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City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 9-2018 Vectorial Realities: Foucault and the Politics of the Literary Address Jiyoung Ryu The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2902 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] Vectorial Realities: Foucault and the Politics of the Literary Address by Jiyoung Ryu A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in English in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2018 © 2018 Jiyoung Ryu All Rights Reserved ii Vectorial Realities: Foucault and the Politics of the Literary Address by Jiyoung Ryu This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in English to satisfy the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ___________________ _______________________________________________ Date Ammiel Alcalay, Chair of Examining Committee ___________________ _______________________________________________ Date Eric Lott, Executive Officer, English Program Supervisory Committee: Ammiel Alcalay Steven Kruger David Richter The City University of New York iii Abstract Vectorial Realities: Foucault and the Politics of the Literary Address by Jiyoung Ryu Advisor: Ammiel Alcalay This dissertation articulates the politics of contemporary literature via addressing the theoretical problem at the heart of Foucault studies. The Kantian problem of articulating the “origin” of knowledge was also at the core of Foucault’s oeuvre. The dissertation derives a concept, here- elsewhere, from its analysis of The Order of Things to argue that here-elsewhere addresses the problem at hand via articulating the difference and the sameness that spans the Kantian continuum of I-Other. It denotes the continuum as a relative spatio-temporality with a vector, which reflects Foucault’s interest in the modern physics. As a realist and critical concept, here- elsewhere reaches the core of Nietzschean philosophy, addressing the limits in deconstructive practice by articulating critical practice as vectorial. Foucault, then, aims to transvalue our nihilistic reality via a confessional discourse along the I-Other continuum. Thus, the politics of contemporary literature lies in the experience of the Other directly addressing me. In this light, literature can illuminate the politics of our realities via here-elsewhere, as I demonstrate in my reading of A Gesture Life. Also, literary experience as articulated by writers such as Orhan Pamuk suggests possibilities for literary theory to enlighten, and constitute, the theory of the real. iv Acknowledgement It took a long time, a lot of trials and errors, and the support of loving people for me to settle in where I should be and to begin working on this project in earnest. Most of all, I thank my dissertation advisor, Ammiel Alcalay, for being and remaining who he is; it made it easy for him to listen to me and agree to be my advisor and stay with me throughout the process. It gives me great inspiration that he has done all the work that he did and continues to support students, artists, and activists on the ground, all the while having become a voice that invigorates and challenges the academia. He has always seen to the core of this project; it gives me solace that we will have a life-long friendship. An immense amount of gratitude is due for Steven Kruger, my long time teacher, mentor, and friend, who is an impeccable example of an accomplished scholar and the most endearing supporter of students; even in times when it should have been hard for him to understand everything about who I was and what I wanted to do, he stayed and rooted for me, giving ear to my wish to pursue my theoretical question that I had since I took his theory colloquium class. He read my various writings, responding with the care and attention that always surprises me with their consistency. It was always a pleasure to be able to chat with him whether at the Graduate Center or at Queens College, knowing that he does not hesitate to give time for others. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, Steve. Last but not least, I thank David Richter, who I am deeply honored to have as a committee member. With his erudition, professionalism, and the underlying care for the students, he remained an acute reader and the giver of most needed feedbacks. His passion for theory, which attests to his life-time commitment to political issues, I can only wish to inform my future works. You were the litmus v test for the relevance of this project, and your approval meant the world to me, Professor Richter. Thank you very much. I thank Peter Hitchcock for having been a good teacher and a guide, and for having been always kind and human. I thank Meena Alexander for making my early years at the Graduate Center meaningful