Artists in Thought from Classical Reception to Criticism As a Creative
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Fábio Waki S ’ ILDE W SCAR O ESTHETICS A RACTICE IN IN RACTICE P THICS AND THICS E REATIVE Fábio Waki C HOUGHT T HEORIES ON HEORIES T S ’ RTISTS IN RTISTS A AS RITICISM C A ARTISTS IN THOUGHT FROM CLASSICAL RECEPTION TO CRITICISM AS A CREATIVE OUCAULT F PRACTICE IN OSCAR WILDE’S AND MICHEL FOUCAULT’S ECEPTION TO ECEPTION THEORIES ON ETHICS AND AESTHETICS ICHEL ICHEL R M AND LASSICAL LASSICAL C ROM Tese no âmbito do Programa de Doutoramento em Materialidades da Literatura, F orientada pelo Professor Doutor Osvaldo Manuel Silvestre e apresentada ao Departamento de Línguas, Literaturas e Culturas da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra Fevereiro de 2021 Fábio Waki Artists in Thought: From Classical Reception to Criticism as a Creative Practice in Oscar Wilde’s and Michel Foucault’s Theories on Ethics and Aesthetics Tese de Doutoramento em Materialidades da Literatura orientada por Doutor Osvaldo Manuel Silvestre, apresentada ao Departamento de Línguas, Literaturas e Culturas da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra Fevereiro de 2021 Bolsa de Doutoramento FCT PD/BD/128081/2016 Artists in Thought: from Classical Reception to Criticism as a Creative Practice in Oscar Wilde’s and Michel Foucault’s Theories on Ethics and Aesthetics Reference: Waki, Fábio (2021). Artists in Thought: from Classical Reception to Criticism as a Creative Practice in Oscar Wilde’s and Michel Foucault’s Theories on Ethics and Aesthetics. PhD Thesis. Coimbra: University of Coimbra. Contact: [email protected] Abstract This study examines ‘classical reception’ in Oscar Wilde’s and Michel Foucault’s theories on ethics and aesthetics, particularly in Wilde’s conception of art-criticism and Foucault’s conception of critique, to suggest a form or perhaps a method of literary criticism more consistent with the post-hermeneutical framework of the Materialities of Literature. In a few words, my main contention is that, if one of the basic goals of the Materialities of Literature is to investigate how different materialities of communication might creatively cooperate to deterritorialise our ordinary appreciation of literature and its relation to art in general—a process in which purely interpretative analyses tend to become insufficient for an effective appreciation of the literary art—, it is also the case for us to deterritorialise our ordinary understanding of criticism to make sure that we are not retreating, or at least confining ourselves, to a purely interpretative routine—a process in which performativity, creativity, and artistry seem to emerge as more consistent strategies for an effective appreciation of the literary art. In this study, however, I do not simply examine this strategy; in order to clarify its theoretical relevance, I examine it against the backdrop of an overly Cartesian reasoning that tends to embarrass a proper post-hermeneutical thinking, a reasoning that, in a context of ‘classical reception’, can be connected to the subsumption of the ‘care of the self’ to the ‘knowledge of the self’. Curiously, although it was not originally my intention to conduct this study as a study on artistic research, in the end I unwittingly touched on two subjects that, I believe, are of the greatest importance for artistic research today: the problem of form and discourse in studies conducted in a context of artistic research and the inclusion of literature into the very system of artistic research—which, I realise it now, might be one of the most promising potentials of the Materialities of Literature as a doctoral programme. Keywords: Classical Reception; Creative Criticism; Artistic Research; Oscar Wilde; Michel Foucault. Resumo Este estudo examina a ‘recepção clássica’ nas teorias sobre ética e estética de Oscar Wilde e Michel Foucault, em particular a concepção de Wilde sobre crítica de arte e a concepção de Foucault sobre crítica social, a fim de sugerir uma forma ou talvez um método de crítica literária mais consistente com o enquadramento pós-hermenêutico das Materialidades da Literatura. Em poucas palavras, meu principal argumento é o de que, se um dos objetivos fundamentais das Materialidades da Literatura é investigar como diferentes materialidades da comunicação podem cooperar de maneira criativa para desterritorializar nosso apreço comum pela literatura e por sua relação com as artes em geral—um processo no qual análises puramente interpretativas tendem a se mostrar insuficientes para um apreço efetivo da arte literária—, então também convém que desterritorializemos nosso entendimento comum de crítica a fim de garantir que não estamos retrocedendo, ou ao menos nos confinando, a uma rotina de simples interpretação—um processo no qual performatividade, criatividade