 "McCarthy in the Wake of Blanchot's Disaster" 3.2 "Writing as Technology" 3.3 "Dividuals: Subjects of écriture, subjects of death" 3.4 "Fissures, Looping, and Trauma in Remainder" 3.5 "A Deleuzian riff on McCarthy" 3.6 "Transmission, Signals, Literature" 3.7 "'Like a Signal, Dispersed'" !!iii! ! Chapter Four "The Situationist dérive as a Mode of Reading in William Gibson's Pattern Recognition".................................................................................................p.141-p.185 4.1 "Debord's dérive (Wandering)" 4.2 "Gibson and an Ontology of Reading" 4.3 "Liminality and Indexicality of the Digital" 4.4 "Simondon and an Ontology of Information" Chapter Five "Bilge Karasu: Un-working Kemalist Turkey through some very mean books".....................p.186-225 5.1 "Kemalism: The Farcical Return of German Romantic Literature" 5.2 "Economies of Meaning" 5.3 "Economies of Stories" 5.4 "Seriality and Simile" Chapter Six "Vastness and Arability: The Blood of Writing in Assia Djebar's So Vast the Prison".......................p.226-p.263 6.1 "'Algeria---blood'" 6.2 "On Murmuring and De-vast-ation" 6.3 "So Vast the Prison" 6.4 "Writing in Circles" 6.5 "Stelae and 'something unfolding like Asia'" 6.6 "Arable Women and Heterophonic Witnessing" Chapter Seven "Franz Rosenzweig's figure of 'the We'"......................................................p.264-p.297 7.1 "Introductory Remarks" 7.2 "Star of Redemption" 7.3 "The Revelation of Divine Love" 7.4 "The We of the Lehrhaus" 7.5 "Experiences of Community: the oeuvre (operativity) of Acéphale and the désoeuvrement (inoperativity) of the Lehrhaus" Coda "Writing and Reading Disaster"...................................................................p.298-p.312 Complete Bibliography..............................................................................p.313-p.321 ! !!iv! ! List of Figures 1 Exploding Rat (1941)..................................................................p.75 2 Bat Bomb (1943).........................................................................p.76 3 "Location" from On Kawara's Today series..............................p.301 4 Date Paintings from On Kawara's Today series........................p.302 5 On Kawara's "Everyday Meditations"......................................p.303 6 On Kawara's "I Got Up" postcard.............................................p.304 7 On Kawara's "I Got Up" postcards on display..........................p.305 8 On Kawara's "I Met".................................................................p.306 9 On Kawara's "Codes"................................................................p.307 10 Cookie Monster at On Kawara--Silence (2015).......................p.309 !!"! ! Abstract Shawna Vesco "THE (DIS)UNITY OF THE WESTERN MODERN PROJECT" In this dissertation I explore the crumbling foundations of the Modern Project in order to assert that not only has “modernity” itself collapsed, but that many of its attendant institutions have as well: the State, the Individual, the Nation, and even Literature. Literature has always been bound up and complicit in these now defunct formations through an alliance forged around the concept of “unity.” The Modern Project and Literature in its wake each posit unity as a constitutive principal of the Individual, the Work of Art, sociality and order in general. The thought of unity dangerously implies that disunited things must be violently subsumed into unification, and I endeavor to trace the fault lines of modernity in order to reckon with the remainders, the “what” or “who,” that have been discarded and erased in the exchange of disunity for unity. I pit against Literature (understood as a homogenizing or institutional force) what Maurice Blanchot terms “écriture” (writing). Écriture is a mode of witnessing that, rather than making the unseen visible, intimates an irrecoverable silencing and erasure. I then assemble a counter-tradition to the Modern Project through a reading of texts by Maurice Blanchot, Assia Djebar, Tom McCarthy, Franz Rosenzweig, William Gibson and Bilge Karasu. ! !!"#! ! Acknowledgements I would like to thank my committee: Tyrus Miller, whose thoughtful feedback and timely interventions helped shape this project and the next; Chris Connery, who encouraged me to pursue an experience of time beyond the reach of capital's long arm by not uttering the word "busy"; Kitty Millet, who has tirelessly and enthusiastically shepherded me through all of my degrees; and above all Wlad Godzich, who taught me how to read. I am extremely grateful for the Qualifying Exam and Dissertation Fellowships, Teaching Fellowships, and Travel Grants offered to me by the Literature Department. I also would like to express my gratitude to Heather Shearer for inviting me to be a Teaching Fellow in the Writing Program. Many thanks to Carla Freccero for her attention and advice, to Peter Kenez for upbeat early morning conversations about death, and to Murray Baumgarten, a dreamer. I would also like to thank my colleagues for their support even if it usually came in the form of funny cat pictures or Bildwirkerey von Bayeux (I'm looking at you, Fritzie de Mata and Christine Turk!). Jackie Sloderbeck and Andrew Sivak have been endless sources of amusement and encouragement. Jimi Wallen, too. Thank you also to my family and friends: Aimée Crook, who *throws book and who helps me remember The Dark Room days of San Francisco; Marilet Martinez, for tikka masala; Liz Carr, for walks; Andrew Carr, for beard; @thejonahkit, for courage; Anne Wheeler, for bright ideas; Simon Critchley, for tobacco-analog; Pumpkin, for keeping it real when I refuse to; David Hernandez, for everything; and Peanut and Miko, for being fluffy. !"##! ! For Florence ! !"###! ! Introduction Our Modern Disorientation "'False' unity, the simulacrum of unity, compromises unity better than any direct challenge, which, in any case, is impossible." -Maurice Blanchot, The Writing of the Disaster "I think therefore I am not." -Maurice Blanchot, Thomas the Obscure "Gestell. Disaster. 'Disaster' does not mean catastrophe but disorientation--stars guide." -Bernard Stiegler, Technics and Time, 1: The Fault of Epimetheus "Don't get me wrong: the Project was important. It will have had direct effects on you; in fact, there's probably not a single area of your daily life that it hasn't, in some way or other, touched on, penetrated, changed; although you probably don't know this. Not that it was secret. Things like that don't need to be. They creep under the radar by being boring. And complex." -Tom McCarthy, Satin Island "Into Life." -Franz Rosenzweig, The Star of Redemption I. Break with the Star: Literature, Community, Technology "The disaster: break with the star, break with every form of totality," writes Maurice Blanchot in his 1980 text The Writing of the Disaster (hereafter referred to as Disaster). Blanchot's disaster, because it breaks with "the star," provokes a loss of 1 ! guidance (fixed stars are used for navigation after all) and therefore it marks the experience of modernity as one of disorientation. But what is "the star" and why is Blanchot so invested in this disaster that brings about our modern disorientation? Of course there is the natural starry firmament above us which helps determine our position on the globe, but there's also another