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Connotations A Journal for Critical Debate Volume 19 (2009/2010) Numbers 1-3 Waxmann Münster / New York Connotations - A Journal for Critical Debate by the Connotations Society is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Connotations: A Journal for Critical Debate Published by Connotations: Society for Critical Debate EDITORS Inge Leimberg (Münster), Matthias Bauer (Tübingen), Burkhard Niederhoff (Bochum) and Angelika Zirker (Tübingen) Secretary: Uli Fries Editorial Assistants: Martina Bross and Lena Moser EDITORIAL ADDRESS Professor Matthias Bauer, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Department of English, Wilhelmstr. 50, 72074 Tübingen, Germany Email: [email protected] http://www.connotations.de EDITORIAL BOARD M. H. Abrams, Cornell University Åke Bergvall, University of Karlstad Christiane Bimberg, Universität Dortmund John Russell Brown, Middlesex University Ursula Brumm, Freie Universität Berlin Paul Budra, Simon Fraser University Lothar erný, Fachhochschule Köln Eleanor Cook, University of Toronto Elizabeth Story Donno, The Huntington Library William E. Engel, The University of the South Bernd Engler, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen A. C. Hamilton, Queen’s University, Ontario John P. Hermann, University of Alabama John Hollander, Yale University Lothar Hönnighausen, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn Arthur F. Kinney, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Frances M. Malpezzi, Arkansas State University J. Hillis Miller, University of California, Irvine Martin Procházka, Charles University, Prague Dale B. J. Randall, Duke University Alan Rudrum, Simon Fraser University John M. Steadman, The Huntington Library Michael Steppat, Universität Bayreuth Leona Toker, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem John Whalen-Bridge, National University of Singapore Joseph Wiesenfarth, University of Wisconsin-Madison Waxmann Münster / New York Connotations wants to encourage scholarly communication in the field of English Literature (from the Middle English period to the present), as well as American and other Literatures in English. It focuses on the semantic and stylistic energy of the language of literature in a historical perspective and aims to represent different approaches. Each issue consists of articles and a forum for discussion. The forum presents, for instance, research in progress, critical hypotheses, responses to articles published in Connotations and elsewhere, as well as to recent books. As a rule, contributions will be published within five months after submission so that discussion can begin without delay. Articles and responses should be forwarded to the editors. Articles should not exceed 12,000 words and follow the MLA Handbook. Responses should be limited to 4,000 words. All contributions should be submitted by e-mail; they should be in English and must be proofread before submission. Connotations is published three times a year. Private subscribers are welcome to join the Connotations Society for Critical Debate. Members receive the journal as well as invitations to the Connotations symposia. The suggested annual fee is € 40; reduced rate (e.g. for students) € 20. Please write to: Connotations, Professor Matthias Bauer, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Department of English, Wilhelmstr. 50, 72074 Tübingen, Germany. Email: [email protected]. Libraries and other institutional subscribers write to: Waxmann Verlag, Steinfurter Str. 555, 48159 Münster, Germany; or: Waxmann Publishing Co., P.O. Box 1318, New York, NY 10028, U.S.A. Email: connotations@ waxmann.com. Annual subscriptions are in Europe €40, in the U.S. and all other countries $ 60, including postage. A selection of articles and responses is freely available on the internet (http://www.connotations.de). © Waxmann Verlag GmbH, Münster/New York 2010 (Unless indicated otherwise in individual articles) All Rights Reserved Printed in Germany ISSN 0939-5482 Connotations is a member of the Council of Editors of Learned Journals. Contributions are indexed, for example, in the MLA Bibliography, the World Shakespeare Bibliography and the IBZ/IBR. Connotations A Journal for Critical Debate Volume 19 (2009/2010) Numbers 1-3 Responses to “Restored From Death” Response to Åke Bergvall’s “Resurrection as Blasphemy in Canto 5 of Edmund Spenser’s ‘The Legend of Holiness’” MATTHEW A. FIKE 1 An Answer to Matthew A. Fike ÅKE BERGVALL 6 A Response to Margret Fetzer’s “Donne’s Sermons as Re-enactments of the Word” EDMUND MILLER 9 Donne’s Sermons as Re-enactments of the Word: A Response to Margret Fetzer ANITA GILMAN SHERMAN 14 Reanimation or Reversibility in “Valerius: The Reanimated Roman”: A Response to Elena Anastasaki GRAHAM ALLEN 21 A Letter in Response to Leona Toker JOHN R. REED 34 Reanimation, Regeneration, Re-evaluation: Rereading Our Mutual Friend EFRAIM SICHER 36 Lowell’s Tropes of Falling, Rising, Standing: A Response to Frank J. Kearful HENRY HART 45 Truths of Storytelling: A Response to Burkhard Niederhoff JANICE FIAMENGO 53 A Response to “The Return of the Dead in Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing