The Realm of Questions, Uncertainty and Paradoxes in Modernism Antonio Delgado-Gonzalez
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Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2014 The Realm of Questions, Uncertainty and Paradoxes in Modernism Antonio Delgado-Gonzalez Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES THE REALM OF QUESTIONS, UNCERTAINTY AND PARADOXES IN MODERNISM By ANTONIO DELGADO-GONZALEZ A Dissertation submitted to the Program in Interdisciplinary Humanities in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2014 Antonio Delgado-Gonzalez defended this dissertation on March 28, 2014. The members of the supervisory committee were: S.E. Gontarski Professor Directing Dissertation Aimee Boutin University Representative Ralph Berry Committee Member William Cloonan Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the dissertation has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii To my sister Joan iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I have always felt like I have been writing in a foreign language. No language has ever been my own. To chose a language for this dissertation has been the most challenging part of the entire process. However, within that selection, a group of people have entered and shaped what any language calls for: collaboration in communicating thoughts. Sharing these thoughts would not have been possible without different encounters with friends. To name them all would not be possible. The risk of leaving out someone important is too high. Some of them will recognize themselves without seeing their names (that is still communication). Some others I would feel terribly sorry for not mentioning. Dr. Stan Gontarski, I would never have delved into Beckett’s and Joyce’s works if it was not for your encouragement and questions (because modernism and modernity are still with us). Dr. Maricarmen Martinez, your confidence, intellectual support and Quevedian spirit have been a companion in this journey outside of La Mancha. Dr. David Gregory, thank you for those fragmented conversations on art, literature and philosophy, which contributed to put together in less fragmented form some of the ideas I developed in this project. Ideas become thoughts for questioning when they are in the open for discussion. I told you, every road leads to Kafka. Maggie and Jason Ramrattan, thanks for facilitated that communication and for your strong encouragement to complete this chapter of my life when I was exhausting my possibilities for its imminent end. Who would have known that our first conversations would lead me to be part of the family. Marie Patrick, your friendship and the many talks we had over the last few years have been a long road until this culmination. I am deeply thankful for your revisions and notes toward the clarification of a better and more clear language. Without my parents I would never have learned my way of putting things together in order, to weave thoughts and ideas. Your own skills have grown in me and have been transformed as part iv of my own. Joan, thanks for your unconditional help. I could not have made it without you. Words are not capable to express my deepest gratitude. My wife, Emily, your support and incredible understanding have been my strongest drive for completing this dissertation. I cannot see any other possible result if it was not for your patience, help and work, reading, and constantly rereading many versions, including the ones that did not make to the end. v TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures …………………………………………………………………………………viii Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………………….ix 1. CHAPTER ONE. THE POLITICS OF MODERNISM ………………………………………..1 1.1 The Political Culture ………......………………………………………………….1 1.2 The Possibilities of Politics …………....………………………………………….6 1.3 A New Beginning: Arendt and Bergson …………...……………………………..8 1.4 Understanding Politics …………………………………………………………..12 2. CHAPTER TWO: ACTION AND INTUITION ……………………………………………..17 2.1 Action ….………………………………………………………………………...17 2.2 Epiphany and Intuition ………..…………………………………………………21 2.3 Beckett’s Other Epiphany ………...……………………………………………..29 3. CHAPTER THREE: ACTION IN THE WORK OF ART…………………………………….32 3.1 The Materialization of the Work of Art ………………..………………..………32 3.2 The Materialization of Form …………...………………………………………..40 3.3 The Artist as Creator of Action and Possibilities……..…………...……………..51 4. CHAPTER FOUR: THE POLITIS OF THE IDIOTIC MESSENGER ………………………60 4.1 Non-Communication=Idiotism ………………………………………………….61 4.2 Deformation: Durée ……….……………………………………………………..67 4.3 The Absence of Nostalgia ……………………………………………………….76 4.4 Communicating Non-Communication ………………………………………….78 4.5 The Message of Idiotism ……….……………………………………………….82 4.6 “No-Podernimiento” …….