Margins and the Frame of Reading by Karen Ward Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia September, 1997 O Copyright by Karen Ward, 1997 National Library Bibliothèque nationale 191 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services seivices bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, nie Wellington Ottawa ON KIA ON4 Ottawa ON KI A ON4 Canada Canada Yaur file Votre dferena, Our Ne Notre refdrenee The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence dowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/nlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts from it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ................ v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .....o............viii CHAPTER ONE In the beginning was the Margin ........... 6 CHAPTER TWO Blake's Margins: No Horizons ............. 31 CHAPTER THREE The Marginal Glas .................. AFTERWORD ...................a.. WORKS CITED AND CONSULTED .............. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1. A world map from a psalter, c. 1260. Reprinted in Michael Camille, Image on the Edqe: The Margins of Medieval Art (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992) 15. Figure 2. Marginal detail from Lancelot Romance. Reprinted in Michael Camille, Image on the Edqe: The Margins of Medieval Art (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992) 30. Figure 3. Marginal detail from a Book of Hours, c. 1300. Reprinted in Michael Camille, Imaqe on the Edge: The Marqins of Medieval Art (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992) 24. Figure 4. Marginal detial £rom a missal, 1323. Reprinted in Michael Camille, Image on the Edge: The Marqins of Medieval Art (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992) 25. Figure 5. Folio 34r from the Book of Kells. Reprinted in Françoise Henry, The Book of Kells: Reproductions from the Manuscript in Trinity College, Dublin (London: Thames and Hudson, 1974) 29. Figure 6. Folio 292r from the Book of Kells. Reprinted Françoise Henry, The Book of Kells: Reproductions from the Manuscript in Trinity Colleae, Dublin (London: Thames and Hudso Figure- 7. Detail of folio 292r from the Book of Kells. Reprinted in Françoise Henry, The Book of Kells: Reproductions £rom the Manuscript in Trinity College, Dublin (London: Thames and Hudson, 1974) 95. Fiqure 8. Detail of folio 292r from the Book of Kells. Reprinted in Françoise Henry, The Book of Kells: Reproductions from the Manuscript in Trinity College, Dublin (London: Thames and Hudson, 1974) 95. Figure 9. Detail of folio 292r from the Book of Kells. Reprinted in Françoise Henry, The Book of Kells: Reproductions from the Manuscript in Trinity Colleqe, Dublin (London: Thames and Hudson, 1974) 95. Figure 10. Detail of folio 292r from the Book of Kells. Reprinted in Françoise Henry, The Book of Kells: Reproductions £rom the Manuscript in Trinity Colleae, Dublin (London: Thames and Hudson, Figure 11. Detail of folio 292r from the Book of Kells. Reprinted in Françoise Henry, The Book of Kells: Reproductions £rom the Manuscript in Trinity College, Dublin (London: Thames and Hudson, 1974) 95. Figure 12. A page from Gutenberg's 42-line Bible. Reprinted in Albert Kapr, Johann Gutenberq: The Man and his Invention (Aldershot: Scolar, 1996) 168, Figure 13. William Blake, "The Laocoon. " Reprinted in David Bindman, ed., The Complete Graphic Works of William Blake (London: Thames and Hudson, 1982) Plate 623. Figure A page from Blake' s notebook. Reprinted in David Erdman, ed. , The Notebook of william Blake (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973) N84 . Figure 15. Detail of William Blake, "The Laocoon. " Reprinted in David Bindman, ed., The Complete Graphic Works of William Blake (London: Tharnes and Hudson, 1982) Plate 623. Figure- 16. William Blake, "Elohim Creating Adam." Reprinted in Morton D. Paley, William ~lake(Oxford: Phaidon, 1978) plate 28. Figure- 17. Detail of William Blake, "The Laocoon. " Reprinted in David Bindman, ed., The Comp Granhic Works of William Blake (London: T Figure 18. William Blake, Milton a poem, plate 7. Reprinted in David Bindman, ed., The Complete Graphic Works of William Blake (London: Thames and Hudson, 1982) Plate 91. Figure 19. William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Kell, plate 10. Reprinted in David Binàrnan, ed., -The Conplete Graphic Works of William Blake (London: Thames and Hudson, 1982) Plate 422. Figure 20. Jacques Derrida, Glas (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1986) 44-45. vii ABSTRACT 'Itrs just not the same," someone might Say upon encountering a text for the first tirne on a computer in hypertext format. Surely, the words are the same, and we read the same way. What is it about books, or printed matter in general, that so defines the idea of reading? Upon closer investigation, it seems that the materiality of the book, and the materiality of even the printed page are integral to our notions of reading. This thesis is an investigation of the materiality of three pages: one from a medieval manuscript, one broadsheet by the artist and poet William Blake, and one from Jacques Derrida's book of experimental philosophy, Glas. In this thesis, 1 discuss and explore the ways in which our experience of reading is constructed--framed--by the page itself and its margins. