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See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305368340 The Structurality of Poststructure Chapter · January 2010 CITATIONS READS 0 53 2 authors, including: Walter Hoelbling Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz 29 PUBLICATIONS 8 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: Fictions of War in U.S. American Novels and Films after 1945 View project U. S. American war writingg and movies in historical perspective View project All content following this page was uploaded by Walter Hoelbling on 05 May 2020. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. Petra Eckhard, Michael Fuchs, Walter W. Hölbling (Eds.) Landscapes of Postmodernity American Studies in Austria edited by Astrid M. Fellner (Saarland University) Klaus Rieser (University of Graz) Hanna Wallinger (University of Salzburg) Vo lu me 1 0 LIT Landscapes of Postmodernity Concepts and Paradigms of Critical Theory edited by Petra Eckhard, Michael Fuchs, and Walter W. Hölbling LIT Cover Picture: M. C. Escher’s Relativity adapted by Andrew Lipson and Daniel Shiu Gedruckt mit Unterstützung des Bundesministeriums für Wissenschaft und Forschung in Wien Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. ISBN 978-3-643-50201-8 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ©LIT VERLAG GmbH & Co. KG Wien 2010 LIT VERLAG Dr. W.Hopf Krotenthallergasse 10/8 Berlin 2010 A-1080 Wien Fresnostr. 2 Tel. +43 (0) 1-409 56 61 D-48159 Münster Fax +43 (0) 1-409 56 97 Tel. +49 (0) 2 51-620 320 e-Mail: [email protected] Fax +49 (0) 2 51-922 60 99 http://www.lit-verlag.at e-Mail: [email protected] http://www.lit-verlag.de Distribution: In Germany: LIT Verlag Fresnostr. 2, D-48159 Münster Tel. +49 (0) 2 51-620 32 22, Fax +49 (0) 2 51-922 60 99, e-Mail: [email protected] In Austria: Medienlogistik Pichler-ÖBZ, e-mail: [email protected] In Switzerland: B + M Buch- und Medienvertrieb, e-mail: [email protected] In the UK: Global Book Marketing, e-mail: [email protected] In North America by: Phone: +1 (732) 445 - 2280 Transaction Publishers Fax: + 1 (732) 445 - 3138 Rutgers University for orders (U. S. only): Transaction Publishers 35 Berrue Circle toll free (888) 999 - 6778 New Brunswick (U.S.A.)• and London (U.K.) Piscataway, NJ 08854 e-mail: [email protected] PREFACE Austria’s Young Americanists, a network of young scholars of American Studies based in Austria, was officially brought into being in November 2007 in order to facilitate information transfer among Ph.D. students. Since then, AYA has orga- nized three annual workshops: “Approaching Toni Morrison’s Beloved from all Sides” (Nov. 2007), “Landscapes of Postmodernity” (Sept. 2008), and “Iconic Figures of the 20th Century and Beyond” (Oct. 2009). As the title suggests, the volume at hand is the outcome of the workshop held back in fall 2008, which was conceptualized as a space that brings together doc- toral students who in their research projects approach central ideas of postmo- dern thought. Unfortunately, we were not able to include essays by all of the workshop participants, but the additional contributions we were offered finally made possible a well-balanced and versatile collection of essays. We want to acknowledge the support of this book publication by the Depart- ment of American Studies at the University of Graz and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research. Furthermore, we want to express our gratitude to those that made the workshop possible, primarily to Karin Schmid-Gerlich and the U. S. Embassy Vienna as well as the Fulbright Commission for their continued financial support. Secondly, to the city of Graz and especially City Councilor Wolfgang Riedler, who generously provided the premises of the Lite- raturhaus Graz to conduct the workshop. Finally, to Michael Rozendal for giving the opening talk at the workshop, conducting the discussion and, of course, also for contributing the opening essay to this volume. We also want to thank the series editors of American Studies in Austria for accepting the project for publication in the series, Susanne Hamscha for writing the introduction to the section “Polymorphous Identities,” and Ana Teresa Jar- dim Reynaud for penning the afterword. A very big thanks to Gundo Rial y Costas, who not only was the one to sug- gest the publication of ‘workshop proceedings,’ but who also was very active in recruiting additional contributors and a great help in the organization of the Transamérica section, to which he also wrote the introduction. Finally, we want to thank Andrew Lipson for allowing us to use an image of his LEGO adaptation of M.C. Escher’s Relativity constructed in collaboration with Daniel Shiu on the book cover. You can find Andrew Lipson’s work online at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.lipson. All the images used in this volume are reproduced in the spirit of publicity and promotion of