Rethinking the Romantic Subject Through Schelling and Jung
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Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 8-23-2017 11:00 AM Romantic Metasubjectivity: Rethinking the Romantic Subject Through Schelling and Jung Gord Barentsen The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Joel Faflak The University of Western Ontario Joint Supervisor Tilottama Rajan The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in English A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Gord Barentsen 2017 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Barentsen, Gord, "Romantic Metasubjectivity: Rethinking the Romantic Subject Through Schelling and Jung" (2017). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 4784. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/4784 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract This thesis takes up Friedrich Schelling’s philosophy and Carl Jung’s analytical psychology to develop Romantic metasubjectivity, a model of the subject absorbing more of the vast compass of Romantic thinking on subjectivity than what prevails in Romantic criticism. Romantic criticism tends to be dominated by psychoanalysis as well as deconstruction and poststructuralist theory, which see the subject as either a linguistic phenomenon or simply a locus of difference without a unified “I.” In response to this critical tradition, Romantic metasubjectivity discerns a notion of Self which is neither a linguistic fantasy nor a transcendental essence which is or becomes fully present to itself. The Introduction supplies historical and theoretical parameters for what follows, explaining why Schelling and Jung are crucial to the concept of Romantic metasubjectivity. The first chapter establishes analytical psychology as a Schellingian Naturphilosophie après la lettre, with the latter illuminating analytical psychology’s differences from psychoanalysis (particularly Jung’s rethinking of libido). The second chapter focuses on analytical psychology and Naturphilosophie to develop the topography of the Romantic metasubjective unconscious as a dissociative economy of energy. I establish Schelling’s actant and Jung’s archetype as isomorphic dynamisms which create this economy in Nature and the psyche, to articulate the uniquely Romantic historicity and materiality which resists coagulation into history and materialist notions of the subject. Chapter Three articulates the experience of Romantic metasubjectivity as a limit-experience of this dissociative historicity via Schelling’s idea of intellectual intuition (later ecstasy) and Jung’s development of synchronicity as an acausal connecting principle. Chapter Four focuses on the individuation of Romantic metasubjectivity as a radically ateleological, purposively driven force of self-organisation which informs the person’s experience in the world. Paradoxically, it is Romantic metasubjectivity’s traumatic experience of historicity which both makes this individuation possible and guarantees its interminability. Chapter Five turns to Romantic literature, examining William Wordsworth’s The Prelude and Percy Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound as “case studies” of the Romantic metasubjective psyche. The Conclusion touches on John Caputo’s Against Ethics and the contemporary hit TV series Breaking Bad to question the possibility of a Romantic metasubjective ethics. i Keywords Romanticism; Metasubjectivity; German Romanticism; German Idealism; Theory; Friedrich Schelling; Carl Jung; Analytical Psychology; Psychoanalysis; Subjectivity; Individuation; Personality; Ethics; Potencies; Dissociation; Libido; Synchronicity; Archetype; Actant; Alchemy; Sublation; Ungrund; Aufhebungsdialektik; Erzeugeungsdialektik; Copular Logic; Freedom; Necessity; The Unconscious; Thanatopoiesis; Grammatology; Naturphilosophie; Rhythm and Caesura; Desire; Tragedy; Trauma; Evil; Historicity; Positive Philosophy; Philosophy of Mythology; Teleology; Purposiveness; Dialectic; Trieb; G.W.F. Hegel; Sigmund Freud; Gilles Deleuze; Deconstruction; William Wordsworth; Percy Shelley; Friedrich Hölderlin; Breaking Bad ii Acknowledgments This dissertation was written during a difficult and extremely trying period of my life. My sincere thanks to the infinite support of my brother David and godmother Corre Barentsen. This thesis is also for Willem (Bill) Barentsen, who always appreciated the value of a good education, and my parents Nona and Stan, all three of whom would have been proud. Before moving forward, I must begin as Schelling and Jung both have done – by returning to the past. At York University, I thank Ian Balfour for stoking a strong enthusiasm for Romanticism many moons ago. Ted Goossen’s honesty and encouragement at an early stage helped build my momentum toward graduate school (even though I didn’t specialise in Asian religions and learn Sanskrit). At the University of Western Ontario, first and foremost I must thank my supervisors Joel Faflak and Tilottama Rajan – scholars, colleagues, and friends who demonstrated to me time and again integrity, understanding, and seemingly infinite patience, sometimes in the face of the very worst from others. Their generosity and shared sense of intellectual adventure put them in a class of their own. I also express my deep gratitude to my doctoral examining committee: Allan Pero, Jan Plug, Antonio Calcagno and Jason Wirth – four excellent minds whose questions and comments were all incisive, thought-provoking and invaluable. They and my supervisors exemplify the collegiality and professionalism that academia should always be. Steven Bruhm and Kim Solga also deserve mention as two enthusiastic and talented lecturers who helped me develop personally and professionally. Colleagues Jeff King and Christopher Bundock provided me with guidance and friendship during arduous periods of writing. I also express my gratitude to the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities, which awarded me two Ontario Graduate Scholarships, and to the Faculty of Arts and Humanities for awarding me a Mary Routledge Fellowship. I would also like to thank other scholars and writers for their generosity. Iain Hamilton Grant provided me with a copy of his unpublished translation of Schelling’s On The World Soul; C.G. Jung’s grandson Andreas Jung lent me his personal copy of Jung’s Bibliothek-Katalog for my research; and Joan Steigerwald made her valuable draft work on iii degeneration available to me. Joe Hughes and Justin Clemens gave me a very warm welcome in Melbourne Australia, for which I am also deeply grateful. On the family side of things down-under: Seven reminded me at all the right times – and as only a feline can – of the importance of nonhuman communication. And last, but absolutely farthest from least…this is for my wife Carolyn, whose understanding, encouragement, patience and love are, collectively, the closest of anything in this world to the unconditioned. Was man nicht erfliegen kann, muss man erhinken. iv Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................ i Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ v List of Abbreviations ....................................................................................................... viii Preface: Romantic Metasubjectivity .................................................................................. ix Introduction: A Word to the “Why”s ........................................................................... xxviii Why Romanticism? ................................................................................................. xxviii Why Schelling? – The Absolute Subject, or, the Logic of the Third ....................... xxxv Why Jung? – Anatomy of a Difference........................................................................ xli Jung and the Resistance to Theory ............................................................................... liv Chapter 1 ............................................................................................................................. 1 1 A First Outline of Romantic Metasubjectivity ............................................................... 1 1.1 Schelling’s Naturphilosophie: Inhibition and “Unnatural Nature” ........................ 4 1.2 Freud and Jung: Borders and Border Zones ......................................................... 13 1.3 Freud: The Pleasure Principle…and Beyond ........................................................ 21 1.4 Inter-Section: Deleuze’s Perversion of Libido ..................................................... 29 1.5 Jung: Analytical Psychology, Weltanschauung, and the Fluidity of Being .......... 32 Chapter 2 ........................................................................................................................... 44 2 The Romantic Metasubjective Unconscious: Dissociation, Historicity, Trauma ........ 44 2.1 Schelling’s Actant: Derangement, Drive, Disease ...............................................