Mourning, Memory and Imagination in the Poetry of José Kozer
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IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER AND THE MOTHER: MOURNING, MEMORY AND IMAGINATION IN THE POETRY OF José Kozer, Tamara Kamenszain, and Eduardo Espina A Dissertation by DIANE MCGAVOCK ROLNICK Submitted to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Chair of Committee, Eduardo Espina Committee Members, Hilaire Kallendorf Richard Curry Alessandra Luiselli Paul Christensen Head of Department, Irene Moyna August 2015 Major Subject: Hispanic Studies Copyright 2015 Diane McGavock Rolnick ABSTRACT While often taken as sentimental in nature, poetry about death provides poets and readers an artistic space for processing grief. The Latin American Neobaroque, a way of writing poetry know predominantly for its intellectual approach to language, has to date provided no understanding of an emotional component as a feature of its creative conception. The manner in which the formally recognized Neobaroque poets, José Kozer, Tamara Kamenszain, and Eduardo Espina avoid sentimentality in new poems written on the deaths of their parents is a question on which preliminary research shows little to no exchange of ideas. For this reason, it is suggested that these three poets create a caesura within the understanding of the discourse on the Neobaroque. In so doing, this investigation becomes essential as the first serious line of inquiry with significant intellectual value on this subject, and is advanced through the creation of a framework for anti-sentimentality in the Neobaroque. As a result of this investigation, it is ascertained that the concept of poetic areté provides a much-needed response to this and other questions regarding “how” these poets, and possible others as well, filter their emotions through the intellect, and is the foundation for this study. ii DEDICATION To my Mom and Dad, Laura Jo Kirby and Alvin Powell McGavock, whose memory and those of my childhood are still with me. I think both would be proud. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my committee chair, Dr. Eduardo Espina, for making this dissertation and my time at Texas A&M University all that I hoped for in returning to academia. To my committee members, Dr. Richard Curry, Dr. Alessandra Luisellli, Dr. Hilaire Kallendorf, and Prof. Paul Christensen, I say thank you for your guidance and support throughout the course of this research. Thanks also go to my friends and colleagues, including Julio César Aguilar, Audrey Powell, Pablo de Cuba Soria, and the many other fellow students I have worked and commiserated with throughout this journey. I would also like to thank all members of the Hispanic Studies Department faculty and staff for making my time at Texas A&M University an enriching experience. I also want to extend my gratitude to José Kozer and Tamara Kamenszain for taking time to complete the interview and for responding to my emails. In addition, a special thank you goes out to José Kozer for suggesting the poets and the titles used, and to Prof. Randolph Pope for suggesting mourning as a topic. I also want to thank the many family members and personal friends who have listened and supported me through this project, you know who you are! And last but definitely not least, I would like to thank my husband Michael for his encouragement, patience, and love; without his support I would not have written these words. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. ii DEDICATION .......................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ......................................................................................... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................... v CHAPTER I PREFACE AND INTRODUCTION ............................................. 1 Contextualizing the Neobaroque .................................................................. 10 Spain’s Baroque ...................................................................................... 12 Birth of the Neobaroque in Latin America ............................................... 15 José Lezama Lima .................................................................................... 17 Severo Sarduy .......................................................................................... 19 Haroldo de Campos .................................................................................. 24 Friedrich and Maravall ............................................................................. 27 New Readings of the Neobaroque ................................................................. 28 Neobaroque as a “Sign of the Times” ....................................................... 35 Recent Latin American Theories of the Neobaroque .................................... 48 Neobaroque Then and Now ........................................................................... 50 CHAPTER II SENTIMENTALITY, MOURNING, AND MODERN DEATH .. 51 Sentiment in Verse ....................................................................................... 54 Kozer, Kamenszain, and Espina: The Case for Three Poets ....................... 61 Theoretical Approximations on Langauge and Mourning ........................... 69 Psychoanalysis and Mourning ..................................................................... 73 Literary Theory and Mourning .................................................................... 80 The Resistance of Genre and Subjectivity in Poetry .................................... 83 The Autobiographical “I” in Mourning Poetry ............................................ 90 The Tradition of Mourning Poetry in Latin America Since 1900 ................ 95 Inscribing Articulate Emotions .................................................................... 103 CHAPTER III FRAMING ANTI-SENTIMENTALITY .......................................... 106 Language Technology ................................................................................... 107 v Syntactic Thought ..................................................................................... 108 Humor as Pharmakon ................................................................................. 111 A Sense of Neobaroque Humor ................................................................. 114 Irony and Sentimentality ............................................................................ 116 What’s Good, Bad, Kitsch, and “Lo cursi” Got To Do With It? ................. 120 Alienation of Emotion ................................................................................ 124 Remembering and Mourning ........................................................................ 127 The Habitus of Memory ............................................................................. 129 Inhabited Spaces of Remembrance ............................................................ 134 Visualizing the Difficult ................................................................................ 138 “El Más Allá” ............................................................................................... 146 The Historical Sublime ............................................................................... 153 The Contemporary Sublime ....................................................................... 155 CHAPTER IV JOSÉ KOZER: A POET’S IMAGINATIVE MEMORY ............. 161 Kozer’s Aesthetics of Sensibility .................................................................. 165 Deleuze’s Operative Function ....................................................................... 169 Eastern and Western Voices .......................................................................... 170 Corporeal Constructors, not Destructors ....................................................... 183 Absence and Presence ................................................................................... 190 Disconnected but Indivisible ...................................................................... 191 Interior Presence Absence in the Space of the Home ................................ 196 Exterior Absence/Presence in Exile ........................................................... 203 The Banality of Cursilería and the Awe of the Sublime ............................... 210 The Hyper-Rational Art of a Poetic Son ...................................................... 222 CHAPTER V TAMARA KAMENSZAIN: POETIC DESIRE OF MEMORY ... 225 A Neoborroso Aesthetic of Experience ........................................................ 228 Echoes From a Collective Experience .......................................................... 239 Exiled in Memory Loss ................................................................................. 252 Autobiographical Memory: “Realer Than Real” .......................................... 259 Autobiographical Syntactic Thought ......................................................... 264 Involuntary Emotional Memory ................................................................. 272 Emotional Memory Through the Eternal Maternal Voice ......................... 276 Memory, Desire, and the Maternal Body ...................................................... 282 The Speaking Body .................................................................................... 284 The Abject Body and the Return