and motivated; I thank Kandice Chuh for being an excellent example as a professional and for motivating me with her smartness. I thank Marnia Lazreg for getting and continuing to be engaged; I warmly thank Dorothy Wang for being so loving and for living her life so fiercely and truly. Thank you, Professor Kyoo Lee, for your support, care, and for being a genuine teacher. Professor Joshua Wilner, thank you for your brilliance, for your invitation, and for your encouragement. I thank late Professor Eve Sedgwick for teaching sincerity in academic practice. I very much thank Nancy Silverman for helping me a lot through the years. For my good friends, who held my hand in various different phases throughout the years – Jeehey Kim, Una Chung, Soyoung Yoon, Hyewon Shin, Hosu Kim, thank you. I am sorry that I cannot mention every single person who inspired and warmed up my struggling days in the City of New York; the city was full of people who were inspiring and surprisingly loving. Though I met you while working for the later part of the project, you were the one mysterious person who believed in my argument, completely, immediately – Byungdo Park, love of my life, I will continue to love you. My parents, let’s keep an eye on what becomes of someone who were dipped in so much love. Everything is okay. A warm embrace. This dissertation is dedicated to the humanities. vi Contents Introduction … 1 1. Foucault’s “Thought” as Here-elsewhere … 9 Chapter Intro: Foucault, Kant, and the Problem … 9 a. Foucault’s “Thought” in The Order of Things … 19 b. Foucault’s Theory of Imagination and its Bachelardian Significance … 31 i. Bachelard at the Roots of Foucault’s Philosophical Endeavor … 31 ii. Modern Science and its Implication on Bachelard’s Kantian Discourse … 48 iii. How Foucault Builds up on Air and Dreams … 58 c. Conclusion: The Necessity of Here-elsewhere … 91 2. Vectorial Realities: Epistemes in The Order of Things … 97 Chapter Intro … 97 a. Dialogue with Derrida … 99 b. The Renaissance Episteme … 105 i. Resemblance … 105 ii. Interpretation … 113 iii. Rationality … 116 iv. Linearly Progressing Space … 120 v. The Critical Valence of Vector … 126 c. The Classical Episteme … 133 i. Representation … 133 ii. The Intersecting Poles of Space and Time … 136 iii. The Critical View of the Classical Episteme … 141 iv. Fields of Knowledge in the Classical Episteme … 145 v. The Rationality of the Classical Episteme and the Progress of History … 153 vii vi. Preliminary Conclusions on the Rationality of Epistemes … 157 vii. The Emergence of “Depth” and the Displacement of the Classical Episteme … 161 viii. “Vertical” as Inauthentic Vector in “Dream, Imagination and Existence” … 166 ix. Classical Episteme, or the Reading of Existence as Inauthentic … 172 x. Historicity, Difference in Vector, and the Recovery of Existence … 174 xi. Human Nature … 183 xii. Classical Knowledge in the Time of its Displacement … 187 3. Biopolitics: Foucault’s Discursive Politics of Confession … 198 Chapter Intro: Issue in Biopolitics … 198 a. Nietzsche and Here-elsewhere … 214 b. Nihilism … 220 c. Biopolitical Discourse as Transvaluation … 228 4. Literature as the Landscape of Transvaluations … 259 Chapter Intro … 259 a. Undervaluing the Real: Kōjin Karatani on Unforgettable People … 265 b. The Landscape of Transvaluations: Pamuk on the Experience of the Novel … 277 c. Transvaluing a Life: Chang-rae Lee’s A Gesture Life … 287 i. The Value of Failed Representation? … 287 ii. Narratological Emergence of Vectorial Life … 300 iii. Confession as Transvaluation … 314 vi. Political Triumph in Our Lives … 334 Bibliography … 344 viii Introduction We are familiar with the feeling of knowing exactly what is going in a literary passage. It is as if the words are there for us, speaking out loud what has been hidden in our minds. Yet the current literary studies do not theoretically validate the possibility of anyone’s knowing what a text tells us. The most precious conviction about a protagonist, which functions as the practical ground for our scholarship about why literature matters, can only be presented as a thesis that, at the end of the day, remains an opinion. This situation, in fact, applies to the current academic practice at large; while we continue to produce scholarly results on cultures, societies and politics of our interest, we cannot claim to know them as realities. If anything, we claim that any possibility of attaining such a knowledge escapes us; the articulation of reality always gets ascribed to the ineluctable Other. Thus, however strong a sense of solidarity with Others our investigations are based on, however crucial stakes our research might have on our shared lives, the academia cannot counter anyone’s suggestion that he disagrees.

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