Space, Time and the Pilgrimage in Modernist Literature Examining Committee

SPACE, TIME AND THE PILGRIMAGE IN MODERNIST LITERATURE Kathleen Mary Scheel B.Sc., Simon Fraser University, I984 M.A., Simon Fraser University, 1993 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English 8 Kathleen Mary Scheel 2005 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Summer 2005 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. Name: Kathleen Mary Scheel Degree: Doctor of Philosophy (English) Title of Thesis: Space, Time and the Pilgrimage in Modernist Literature Examining Committee: Chair: Dr. Margaret Linley Assistant Professor of English Dr. Mary Ann Gillies Senior Supervisor Associate Professor of English and Associate Dean of Arts Dr. Tom Grieve Associate Professor of English and Chair, Department of English Dr. Stephen Collis Assistant Professor of English Dr. Meredith Kimball Internal External Examiner Professor Emerita of Women's StudieslPsychology Dr. Ann Ardis External Examiner Professor of English and Associate Dean, Arts and Humanities, University of Delaware Date Approved: a.tA SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENCE The author, whose copyright is declared on the title page of this work, has granted to Simon Fraser University the right to lend this thesis, project or extended essay to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. 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Bennett Library Simon Fraser University Burnaby, BC, Canada ABSTRACT The changes in temporal and spatial orientation that occur at the turn of the twentieth century in visual arts, science and philosophy provoke a re-evaluation of one of the defining myths of modernist literature. When time is shown to be neither objective nor constant and the notions of a single, unified perspective in space are revealed as illusory, the quest's sequential outcome; unified, authoritative view; and reliance on an exclusively aristocratic, male protagonist are shown to be inadequate. The search by modernist writers for a new paradigm uncovers the pilgrimage. The pilgrimage focuses on goalless activity where meaning and significance are determined not temporally, but spatially, through relationships between characters or words on the page. This endeavour is linked to the recovery of the archetypal feminine, associated with cyclical and eternal time, which is repressed in Western culture since it may appear chaotic and disruptive to the linearity of the quest. The transition in mythic form from quest to pilgrimage in literature is neither uniform nor immediate and is approached with some ambivalence as modernist writers acknowledge the inadequacy of the classical inheritance and the simultaneous difficulty of relinquishing the potential for accomplishment afforded by the quest. However, the loss of the quest motif is less troubling for some modernist writers than others, particularly women who were not afforded a subject position within the quest. This thesis will consider the development of the pilgrimage as a literary trope through a study of six modernist texts: Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Dorothy Richardson's Pilgrimage, James Joyce's Ulysses, T.S. Eliot's poems, The Waste Land and Four Quartets, H.D.'s long poem, Trilogy, and a final text, generally considered to be postmodern, Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I consider myself fortunate to both work and study in an environment that encourages intellectual investigation. I gratefully acknowledge the financial support received from Simon Fraser University, the Department of English and my parents that made possible the writing of the first draft of the thesis. I thank my Supervisory Committee members, Mary Ann Gillies, Tom Grieve and Steve Collis for showing me what the thesis could be and the external committee members, Meredith Kimball and Ann Ardis for agreeing to serve as examiners. Given the interdisciplinary nature of my project, I offer special thanks to those individuals who suggested additional materials or read sections of the thesis: Andrew Barton from Archaeology, Jean-Claude Brodovitch from Chemistry and Sheila Roberts from English. While this project argues for the significance of process as well as product, its completion would have remained remote were it not for the ongoing support and advice that I received from numerous individuals, many of whom operate outside my department of study. Thanks goes to Don Grayston for explaining the difference between a pilgrim and a hero; to Anne Higgins for 'getting it,' to Alton Harestad for the thesis writing seminar; to Penny Simpson for her patient assistance with the format of the thesis, to Joan Wolfe for doing the actual formatting; and to Denise Vanderwolf and Susie Smith for steering me through the seemingly endless paperwork. A debt is also owed to those who listened to both my whining and exhilaration at crucial stages and never once cautioned me to turn back: Apollonia Cifarelli, Tracy Wyman-Marchand, Martha Scheel, Mike Smith, Chris Kennedy, and Emma Pink. And finally, thanks to my family and friends for their always interested, "are you done yet?" TABLE OF CONTENTS .. Approval ....................................................................................................................11 ... Abstract ................................................................................................................... 111 Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................iv Table of Contents .........................................................................................................iv List of Illustrations .......................................................................................................vi Introduction .................................................................................................................... Chapter 1. "Hollow at the Core": The Literalization of the Quest in Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness.. ................................................................ 37 Chapter 2. "All the Women are One Woman": The Failure of the Quest in T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land.................................................................... 61 Chapter 3. "No Beginning, No Middle or End": Dorothy Richardson's Pilgrimage. ..............................................................................................-83 Chapter 4. "All a Woman's Body Yes": Molly as the Site of Pilgrimage in Ulysses .................................................................................................. II 7 Chapter 5. "In My End Is My Beginning": The Pilgrimage of Four Quartets ....... 145 Chapter 6. "A Face Like a Christmas-Rose": The Pilgrimage in Trilogy ............ 168 Chapter 7. The Heart of Darkness in The English Patient .................................... 193 Notes ................................................................................................................222 Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 232 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1. The Keys .....................................................................................................8 Figure 2 . Ampullae & Pilgrim Badges .......................................................................13 Figure 3 . Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. 1907. Pablo Picasso (1881 -1 973) ................. 26 Figure 4 . Adoration of the Holy Wood and the Meeting of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Piero della Francesca ..................................................205 Figure 5 . Detail from The Meeting of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Piero della Francesca .......................................................................................206 Figure 6 . Madonna del parto. 1467. Piero della Francesca.................................... 207 INTRODUCTION Every period has its bias, its particular prejudice, and its psychic malaise. An epoch is like an individual; it has its own limitations of conscious outlook, and therefore requires a compensatory adjustment. This is effected by the collective unconscious when a poet or seer lends expression to the unspoken desire of his times and shows the way, by word or deed, to its fulfilment - regardless whether this blind collective need results in good or evil, in

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