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Poetics, Time and Black Experimental Writing

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Poetics, Time and Black Experimental Writing After the End of the World: Poetics, Time and Black Experimental Writing by Anthony Reed This thesis/dissertation document has been electronically approved by the following individuals: Farred,Grant Aubrey (Chairperson) Maxwell,Barry Hamilton (Minor Member) Villarejo,Amy (Minor Member) Culler,Jonathan Dwight (Additional Member) AFTER THE END OF THE WORLD: POETICS, TIME, AND BLACK EXPERIMENTAL WRITING A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Anthony Reed August 2010 © 2010 Anthony Reed AFTER THE END OF THE WORLD: POETICS, TIME, AND BLACK EXPERIMENTAL WRITING Anthony Reed, Ph. D. Cornell University 2010 "After the End of the World" is a study of the poetics of experimental writing, focusing on the work of W. E. B. Du Bois, Nathaniel Mackey, Suzan-Lori Parks and Kamau Brathwaite. By thinking form as a locus of political and conceptual contestation and transformation, I seek methods for conceiving politics in literature apart from its references or the identities of authors and characters. Writing in different genres, and with different political investments, each of these authors offers resources for re-imagining community as a project, for thinking the constitution of the self and political subject, and for conceiving politics and literary studies globally. Using a broad conception of literary experimentation as writing that departs from conventional forms and conventional thinking, I emphasize time of reading, among other times. Arguing that conceptions of time tend to be at the heart of political concerns throughout the sites of the African diaspora, this project challenges those notions of black writing that rest on the binary or oppression/resistance. I begin with an analysis of Du Bois' writing, especially his notions of double- consciousness and the veil, which I argue are related to writing and self-narration and thus to the problem of political and aesthetic representation. Parks' work similarly makes representation—especially historical representation—into a thematic question through which she problematizes the notion of a unitary "black experience." Specifically concerned with poetry, Kamau Brathwaite and Nathaniel Mackey specifically confront and contravene the legacy of the lyric voice in both the presentation and topics of their work. Brathwaite invents a shifting system of fonts, margins and a capacious first-person singular/plural to articulate a time and a "we" of the Caribbean and the diaspora. Mackey's work uses music, repetition and pronoun shifts to de-emphasize the traditional lyric "I" in favor of a poetics concerned with the limits of the here and now. Considering the ways these authors elaborate considerations that do not immediately map onto their presumed preoccupations, this project generates a means for conceiving the relationship between form and politics. It starts from the materiality of language and literature and then proceeds to politics and theory. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Anthony Reed was born in the metro Detroit area 24 June 1978. He graduated from Romulus High School in 1996. In 2000, he received his B.A. with distinction from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, and received an M.F.A in creative writing from the same institution in 2002. He entered Cornell University in 2005, where he concentrated on poetry and poetics in the African diaspora, film and media studies, and Marxist theories of culture. He completed his dissertation research at Cornell University with the generous support of a graduate student fellowship at the Society for the Humanities funded by the Mellon Foundation in the 2009-2010 academic year, and received the Ph. D. in 2010. iii For my mother iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation has no precise origin. It began, and began again, over the course of several conversations and interactions, in classrooms and outside. I cannot properly acknowledge all the hands that have helped its progress. It most took shape when Grant Farred, brushed aside my prospectus during a meeting and asked me simply to talk through the project in positive terms, without pausing to explain at every step within which conversations I saw myself intervening. He has been a consummate scholar, professional, and intellectual. I have learned much from his example, and his insistence on thinking in terms of an overarching intellectual project beyond the dissertation. Throughout the writing, he continued to challenge, push, and provoke me, always encouraging me to find my own voice, to articulate my concerns and arguments clearly and concisely. More than that, his responses have been generous, prompt, detailed and encouraging. I record here my gratitude for his advising, on this project and beyond. When I most needed support, he believed in this dissertation and my intellectual project; for that, I will be forever grateful. Amy Villarejo has been a tremendous