Edith Södergran's Modern Virgin

Edith Södergran’s Modern Virgin: Overcoming Nietzsche and the Gendered Narrator By Benjamin Mier-Cruz A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Scandinavian Languages & Literatures in the Graduate Division of the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY Committee in charge: Professor Linda Haverty Rugg, Chair Professor Karin Sanders Professor Winfried Kudszus Spring 2013 Edith Södergran’s Modern Virgin: Overcoming Nietzsche and the Gendered Narrator © 2013 by Benjamin Mier-Cruz Abstract Edith Södergran’s Modern Virgin: Overcoming Nietzsche and the Gendered Narrator by Benjamin Mier-Cruz Doctor of Philosophy in Scandinavian Languages & Literatures University of California, Berkeley Professor Linda Haverty Rugg, Chair This dissertation is an interdisciplinary study within a comparative Nordic-Germanic framework that proposes new approaches to reading representations of gender in European literary modernism and philosophy via the works of Finland-Swedish poet Edith Södergran and Friedrich Nietzsche. I posit that Södergran’s avant-garde poetry presents feminine, masculine, and androgynous narrators that subvert the function of misogyny in Nietzsche’s philosophy, which she had fervently read and incorporated into her writing. Surely, Södergran must have faced obstacles as she confronted Nietzsche’s ostensible ad feminam; however, her progressive poetry, I contend, illustrates how Nietzsche’s own discourse is constructed by androgynous rhetoric that exhibits paradoxically helpful appropriations of the female body. I therefore suggest that Södergran’s reception of Nietzsche ushers in a transvaluation of the “modernist body” that overcomes the cultural body of Man and Woman as she opens up philosophical discourse with the feminine other in Nietzsche’s otherwise phallocentric discourse. Using a shared framework of post-structural feminist theory, narratology, and poetry criticism, this dissertation attempts to overturn long- standing interpretations of Nietzsche’s philosophy and to revise Södergran’s mythologized biography and traditional analyses of her poetry. In chapter one, I attempt to separate Edith Södergran from her romanticized biography and refigure the female writing subject in history in a way that de- emphasizes her glorified, personal afflictions and instead elucidates Södergran’s creative efforts to redefine gender. In chapter two, I posit that Södergran’s lyrical narrator is not an exclusively female subject but a speaker that is multiple: Södergran’s narrators are voiced by female, male, and androgynous bodies; which leads to a type of transgendered experience of narration. 1 Chapter three focuses on Nietzsche’s representations of women that I suggest influenced Södergran’s writing. I attempt to show that Nietzsche’s misogyny is actually a latent discussion of the cultural body that has been constructed and maintained by Western caricatures of femininity and masculinity. In chapter four, I examine the paradoxical representations of women in Also Sprach Zarathustra [Thus Spoke Zarathustra]. I look at what Zarathustra’s hyper-masculine rhetoric can mean to a female reader who may be seeking ways to demystify essentialist constructions of sexual difference, and I explore the implications that Zarathustra’s prophecy of the Übermensch—an advanced, idealistic human being—has for the human body. In the final chapter, I look at the narratological techniques that Södergran and Nietzsche employ in their poetry. Through a combined narratological and feminist approach, I suggest that Södergran and Nietzsche meticulously construct disruptive archetypes of the cultural body via multi-gendered narrative voices. I argue that Nietzsche and Södergran transcend normative narrative devices and introduce unprecedented post-gendered bodies and voices into the European modernist tradition. Their particular depictions of the post-gendered body thus resonate with contemporary theories and philosophical discussions of sex and gender. 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ii Introduction 1 Chapter I: 10 Jag är ingenting än märg: Refiguring Edith Södergran’s Literary Body in History 27 Chapter II: Köttets mysterier: Reimagining Södergran’s Gendered Poetics Chapter III: Narrating from a Distance: Nietzsche’s Double-Voiced Discourse 41 Chapter IV: Nietzsche in Drag: The Birth of the Modern Androgyne 63 Chapter V: “Is it Possible that We Speak with One Mouth?” A Feminist Narratology of Androgynous Poetry 81 Conclusion 107 Bibliography 109 i Acknowledgements This project began before I ever started graduate school. While studying German literature at Arizona State University, I discovered the poetry of Edith Södergran. Her powerful writing convinced me to learn Swedish, which I found to be so beautiful that I switched to Scandinavian Studies for graduate school. My decision to switch languages, much like Södergran’s decision to write in Swedish instead of German, has changed my life in ways that I never imagined. Fortunately, this