Modernist Curiosities: Desire, Knowledge and Literature in Gustave Flaubert’S Bouvard Et Pécuchet, Elias Canetti’S Die Blendung and Jorge Luis Borges’S “El Aleph”
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Modernist Curiosities: Desire, Knowledge and Literature in Gustave Flaubert’s Bouvard et Pécuchet, Elias Canetti’s Die Blendung and Jorge Luis Borges’s “El Aleph” by Paul Pemeja A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy Centre for Comparative Literature University of Toronto © Copyright by Paul Pemeja 2011 Modernist Curiosities: Desire, Knowledge and Literature in Flaubert’s Bouvard et Pécuchet, Canetti’s Die Blendung and Borges’s “El aleph” Paul Pemeja Doctor in Philosophy Centre for Comparative Literature University of Toronto 2011 Abstract More than ever, in modernity, ―knowledge‖ has become the object of an intense desire. The tensions underwriting this modern desire for knowledge are inscribed in the very term, curiosity, which is at the centre of this dissertation. A venerable motif, curiosity anchors the specifically modern desire to know within a longstanding philosophical, theological and literary tradition. By the 19th century, ―curiosity‖ is certainly an anachronistic paradigm. Yet, inscribed in curiosity, there are two conflicting dialectics which can be found at the heart of modernity‘s unquenchable thirst for knowledge: one the one hand, the dialectic between curiosity as a disenchanting desire to see through into the innermost secrets of things, and curiosity as a ―thing‖, the product of a fetishist desire arrested on the glittering surface of things. On the other hand, curiosity is beset by the dialectic between the desire for a ―totalizing‖, meaningful vision and the compulsive drive of an increasingly specialized, meaningless pursuit of knowledge. This dissertation examines a series of Modernist narratives which expose this double dialectic. The protagonists of Gustave Flaubert‘s Bouvard et Pécuchet, Elias Canetti‘s Die Blendung and Jorge Luis Borges‘ El Aleph are all caricatural, anachronistic, curieux ultimately ii seeking an ―absolute knowledge‖ that cannot be embodied. The moment it seems to have been attained, it is reified, ―objectified‖ into a fetish, a ―curiosity‖. Yet, these narratives are not only about curiosity; they are in fact true vortexes of curiosity: that of the protagonists of the narratives as well as that of the authors and the readers themselves. As a result, these narratives also speak to the paradoxical location of literature within culture: literature appears simultaneously as the privileged site of all – ultimately phantasmic – totalizing, meaningful visions of the world, as well as a marginal locus, a monstrous cultural residue. iii Acknowledgments I can hardly believe that the moment has come to write these lines after what has been a long and solitary journey. Yet, I could have never reached a safe port on my own. Many times I thought I had been definitely led astray by the same dissipating curiosity I was studying. Every time a guiding hand came to my rescue. First of all, I would like to thank my two advisors, Eva Kushner and John Zilcosky. As I found myself lost in labyrinths of my own making, John was always there to show me the thread that would allow me to pursue this journey. No less than his intellectual guidance, his encouraging words have given me the necessary confidence and courage to persevere. To Eva, I am thankful not only for her intellectual and moral support; above all, it has been her dedication, her rigor, and her true devotion to the scholarship she loves that have been an inspiring example. I would also like to thank Veronika Ambros, who gave me theoretical wings that have led me in unexpected directions, and, Eva-Lynn Jagoe, for her thoughtful reading of my chapter on Borges. My fellow comparatist and friend, Scott Marentette, with whom I shared most of this journey across immense ―seas of coffee‖, has always turned a patient and critical ear to my ramblings. But this long journey could have never been possible without the unwavering support of my wife Sarah, who has always been lovingly understanding and indulgent with my ―serious games‖, which in these uncertain and difficult times for the humanities have strangely felt both like a unique privilege and a gratuitous luxury. And lastly, when the ―idle wind of curiosity‖ that had ―guided‖ me for many years seemed to have been eroded by the pressing urgencies of life, I found it again, fresh and vibrant, in the eyes of my son Yann, who, since they first met mine, has kept that same inquisitive look of wonder at the world, that same curiosity which will now always be with us. iv Table of Contents Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………………….. ii Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................ v Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1 Epistemophilia, Wissbegier, Neugier and other Curiosities ......................................... 14 1 Curiositas ................................................................................................................................. 19 2 The modern disciplining of curiosity ....................................................................................... 24 3 From desire to know to epistemic drive ................................................................................... 29 4 Freud: Curiosity about curiosity............................................................................................... 32 5 ―The work is finite; theory is infinite‖ ..................................................................................... 38 6 The Object of Curiosity ............................................................................................................ 44 7 The curious spectacle of curiosity ............................................................................................ 50 Chapter 2 Bouvard et Pécuchet: An Encyclopaedic Curiosity ..................................................... 55 1 Curiosity engenders curiosities ................................................................................................ 58 1.1 The Museum ...................................................................................................................... 66 2 Belated curiosity ....................................................................................................................... 69 3 Between drive for knowledge and desire for truth ................................................................... 75 4 Grace and gravity ..................................................................................................................... 91 5 The Library-Encyclopaedia ...................................................................................................... 97 Chapter 3 Die Blendung: A Tale of Two Curiosities .................................................................. 105 1 ―Kiens Wissbegier war geweck, Neugier kannte er nicht.‖ ................................................... 118 2 Disembodying Wissbegier ..................................................................................................... 127 3 Gaze: from Enlightened Wissbegier to blind epistemological drive ...................................... 131 3.1 Blindness and insight ...................................................................................................... 132 v 3.2 Dazzling Enlightenment .................................................................................................. 136 3.3 Dazzling things ................................................................................................................ 142 4 The voice of knowledge ......................................................................................................... 152 5 Obscene curiosity ................................................................................................................... 161 6 Curious bodies: Knowledge between desire and drive .......................................................... 166 7 Conclusion.............................................................................................................................. 184 Chapter 4 The Aleph: The Impossible Object/Subject of Curiosity ........................................... 189 1 Seeing the Aleph: Theoria or curiositas? ............................................................................... 193 2 Saying the ineffable Aleph ..................................................................................................... 204 3 The lost Aleph ........................................................................................................................ 214 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 226 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 232 vi 1 Introduction Back in 1980, in an anonymous interview, ―Le philosophe masqué‖, which Michel Foucault gave to Le Monde, the philosopher evoked the ―immense curiosité‖, the ―avidité à savoir‖ (927) (―thirst of knowledge; 328), of our present era and the need to ―multiplier les canaux, les passerelles, les moyens d‘information, les réseaux de télevision et de radio,