e artifício parecem emergir como estratégias mais consistentes para um efetivo apreço da arte literária. Neste estudo, porém, não examino essa estratégia, simplesmente; a fim de esclarecer sua relevância teórica, examino-a contra a luz de um raciocínio exageradamente cartesiano que tende a atrapalhar um pensamento propriamente pós- hermenêutico, um raciocínio que, em um contexto de ‘recepção clássica’, pode ser conectado à subsunção do ‘cuidado de si’ ao ‘conhecimento de si’. Curiosamente, embora em princípio não tenha sido minha intenção conduzir este estudo como um estudo sobre investigação artística, por fim acabei por adentrar dois assuntos que, acredito, são da maior importância para a investigação artística hoje: o problema da forma e do discurso em estudos conduzidos em um contexto de investigação artística e a inclusão da literatura no sistema mesmo da investigação artística—o que, percebo agora, talvez seja um dos potenciais mais promissores das Materialidades da Literatura enquanto programa de doutoramento. Palavras-chave: Recepção Clássica; Crítica Criativa; Investigação Artística; Oscar Wilde; Michel Foucault. Acknowledgements I am truly grateful to all of my colleagues in the Materialities of Literature, particularly to Cecília Magalhães, Mariana Chinellato, Claire de Mattia, Rui Silva, Rita Gomes, Thales Estefani, Patrícia Reina, Ana Sabino, Bruno Fontes, Gabriella Mendes, and Diogo Marques, as well as to my fellow classicists Ana Aguilar, Joana Fonseca, and Caio Di Palma. Living so far away from home and writing such a difficult study has certainly become a much more beautiful experience because of you. I am also truly grateful to the professors who followed me as a scholar in the making: Manuel Portela, Paulo Pereira, Pedro Serra, António Sousa Ribeiro, Ana Maria Machado, Ricardo Namora, and, of course, Osvaldo Silvestre, whose infinite patience was absolutely crucial not only for the complexity of this study, but also, and most importantly, for my perseverance as the researcher responsible for it. Because of you, I look at myself today and realise how I stepped into the University of Coimbra as a naive and arrogant student, only to be able to step out of it as an experienced and much more serene scholar. I also appreciate the support of Giles Whiteley, professor at the English Department of Stockholm University, who helped me have access to rare but truly amazing works of literary criticism that eventually became integral parts in my whole reasoning as an art and literature expert. Finally, I am truly grateful to the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), whose logistical and financial supports were essential for this entire study: rest assured, I will do my best to honour your contribution as a researcher. I really appreciate the distant support of my family. I am not familiar with any words in any language to express my gratitude to Thamires Breda, whose love keeps me warm even in the coldest days. Thanks, everyone. Table of Contents Chapter Pg. Introduction 1 Essay 1 1 Essay 2 7 Essay 3 15 One: ‘Classical Reception’: Methodology and Metonymy 21 Essay 1 24 Essay 2 43 Two: Art Criticism 57 Essay 1 61 Essay 2 95 Essay 3 135 Essay 4 202 Three: Aesthetics of Resistance 248 Essay 1 251 Essay 2 282 Self-Criticism as Conclusion 326 Image Catalogue 339 Bibliographical References 347 Exercer a crítica, afigura-se a alguns que é uma fácil tarefa, como a outros parece igualmente fácil a tarefa do legislador; mas, para a representação literária, como para a representação política, é preciso ter alguma coisa mais que um simples desejo de falar à multidão. - Machado de Assis Introduction I We reason deeply, when we forcibly feel Mary Wollstonecraft If we had to place the Materialities of Literature in one field of thought, our best option would be post-hermeneutics. It would be so because our primary objects of analysis, although literary in their essences, as linguistic products of a poetic creativity, are never examined in our research as exegetical surfaces whose meaning must be extracted or ascribed through interpreta- tion; rather, our studies focus on how these objects’ aesthetic properties, which may vary from prosody, semantics, and visuality to acoustics, intensity, and performance, affect us with the arousal of new sensations and thereby into the induction of new meanings. In other words, the Materialities of Literature are interested not only in the linguistic prop- erties of a literary artwork, but also, and often most importantly, in how these properties interact with possible extra-linguistic mediations, mediations that elude or outrightly re- sist the extraction or ascription of meaning through interpretation. The same way that we do not regard an artwork as an exegetical surface in need of a meaning to be extracted or ascribed through