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1 would first of al1 like to thank Dr. Peter Schwenger. His assistance, insight and good counsel has been invaluable throughout he preparation of this thesis. I'd also like to thank Dr. Dorota Glowacka and Dr. David McNeil for their comments and encouragement. Dr. Anne Higgins provided rnuch- needed advice for Chapter one, and Dr. David Clark of McMaster University did the same for Chapter two. 1 should also thank the academy: the ongoing support of the Dalhousie English Department, faculty, staff, and Graduate Fellowship. Then there's my colleagues and friends who are also finding their way through the graduate prograïe. Thanks to friends I've met here, Brian, Suzy, Lyn, Trina, Nick, the Daves, Melanie and Sandra; to friends Irve left in Hamilton, Ontario, Priti, Steve, and Margaret who warned me about this whole thing. This stack of paper is dedicated to my lover Christine. 1'11 get you something better sornetirne, promise. PREAMBLE You are reading a thesis. Somewhere around the centre of the page, there is a block of words. Surrounding it, there is a margin, which is blank paper. It is interrupted only by a page number. The type style reminds you of a mechanical typewriter, recalling a time before computers became personal. It al1 looks rather formal, and even a little legislated. You could investigate the prelirninary material and find that it is legislated, that an administrative body decrees the appearance of these pages. What is the relation between the 'text' on a page and the white space that surrounds it on the margins? 1s a text only words, or does it construct its own physical and textual margins in that white space? This thesis will be an investigation of pages that threaten and destabilize their own edges, that underrnine their textuality (in the strict sense) by their visuality. Margins frame texts, and texts £rame margins: this reciprocal relationship creates the leglble. The concept of the frame is interrogated by Jacques Derrida in The Truth in Painting, a book of four essays considered Derrida's contribution to the deconstruction of art history. Described as a supplement, the frame or parergon (par-ergon: that which lies outside the work) is both inside and outside, and the line that separates 'art' from everything else. The frame creates the work, delineating it for the viewerrs eye, yet the frame is not admitted as a part of the work. Literary works are framed too (we cal1 this "context", usually) : the frame is the social environment, the reception, the intellectual climate and political systems that exist when the work was produced and when it is read. As readers, we are always already framed by who we are and what our relation is to our culture. Gérard Genette has, more recently, devoted an entire book, Paratexts, to the things that are physically outside the \textr, like title-pages, dedications, indices-- as an external systern of control over the reader's interpretation of any given text. My focus here, however, is more specific. 1 am looking at three pages, two of which are pages of books, and am considering the relationship of the text to the margins. The three pages are not intended to be representative in any way--on the contrary, al1 three are strange in their own right. Al1 three exhibit an awareness--a visual artistrs awareness-of the page as a medium. These pages enact theory: ideas of the margins and the centre, of the frame, of the visual and the textual, of the very idea of reading itself; they do so, 1 contend, in order to interrogate these ideas, essential as they are to book-culture. Books about books abound at this time. The reason may be a kind of rnillennial angst, abetted by the declarations of futurists and devotees of information technology, who claim that the book will soon be extinct. George Landow has noted, and 1 think rightly, that those of us bent on protecting books from technology will fetishize them, and, if it will Save books in general, treat any cheap paperback as though it were the cornerstone of western civilization.