project has allowed me to embrace both languages. I could not have completed this study without the invaluable support from Professor Linda Haverty Rugg, who has inspired me more than she will ever know. It has been an honor to have her serve as the chair of my dissertation. I must thank Professor Karin Sanders, who has always challenged me to think more critically about my own work. I am also grateful to her for the way she always makes literature (and even literary criticism) sound so förtjusande. I thank Professor Winfried Kudszus, who has encouraged me to write about Nietzsche even when I had my doubts about taking on his philosophy. Professor Kudszus also reintroduced German expressionist poetry to me, and for that I will always be grateful. I would like to thank Professor Ellen Rees for introducing me to Scandinavian literature, especially C.J.L. Almqvist. Additionally, I am forever indebted to Monica von Eggers, who not only taught me Swedish but suggested that I apply to UC Berkeley. My research could not have been conducted without the support of the Department of Scandinavian, the Graduate Division, the Fernström Fellowship, the Goethe-Institut, and the Institute of European Studies. I would also like to thank Sandy Jones, who always told me to “get it together” in her own special way. My time in graduate school has been the best time of my life. It would not have been so rewarding without my friends and colleagues who studied with me. My early years in the program were adventurous, thanks to my “brother” Jeff Sundquist. You made all of this fun. I think I am a better person because of Janaya Lasker-Ferretti from Italian Studies. She has always brought joy (and cake) to my life when I needed it. Truly, taking our qualifying exams on the same day together (May 9, 2008) will forever bind us. I want to thank my dear friend Verena Hoefig, who put up with my “Schwe-deutsch” more than she had to. Thank you to my darling Joanne Lee. She has been a source of support since the day I met her. I would like to thank all the students whom I had the honor teach. You have all inspired me to become a better and more passionate teacher. I have two families to thank. Much of this is possible because my mother, Adela Cruz-Kern, believed in me when I never did. I thank her for sharing the gift of language with me and teaching me how to honor it. One of the proudest days of my life was when she got to see me teach my Swedish language courses. This is the memory I will hold on to. To my brothers Dominique and Eric, who heard the phrase “It’ll get done, It’ll get done” much too often. To my dad, Gary Kern, for being there for our Mom, for not giving up. Thanks to my unnecessarily enormous family in Tempe, including my “best cousin” Greg Cruz and my best friend, my other brother, Christopher Garcia. Some of us are blessed to choose our own family. Words cannot express my love and appreciation for my sisters in the Bay Area: Philip Huang, who can take trash and make it treasure. You opened up my eyes to the world. Theodore Knox, you are my fabulous rock, my sister, my ii light. Joshua Lim, you taught me that we are all in drag. To Chris Makarsky, my “Snuggles,” thank you for being you. To Brian Schenone, thanks for making life interesting. Finally, words cannot express my gratitude and love for my husband, Adrian Wille. I never would have met my Schatz if it weren’t for this dissertation. Needing to brush up on my German in order to read Nietzsche’s philosophy adequately, I met the love of my life, who inspires me with his ambition and his goodness. Until now, there has been an unspoken knowledge about our relationship: All the pain and sorrow of the past became worth it the day we met. iii Introduction In this dissertation, I argue that Finland-Swedish author Edith Södergran used androgynous narration in her poetry as a literary and intellectual response to the hyper-masculine and often misogynistic rhetoric of Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy, which she avidly read. Edith Södergran has made a vast and an enduring impression on Nordic literature despite having a short career that began in 1916 and ended with her early death in 1922.1 Södergran is perhaps the most influential player in the development of Finland’s literary modernism,2 and she has been subsequently translated into several major languages, including multiple English translations. Influenced by German expressionism, French symbolism, and Russian futurism, Södergran produced metaphorically-rich poetry in free verse as part of her literary revolt against the outmoded artistic establishments in Scandinavia during the early twentieth century.3 Södergran’s bold rejection of traditional lyrical structures and motifs in her five poetry collections has notably influenced generations of writers in Finland and Sweden; however, critical studies of Södergran’s poetry have oversimplified the forcible presence of gender and intellectual thought in her writing.

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