……………………………………………………...86 4.7 A New Beginning Without Nostalgia for Words ……………….……………..91 4.8 “Under Duress” …………………………………………………………………94 5. CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION: POLITICS, ACTION AND THE TRADITION ……...105 5.1 The Politics of the Reading/Writing Process …………………..………………105 5.2 Une Question …………………...……………………………………………....112 5.3 Becoming Precursors ……….………………………………………………… 117 WORKS CITED ……………………………………………………………………………….126 vi BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH …………………………………………………………………..130 vii LIST OF FIGURES 1. Figure # 1 Mark Rothko, White Over Red,1957 ..............................................................42 2. Figure # 2 Richard Serra, Vortex, 2002. Photograph by David Woo .............................. 47 3. Figure # 3 Richard Serra, Vortex, 2002. Photograph by Antonio D .................................48 4. Figure # 4 Richard Serra, Vortex, 2002. (interior). Photograph by Antonio Delgado .....................................................................................50 viii ABSTRACT This project establishes how the struggles of modernist artists, such as James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Franz Kafka, and Witold Gombrowicz create culture as an artistic experience, which happens in the political space in-between the artist and the audience. I argue that “politics” and “action” are necessary for this creation of culture to happen. Following Hannah Arendt’s philosophy, “politics” depends on “action” and “action” is creation. At the same time, creation is evolution, in the Bergsonian sense. Following not only Arendt’s philosophy but also Henri Bergson’s philosophy of becoming, this dissertation explores how politics creates a culture through “action.” Even though Bergson does not name action as one of his main concepts, such as durée, “action” becomes part of his philosophy regarding the struggle of the creative mind. For Arendt, “action” detaches life from a life of habit, or a life that rejects creation. Creation by these two philosophers is understood as freedom to create and to perform, and as openness to other possibilities within language, including its deformation and evolution all of them able to create a political scenario that, according to Arendt, disseminate differences. Thus, the existence of culture is only possible through politics. ix CHAPTER ONE THE POLITICS OF MODERNISM The action by which we utilize things is essentially a contact, and in that contact it is irrelevant whether one says that we act on the thing or that thing acts on us. Bergson, “Letter to John Dewey” 3 January 1913 It isn’t ours: we accelerate slow things. An opening hand is already action. Let’s look at the life that flows in it. Rilke, from French Poems 1.1 The Political Culture The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze the political struggle that modernist artists like James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Franz Kafka and Witold Gombrowicz create, and includes a consideration of other artists’ work, such as Mark Rothko’s paintings and Richard Serra’s sculptures. I will argue that such struggle facilitates but also creates artwork, which occurs in a space in-between the artist and the audience. For that experience to happen, politics is necessary in order to create culture. Following Hannah Arendt’s philosophy, politics depends on “action” and “action” is creation. At the same time, creation is evolution, in the Bergsonian sense, and includes the totality of the artist’s past or memories regarding the creation of the artwork. Following not only Arendt’s philosophy but also Henri Bergson’s philosophy of becoming, this dissertation explores how politics creates a culture through action. Even though Bergson does not name action or motion as one of his main concepts, such as durée, action becomes part of his philosophy regarding the struggle of the creative mind. For example, in relation to dreams, action stands in between matter and mind; that is, action stands in a position in-between the waking life 1 and the life of dreams. The closer the individual is to dreams, the more he is detached from action. Bergson states: the normal self never stays in either of these extremes positions; it moves between them, adopts in turn the positions corresponding to the intermediate sections, or, in other words, gives to its representation just enough image and just enough idea for them to be able to lend useful aid to the present action. (Matter and Memory 163) For Arendt, action detaches life from a life of habit, or a life that rejects creation, which is similar to Bergson’s understanding of habitual memories, such as the habitual movements of the body. Creation through these two philosophers has to be understood as freedom to create/perform art outside