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Comparing the Waste Land and Surrealist Painting \ COMPARING THE WASTE LAND AND SURREALIST PAINTING: A METHODOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION Louisemarie Combrink COMPARING THE WASTE LAND AND SURREALIST PAINTING: A METHODOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION Louisemarie Combrink, Hons. BA. Dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Magister Artium in English at the Potchefstroomse Universiteit vir Christelike Hoer Onderwys Supervisor: Prof. A.M. de Lange Assistant supervisor: Prof. A.L. Combrink POTCHEFSTROOM 1998 VOLUME I TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements Abstract u Opsomming IV VOLUME 1: A note to the text VI List of figures IX CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 2: THE BROADER PICTURE 13 2.1 Introductory remarks: the debate surrounding comparative 13 studies of poetry and art 2.2 Comparing Modern art and Modern poetry 21 2.3 The context: Modernism 24 2.4 Tlte Waste Land 30 2.5 Literature overview: four critical texts 33 CHAPTER 3: THE METHODOLOGICAL SOLUTION: SEMIOTICS 79 3.1 Introduction 79 3.2 Art history and semiotics 81 3.2.1 Jan Mukarovsky 81 3.2.2 Margaret Iversen 83 3.2.3 Mieke Bal and Norman Bryson 84 3.3 . A model for analysis 90 3.4 Salient concepts 96 3. 4.1 Semiotics and fragmentation 96 3. 4. 2 Intertextuality and allusion 100 3.4.3 Collage 103 3.5 Surrealism 106 3.6 Framing the method 115 CHAPTER 4: DISCUSSION AND EXEMPLARY ANALYSES 120 4.1 Identity 120 4.2 The theme of sexual decay 155 CHAPTER 5: EN ReSUMe 165 BIBLIOGRAPHY 175 APPENDIX A: THE WASTE LAND 182 VOLUME II 200 Acknowledgements My sincere thanks to 1. My supervisor, Prof. A.M. de Lange for his patience, professionalism, invaluable creative suggestions and consistent inputs. 2. The friendly and helpful staff of the Ferdinand Postma Library. 3. My mother, who was also my assistant supervisor, for unfailing encouragement, precious time and support and for believing in me. 4. Friends and family who professed an interest m my studies and who supported me throughout, notably Willie; and also my grandparents, whose financial and emotional support meant a great deal to me. 5. Jan-Louis, whose understanding, assistance, encouragement and interest made all the difference to my work. The financial assistance of the Centre for Science Development towards this research is hereby acknowledged. Opinions expressed and conclusions reached in this dissertation are those of the author and should not be attributed to the Centre for Science Development. 11 ABSTRACT The basic concern of this dissertation has been to establish a methodological approach that could accommodate analogous readings of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land and Surrealist painting. The aim was therefore to transform intuitively apprehended similarities between these texts into more sustained and scholarly arguments. In order to do so, a number of critical texts dealing with analogous readings of The Waste Land and Modern art movements were investigated with a view to extracting and evaluating the issues emerging from such an endeavour. It was found that Surrealism and Cubism were often used.for purposes of being read analogously with the poem, but the dissertation argues that the thematic complexity and concern for content which are salient to Surrealist painting render this particular movement in visual art more suitable for analogy with The Waste Land than Cubism. The concurrent reading of the poem and a painterly movement further necessitated an investigation into the probability of pursuing an interdisciplinary study of this nature, and a critical perspective of a number of existing views in this regard was undertaken. It was found that although the analogous reading of poetry and art is a contentious issue, it would be possible to compare two generically different kind of texts. Also, the texts under discussion - The Waste Land and Surrealist paintings- were framed within the Modemist movement and particularly the branch of Modernism that questioned the optimistic and technological world­ view so often associated with the Modernist project. Hence it was found that both The Waste Land and Surrealist painting undermine questions of certainty, clarity and objectivity by surrendering formal logic and embracing the darker, more ambivalent and doubtful branch of Modernism. In order to establish a workable methodological approach, semiotics emerged as being an eminently suitable tool for this purpose. Although semiotics has for a fairly long time been incorporated into literary studies, it has not yet been firmly established as an art-historical approach and therefore a number of critical perspectives on semiotics and the discipline of art history had to be investigated and assessed. Having established that the very interdisciplinary and also transdisciplinary