and Alias Grace” ELEONORA RAO 68 Should We Believe Her? Margaret Atwood and Uncertainty: A Response to Burkhard Niederhoff MARGARET ROGERSON 79 The Psychoanalytic Theme in Margaret Atwood’s Fiction: A Response to Burkhard Niederhoff FIONA TOLAN 92 A Response to Burkhard Niederhoff’s “The Return of the Dead in Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing and Alias Grace” SHARON R. WILSON 107 Surfacing from Six Feet Under: A Response to Burkhard Niederhoff LORRAINE YORK 119 Ghosts, Knowledge and Truth in Atwood: A Reader’s Guide to Six Responses BURKHARD NIEDERHOFF 126 About Lew Welch ARAM SAROYAN 136 Written Sounds and Spoken Letters: Orality and Literacy in Toni Morrison’s Beloved BÄRBEL HÖTTGES 147 Other ARTICLES and RESPONSES ... To Say Nothing of Frogs and Angels: A Response to Tom MacFaul BRUCE BOEHRER 161 More Hot Air: A Large and Serious Response to Tom MacFaul THOMAS HERRON 165 From Scotland to the Holy Land: Renegotiating Scottish Identity in the Pilgrim Narrative of William Lithgow HOLLY FAITH NELSON and SHARON ALKER 176 The Rape of the Lock and the Origins of Game Theory SEAN R. SILVER 203 A Question of Competence: The Card Game in Pope’s The Rape of the Lock. A Response to Oliver R. Baker KATHRYN WALLS 229 On Superstition and Prejudice in the Beginning of Silas Marner JOHN H. MAZAHERI 238 “Mundane Things”: Response to Neil Browne MICHAEL ANESKO 259 New Money, Slightly Older Money & “Democratic” Writing: A Response to Neil Browne ANDREW MADIGAN 263 The Perception of Relations: An Answer to Andrew Madigan and Michael Anesko NEIL BROWNE 271 Self, World and the Art of Faith-Healing in the Age of Trauma: A Response to Susan Ang’s Reading of English Music SUSAN ONEGA 276 Connotations Vol. 19.1-3 (2009/2010) A Response to Åke Bergvall’s “Resurrection as Blasphemy in Canto 5 of Edmund Spenser’s ‘The Legend of Holiness’”* MATTHEW A. FIKE Åke Bergvall clearly sets out his purpose in two statements early in his article. First, “I shall argue that Duessa’s act of salvation is blas- phemous and (consequently) ineffectual” (1-2). Second, “[t]he conten- tion of this paper is that Duessa and her ‘mother’ Night, even as they bring linguistic confusion and stage a blasphemous mock-imitation of Christ’s harrowing of hell, may be suffering the same fate” (2). The final phrase may mean “willing evil but working good” (2), but this may not be entirely clear. The key concept, then, is blasphemy, which Bergvall, following An- dreea-Tereza Nitisor, claims to be “‘textual’ and ‘linguistic.’” “That linguistic profanation,” writes Bergvall, “can be felt in the semantic confusion of canto 5,” and so forth (2). The nexus of blasphemy, lin- guistic profanation, and semantic confusion is a bit shaky, but Bergvall offers a capable and sensitive close reading of canto 5, with an emphasis on the multiple readings that arise from ambiguous statements such as Duessa’s “Thine the shield, and I, and all” (I.5.11). Bergvall writes: “In fact, there is no conclusive evidence which of the two knights Duessa is actually addressing, or indeed, if she is rather hedging her bets” (5; emphasis added). But the uncertainty here is the key point—the lack of evidence is evidence. As stated in my book, Spenser’s Underworld in the 1590 Faerie Queene, “the remark may be *Reference: Åke Bergvall, “Resurrection as Blasphemy in Canto 5 of Edmund Spenser’s ‘The Legend of Holiness,’” Connotations 16.1-3 (2006/2007): 1-10. For the original article as well as all contributions to this debate, please check the Connotations website at <http://www.connotations.de/debbergvall 01613.htm>. 2 MATTHEW A. FIKE addressed to either Redcrosse or Sans Joy (she is covering her bases)” (42; emphasis added). The ambiguity is purposeful, as the author later seems to agree: “indeed, she seems more than happy to exchange lovers depending on their luck in the jousts” (5). Duessa’s falseness is another nicely developed feature of Bergvall’s article, but he is at his best in delivering insights on blasphemy, nar- rowly defined. His point about “Messianic delight at seeing the new- born Savior in chapter 3 of the Gospel of Luke” in connection with Night’s mention of the “child, whom I haue longd to see” (I.5.27) is a very good reading (8). So is the insight, borrowed from A. C. Hamil- ton’s note, that “some” in stanza 26 may refer to Christ as well as others. At these two points, the article delivers on the notion of blas- phemy in its first statement of purpose. But there is a disconnection between the author’s stated goal and what he actually achieves insofar as the true interest here—namely, confusion, developed often as falseness—is rarely blasphemous. The article’s second statement of purpose, which concerns the har- rowing of hell, is somewhat at odds with Bergvall’s assertion in para- graph 2 that his “contribution” is not source study. Demonstrating that canto 5 includes blasphemy requires reference to sources, as with the passage from Luke and the traditional understanding of Christ’s harrowing of hell, which the Bible originates, the Fathers confirm, and texts like Langland’s Piers Plowman dramatize.
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