And Twenty-First-Century Fiction Dissertation Presented in Partial
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Reclaiming Aesthetics in Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Fiction Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Wanzheng Michelle Wang, M. A. Graduate Program in English The Ohio State University 2015 Dissertation Committee: Brian McHale, Advisor David Herman James Phelan Jon Erickson Copyright by Wanzheng Michelle Wang 2015 Abstract An apparent rift exists between the anti-aesthetic emphasis in postmodern and contemporary literary theory, on the one hand, and readerly appreciations of and engagements with the aesthetic, on the other. This tension between anti-aesthetic critical paradigms and aesthetic experiences of fiction is the central problem I examine in my dissertation. By putting philosophical, aesthetical, narrative, and literary traditions in conversation with each other, I propose a new framework for understanding aesthetic impulses at work in twentieth- and twenty-first-century fiction by revising Immanuel Kant’s and Friedrich Schiller’s heuristic tools and categories—which I argue remain pertinent to understanding twentieth and twenty-first century fiction. Drawing on these and other contributions to aesthetic theory, I suggest that post-war fiction is dominantly concerned with the harmonies, engagements, and tensions between what I term the form- drive, the moral-drive, and the sense-drive, in relation to readerly roles and responses. Part I includes two chapters devoted to play, which I characterize as the dominant aesthetic energy that characterizes postmodernist fiction (McHale). My analysis of Flann O’Brien’s At Swim-Two-Birds (1939) and Alasdair Gray’s Lanark (1981) relates to readers’ inhabitation and orientation of the playful, complex ontological worlds of ii postmodern fiction. I use the tension/conflict between the form- and sense-drives to characterize the aesthetic category of play, and suggest that Marie-Laure Ryan’s possible- worlds theory provides a useful critical apparatus for explicating how the form-drive functions as a system of ordering in readers’ navigations of these ontologically-complex fictional worlds. Part II deals with the ways in which twentieth- and twenty-first-century fiction has reinvigorated traditional aesthetic categories. In chapter three, I use Flann O’Brien’s The Third Policeman (1939-40/1967) and Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian (1985) to demonstrate two different instances of the sublime. Chapter four deals with texts that engage the aesthetic category of the beautiful in very different ways: Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body (1992) deals with a more traditional conception of beauty as the harmony of the form- and sense-drives (as conceived by Kant and Schiller); by contrast, Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go (2005) complicates this classical understanding of beauty by foregrounding the harmony and tension between the form- and moral-drives. Although the three modes do not exhaust the diverse aesthetic energies that characterize post-war literature in English, they can be viewed as junctures that offer us an alternative trajectory for thinking about forms of literary practice during the period in question. If contemporary aesthetic theorists are correct in positing that our experiences of art are ultimately meant to give us a changed sense of the world (Danto) or help us build more well-adapted neurocognitive systems to “revis[e] behavior in an unstable world” (Spolsky), I suggest that exploring the interactions between what James Phelan calls textual and readerly dynamics in the manner I propose here yields fruitful insight iii into writers’ and readers’ expectations of what literature has to offer to a post-war world devastated by unrelenting violence. iv Dedication 致 老爸老媽 養育之恩 無以回報 v Acknowledgments To my committee, Professors Brian McHale, David Herman, James Phelan, and Jon Erickson, thank you all for your huge support in every way: for your astute advice, your nurturing patience, your generosity as teachers and mentors, and so much more. I am continually inspired by your brilliance and kindness. To Daddy, Mummy, Samuel, Melissa, and Melinda, for your unfailing love. To 東, whose presence at the end put a perfect finish to the long journey. To Sally and Bryan Sansbury, Esther Gottlieb, Frederick Aldama, Theresa Rojas, Hyesu Park, Leila Ben-Nasr, Erin Wagner, Andrew Richmond, Wanlin Li, Brandon Manning, Christopher Gonzalez, Erin Bahl, Kathleen Griffin, Kathryn Jenks, Bee Kim, friends from Jim’s potluck group (especially those who generously drove me to/from meetings, including Lizzie Nixon, Brian McAllister, Matt Poland, Yonina Hoffman, Paul McCormick, and Anne Langendorfer), and the ministry of the Newman Center (particularly Fr. Vinny and Fr. Chuck)—all of your friendships and infinite kindness made Ohio my home. To Godma and family, Weirong Lin, Angelin Awyong, Mastura Manap, Vanessa Neubronner, friends and extended family, thanks for every prayer, thought, and message—they meant so much to me. vi To friends, colleagues, and mentors from NTU (both past and present), most especially Neil and Su Murphy, Daniel Jernigan, Jeremy Fernando, Michelle Chiang, and many others, thanks for all your support in every way. Thanks be to God—I’m finally here. vii Vita 2010 – 2015 .............. The Ohio State University, Department of English, Ph.D program Ph.D candidate, Graduate Teaching Associate, and Graduate Fellow 2008 – 2010 .............. Nanyang Technological University, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Division of English, M.A. program 2004 – 2008 .............. Nanyang Technological University, Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Division of Communication Research, B.Comm. program and Minor in English Literature Publications 1. W. Michelle Wang. “「這又不是演戲」‘We’re not playacting here’: Self- reflexivity in the Taiwanese Idol-Drama.” Journal of Narrative Theory 44.3 (Fall 2014). 2. W. Michelle Wang. “Encountering Formal Beauty: An Aesthetic Reading of Saramago’s All the Names.” On Reading; Fictionality, Form, and Friendship. Ed. Jeremy Fernando. New York: Atropos Press, 2012. 3. W. Michelle Wang. “Formal Structures of Literary Beauty in Daniel Alarcón’s Short Fiction.” Exploring the Critical Issues of Beauty. Ed. Gabrielle Simpson. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2012. 183-193. 4. W. Michelle Wang. “Lightness of Touch: Subtracting Weight from the Narrative Structure of At Swim-Two-Birds.” Flann O’Brien: Centenary Essays. Spec. issue of Review of Contemporary Fiction 31 (Fall 2011): 134-147. viii 5. Mark Cenite, Wanzheng Michelle Wang, Pei Won Chong, and Shimin Germaine Chan. “More than just free content: File sharing and the use of peer-to-peer networks.” Journal of Communication Inquiry 33.3 (2009): 206-221. Fields of Study Major Field: English Post-1945 Literature in English Specializations: Aesthetic Theory Narrative Theory ix List of Figures Figure 1. Possible-worlds model of At Swim-Two-Birds .................................................... 40 x Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... ii Dedication ...................................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................................... vi Vita ................................................................................................................................................ ix List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ x Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Part I: An Aesthetics of Play ......................................................................................................... 15 Chapter One Possible Worlds of Play in At Swim-Two-Birds ....................................... 16 Chapter Two Text-as-World/Text-as-Game: Interpreting Lanark’s TAW ................... 61 Part II: Reframing the Sublime and the Beautiful ........................................................................ 99 Chapter Three An Aesthetics of the Literary Sublime ................................................ 100 Chapter Four An Aesthetics of Muted Beauty ........................................................... 159 Coda ............................................................................................................................................ 223 Notes ........................................................................................................................................... 229 Works Cited ................................................................................................................................ 274 xi Introduction In a press release announcing the finalists for the Man Booker International Prize 2015, the judging committee’s chair, Professor Marina Warner, notes that “[t]he novel today is in fine form: as a field of inquiry, a tribunal of history, a map of the heart, a probe of the psyche, a stimulus to thought, a well of pleasure and a laboratory of language” (emphasis added). Last year, the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to French novelist Patrick Modiano for his evocation of