nature of semiotics rendered this approach suitable for cross­ disciplinary investigation, the dissertation set out to establish a methodological approach based on semiotics and modified to suit the current purposes. The semiotic model of 111 Riffaterre in Semiotics of poetry (1983) as supplemented by the conceptual framework of Johnson (1985) in an article entitled "Broken images - Discursive fragmentation and paradigmatic integrity in the poetry of T.S. Eliot" was proposed as an approach that would give the reader and viewer of The Waste Land and Surrealist painting access to a number of decoding possibilities and interpretative avenues. This model was supplemented by incorporating salient aspects such as fragmentation, allusion and intetiextuality as well as collage as part of the methodological approach. The final section of the dissertation set out to illustrate possible applications of the proposed methodological approach and here the notions of unfixed and indeterminate identity as well as the theme of sexual decay were addressed in exemplary analyses. It was established that the method can facilitate analogous interpretations of The Waste Land and Surrealist painting in a more structured and informed manner than the merely intuitive. IV OPSOMMING Onderliggend aan hierdie verhandeling was die pogmg om 'n metolodogiese raamwerk daar te stel vir die analoe lees van T.S . Eliot se The Waste Land en Surrealistiese skilderkuns. Die doel was dus om intui:tief-waargenome ooreenkomste tussen hierdie tekste te formaliseer en tot meer volgehoue en wetenskaplike argumente te kom. Om dit te kon doen is 'n aantal kritiese tekste wat sulke lesings van The Waste Land en Moderne kunsbewegings bevat ondersoek om my in staat te stel om die sake wat hiermee saamhang uit te lig en te evalueer. Daar is gevind dat Surrealisme en Kubisme dikwels gebruik is vir analoe lesings met hierdie gedig, maar dit is 'n sentrale argument in hierdie verhandeling dat tematiese kompleksiteit en die belang van die inhoud wat 'n inherente deel van Surrealistiese skilderwerk is hierdie beweging meer geskik maak vir 'n analoe lees met The Waste Land as wat die geval is met Kubisme. Die samehangende lees van die gedig en 'n beweging in die skilderkuns het die ondersoek na die moontlikheid van 'n interdissiplinere studie van hierdie aard genoodsaak, en 'n kritiese studie van 'n aantal insigte in hierdie veld is dus onderneem, waartydens gevind is dat hoewel die analoe lees van poesie en kuns nie sonder probleme is nie, dit tog moontlik sou wees om twee generies-verskillende soorte tekste te vergelyk. Die tekste wat hier tersake is - The Waste Land en Surrealistiese skilderkuns - is binne die Modernistiese beweging ingebed, en dan meer spesifiek daardie vertakking van Modernisme wat die optimisme en tegnologiese beheptheid wat dikwels met Modernisme geassosieer het bevraagteken. W at uitgekom het is dat beide The Waste Land en Surrealistiese skilderwerk die sake van duidelikheid, sekerheid en objektiwiteit ondermyn deur formele logika te laat glip en die donkerder, meer ambivalente en vertwyfelde vertakking van Modernisme te omarm. In die paging om tot 'n werkbare metodologiese benadering te kom, het die semiotiek hom voorgedoen as baie geskik vir hierdie projek. Hoewel die semiotiek al lank in literere studies tuisgekom het, is dit nog lank nie goed gevestig as 'n kunshistoriese benadering nie, en 'n aantal kritiese perspektiewe op die semiotiek en kunsgeskiedenis . v moes dus nagespeur word. Nadat vasgestel is dat die interdissiplinere en transdissiplinere aard van die semiotiek hierdie benadering besonder toepaslik maak vir kruisdissiplinere ondersoeke, is daar begin met die ontwikkeling van 'n metodologiese benadering gebaseer op die semiotiek wat aangepas is vir die huidige doeleindes. Riffaterre se semiotiese model, soos uiteengesit in Semiotics of poetry (1983) en soos aangevul deur die konseptuele raamwerk van Johnson (1985) in sy artikel "Broken images - Discursive fragmentation and paradigmatic integrity in the poetry of T.S. Eliot" word as 'n benadering voorgehou wat vir die leser van en kyker na The Waste Land en Surrealistiese skilderye toegang bied tot 'n aantal moontlikhede vir die dekodering van hierdie tekste. Die model is aangevul delir die inkorporering van sulke toepaslike aanvullende aspekte as fragmentasie, allusie en intertekstualiteit, sowel as collage. Die laaste deel van die verhandeling bevat moontlike toepassings van die voorgestelde metodologiese benadering en hier word die idees van onvaste en onbepaalde identiteit sowel as die tema van seksuele verval ondersoek by wyse van eksemplariese ontledings. Daar word vasgestel dat hierdie metode analoe lesings van The Waste Land en Surrealistiese skilderwerk kan fasiliteer op 'n meer gestruktureerde en ingeligte wyse as wat die intuitiewe lees dit kon doen.
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