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Deposit Guide Contact: email 1 Reading to You, or the Aesthetics of Marriage Dialogic Intertextuality in the Works of Siri Hustvedt and Paul Auster Alexander Williamson Doctoral thesis submitted in partial completion of a PhD at Birkbeck, University of London July 2017 2 Abstract Using a methodological framework which develops Vera John-Steiner’s identification of a ‘generative dialogue’ within collaborative partnerships, this research offers a new perspective on the bi-directional flow of influence and support between the married authors Siri Hustvedt and Paul Auster. Foregrounding the intertwining of Hustvedt and Auster’s emotional relationship with the embodied process of aesthetic expression, the first chapter traces the development of the authors’ nascent identities through their non-fictional works, focusing upon the autobiographical, genealogical, canonical and interpersonal foundation of formative selfhood. Chapter two examines the influence of postmodernist theory and poststructuralist discourse in shaping Hustvedt and Auster’s early fictional narratives, offering an alternative reading of Auster’s work outside the dominant postmodernist label, and attempting to situate the hybrid spatiality of Hustvedt and Auster’s writing within the ‘after postmodernism’ period. The third chapter considers Hustvedt and Auster’s transfictional exchange of the ideas of Mikhail Bakhtin and Jacques Lacan through dialogue, characterisation and plot, an approach which seems to indicate Auster’s assimilation of Hustvedt’s theoretical interests, alongside a shared affinity for Martin Buber’s credo of mutuality. Continuing this discussion of self-other dialectics, Chapter four demonstrates how Hustvedt and Auster’s visual representations encompass models of intersubjectivity informed by the phenomenological approaches of Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, highlighting how Hustvedt and Auster utilise ekphrastic techniques to foreground the collaborative nature of creativity. Guided by Cathy Caruth and Dominick 3 LaCapra’s alternative readings of Freudian traumatology, the closing chapter reflects upon the empathic authenticity of Hustvedt and Auster’s post-9/11 narratives. Assessing Hustvedt and Auster’s distinctive contributions to the knowledge formation in the late Twentieth and early Twenty-First Centuries, the conclusion identifies a powerful bond of mutuality defined by the ‘uninterrupted conversation’ of their marriage, embodied in a generative dialogue and emotionally-freighted intertextual mode which is entirely unique to contemporary literature. 4 Acknowledgements The completion of this thesis would not have been possible without the guidance and patience of my supervisors at Birkbeck’s School of Arts, Dr. Anna Hartnell and Dr. Joseph Brooker. I am also grateful to Dr. Luisa Calè, Assistant Dean for Postgraduate Research at Birkbeck School of Arts, for agreeing to part- fund a trip to New York in December 2016 to interview Ms. Hustvedt and Mr. Auster. Further thanks to both Ms. Hustvedt and Mr. Auster for their kindness and candour during our conversation; and particular thanks to Ms. Hustvedt for her participation at the first academic conference on her writing, organised by myself and Dr. Brooker at Birkbeck, in October 2015. Finally, and indeed foremost, thanks to my wife Helen, without whose encouragement I would not have been able to begin, much less complete, this research. Moreover, the idea of exploring the intertextual dialogue between Hustvedt and Auster’s writing was her idea. This thesis is for her, and for our boys, Sam and Ben. 5 Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................. 7 Chapter one: Constructed selves – autobiography, storytelling and the canon..... 26 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 26 Narrativising the autobiographical self ............................................................. 36 Maternal and paternal spatiality ........................................................................ 50 Authorship, influence and the canon ................................................................. 67 Reader-writer collaboration ............................................................................... 84 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 97 Chapter two: Points of origin – postmodernism and beyond .............................. 100 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 100 Vive la différence: deconstructing poststructuralism ....................................... 106 Incredulity towards incredulity: the postmodern condition............................. 114 Illegibility and sincerity: beyond postmodernism ........................................... 121 Narrativising the (post)modern: intertextual strategies ................................... 128 1. Identity and language ............................................................................... 129 2. Temporality and liminality ...................................................................... 142 3. Authorial authority ................................................................................... 156 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 166 Chapter three: Structures of subjectivity – self-other dialectics ......................... 168 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 168 Dialogue and mutuality ................................................................................... 175 Otherness and objectification .......................................................................... 183 Narrativising self and other ............................................................................. 191 1. Objectification and affirmation ................................................................ 192 6 2. Multiple selves and mixing ...................................................................... 207 3. Outsiders, solitude and society ................................................................ 215 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 227 Chapter four: Literary visuality – phenomenology and ekphrasis ...................... 229 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 229 Husserlian intentionality .................................................................................. 239 Merleau-Ponty’s embodied subjectivity .......................................................... 247 Narrativising seeing ......................................................................................... 256 1. Intentionality and aesthetics..................................................................... 261 2. Embodied subjectivity ............................................................................. 269 3. Ekphrasis as co-production ...................................................................... 276 Chapter five: Troping trauma – 9/11, America and the family ........................... 287 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 287 Latency and acting out .................................................................................... 297 Transference and working through .................................................................. 305 Narrativising 9/11 ............................................................................................ 313 1. Representing unrepresentability .............................................................. 319 2. A nation united in grief? .......................................................................... 328 3. Cathartic communities ............................................................................. 341 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 353 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 355 Appendix: Interview with Siri Hustvedt and Paul Auster ................................... 370 Bibliography ........................................................................................................ 409 7 Introduction The purpose of this thesis is to explore a literary marriage and collaborative partnership which began with an unexpected encounter almost forty years ago. In 1981, Siri Hustvedt, a student at New York’s Columbia University,