advisor to my work leading up to this project, and throughout. I grateful that she believed in the work enough to stay involved after the film and media elements I had initially planned fell away. She is a generous reader and interlocutor and always seems to ask just the right question with a clarity and insightfulness I hope to emulate. Her candid demeanor, integrity and perhaps above all intellectual rigor always leave me energized after meetings, and her readings of the drafts of the chapters of this dissertation often revealed new dimensions of the work. Barry Maxwell, at a very early stage, shared his love of poetry with me, and imparted to me a real appreciation for the embarrassing question, that question that shows the limits of a way of thinking or a line of argument. I appreciate his manner v even when the embarrassing question is directed at me. More than that, he continually encourages me to pay close attention to the specifics of the work I was analyzing, whether poetry or music. He has a keen eye for the odd detail, and the questions that need to be asked. He taught me to take the work seriously without taking myself too seriously, and like Grant and Amy, encouraged me to find ways to express complicated ideas with clarity. Jonathan Culler has been a very generous reader and interlocutor for this project. His work on poetics and the lyric have been great influences on my thinking, and I have benefitted tremendously by our conversations and his encouragement. His questions were always insightful and often unexpected; I never left a meeting without being confident that I knew what he thought, or without a new insight or bibliography. Like the other members of this committee, he is an intellectual of the highest caliber, and I am fortunate to have had the chance to work with him. Throughout my time at Cornell, several friends have shown their love and support, far too many to name. I would single out Corinna Lee, David Coombs, Onur Ulas Ince, Zac Zimmer, Lily Cui and Peter Bailey for being such great friends and interlocutors. I also thank Raphael Crawford, Toyin Akinmusuru, Jacob Brogan, Caetlin Benson-Allot, Seth Perlow, Theo Hummer, Celeste Pietrusza, and Tsitsi Jaji for their love and support. I have benefitted from Cornell's rich intellectual environment. I would especially like to acknowledge Sabine Haenni, Tim Murray, Masha Raskolnikov, and Ellis Hanson as tremendous friends and teachers. The year I spent at the Society for the Humanities was tremendous, and I am very grateful for all the conversations I had with so many brilliant thinkers, especially Mary Jacobus and Ruth Mas. More people have helped me on this path than I have space to name, so I offer humble thanks in the words of Tomás Borge Martínez: "yo estaré tan solo / como sea necesario/ pero ya no tanto" vi My brother, Ed Reed, has never failed to offer love, support, and frank advice has sustained me. These have sustained me as I navigated the various pleasures and frustrations both of and beyond graduate school. I thank Grandma Tina for always insisting that, whosever path I should cross, I should never lower my eyes, and never forget who I am, or where I come from. I thank my great-grandmother for so many things, especially for teaching me always to mean what I say, and say what I mean. Finally, I thank my mother, to whom I dedicate this dissertation. She continues to inspire me with her integrity and understated genius. She keeps me grounded, and her unfailing encouragement has sustained me through this process, from start to finish. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH iii DEDICATION PAGE iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v TABLE OF CONTENTS viii LIST OF FIGURES x INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1: VOICE CAST OUT: BEAUTY, VOICE AND THE TEMPORALITY OF DOUBLE-CONSCIOUSNESS Voice and Writing 27 Promissory Note: An Account of the Self 38 Ellipsis: W.E.B. Du Bois' Sound of Love 45 Propaganda and the Im-Parting of History 63 Coda: Voicing Music 72 CHAPTER 2: EXPLODING DIMENSIONS OF SONG: FUGITIVE ARTICULACY AND MU-TOPIA Mu: "The Root of Whatever Song" 81 "On the edge of an 'it' otherwise / out of reach" 91 Phantom Objectivity and Objective Hauntings 101 Time Now Had a Hole in It 117 Orpheus Calling 125 CHAPTER 3: THE THEN THAT WILL BE: THE WORK OF DEAD TIME AND THE PROBLEM OF REFERENCE Listening to Ghosts 137 The Void and the Great Hole of History 142 Private Language and Chaotic Textuality in Imperceptible Mutabilities 147 viii in the Third Kingdom "Once there was uh me": Laughter, Errantry, Betweenness 156 Venus and the Affirmation of the End 170 CHAPTER 4: WORDS TO REFASHION FUTURES: ICONICITY, FRAGMENTATION AND THE PLURAL INSTANT Imaging Enjambments: The Ground of the Letter 195 Into the Image of Sycorax 200 From Curse to Cursor 204 The Word that is Our Threshold to the World 211 Tryin to Ghost Words to Holla This Tale 223 So Hopefully New Each Time-Beginning Poem 238 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1, detail of "Letter Sycorax" Pg.
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