the respective films, graphic novels, and computer games. Petra Eckhard, Michael Fuchs, Walter W. Hölbling TABLE OF CONTENTS Michael Rozendal Remapping Postmodern Exchanges: Theory Avant La Lettre, a Travelogue 9 THE STRUCTURALITY OF POSTSTRUCTURE Walter W. Hölbling & Michael Fuchs The Structurality of Poststructure: The Foundations of Postmodernism (Section Introduction) 23 Michael Phillips Apocalypse?! Now?! Heart of Darkness as a De(con)structive Survival Guide for Postmodern Times 29 Simone Puff Writing Ahead of the Times? A Postmodern Reading of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God 55 Michael Fuchs A Horrific Welcome to the Desert of the Real: Simulacra, Simulations, and Postmodern Horror 71 POSTMODERN CHRONOTOPOETICS Walter W. Hölbling & Petra Eckhard Postmodern Chronotopoetics: An Introduction 93 Michael Fuchs Allegories of Playing: Spatial Practice in Computer Games 99 Cornelia Klecker Fascination for Confusion: Discontinuous Narrative in Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction 113 Petra Eckhard Uncanny Architextures: Reading Time, Space, and Representation in Paul Auster’s City of Glass 129 POLYMORPHOUS SUBJECTIVITIES Susanne Hamscha Polymorphous Subjectivities: An Introduction 153 Susanne Hamscha Losing Nemo, Finding Alternatives: Queer Theory and the Postmodern Subject 159 Christoph Hartner A Squeeze of the Hand: A Queer Reading of Moby-Dick 179 Leopold Lippert Negotiating Postmodernity and Queer Utopianism in Shortbus 195 TRANSAMÉRICA Gundo Rial y Costas Transamérica: A Long Journey Through and Beyond the Americas (Section Introduction) 209 Marcel Vejmelka Yoknapatawpha Between the Deep South and the West Indies: The Dynamics of Transculturation in William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! and Go Down, Moses 213 Pablo Valdivia Orozco The Chronotopos in the (Postmodern) Novel of the Américas: Towards a Transareal Topology of the Local 235 Gundo Rial y Costas Revisiting Spivak: Does the Subaltern Speak In and Through Telenovelas? 251 AFTERTHOUGHTS Ana Teresa Jardim Reynaud From Copacabana: Varenikes, Kebabs, a Turtle, and a Pigeon 271 Contributors 279 Index 283 REMAPPING POSTMODERN EXCHANGES: THEORY AVANT LA LETTRE, A TRAVELOGUE MICHAEL ROZENDAL The difference between a writer and its world gives the reason for writing. All men- tal existence is an expression, a measure of distance. Kathy Acker, “Notes on Writing” What does not change / is the will to change Charles Olson, “The Kingfishers” Let us propose a slippery slope as a way into the unstable multiplicity of post- modern exchanges. 1 It is a slope located in the Bavarian Alps not far from the border with Austria where King Ludwig II commissioned his fairytale creampuff of a castle, built between 1869 and 1886 as the first skyscrapers were rising in Chicago and New York. Neuschwanstein, inspired by Wagner’s operatic ver- sions of medieval myths and designed by an theatrical set painter, piles layer upon layer of fantasy in testimony to a German identity that it was attempting to fabricate. What is striking about this particular fantasy, however, is that it has become reality. As the most photographed building in Germany, the castle is now emblematic, attracting thousands to its crag: it is and has been a postmodern building from its inception. Neuschwanstein is in a way unfinished, although it is also somehow complete in its incompletion. The tour through it skips several floors since the master’s and servants’ levels are the only there, an archaic assertion of social opposites undermined by the procession of the masses through the halls – some 1.3 million per year with as many as 6000 per day when summer swells the tide.2 The inte- rior architecture wastes nothing on nuance despite being replete with an ornate grotto, throne room, and an opera hall which all sing in support of the exterior’s message. Taking photos through the windows of the surrounding landscape may be fair game, but photos of the interior are verboten. This is hardly a loss. After all, Neuschwanstein is all about exteriors. Photos in front of the walls or perhaps a matching set of plasticized placemats are the only way to prove that one has 1 I would like to thank Professor Christopher Leise for his comments on an early draft of this piece. 2 Bayerische Schlösserverwaltung Neuschwanstein: Schloss Neuschwanstein heute (http://www.neuschwanstein.de/deutsch/schloss/index.htm). Accessed July 21, 2009. 10 MICHAEL ROZENDAL actually been there, that one has had a direct experience of the image, that our collective dreams are actually stones. And then friends may touch the hand that touched the image itself. Neuschwanstein (literally “New Swan Stone”) faces the same problem that postmodernism does – it is a term predicated on another term, a castle that ampli- fies and displaces the old twelfth-century ruins of Schwanstein that form the foundations of the family castle just around the bend.