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The Poetics of the Incomplete in the Works of Thomas Traherne (Ca. 1638-1674)

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The Poetics of the Incomplete in the Works of Thomas Traherne (Ca. 1638-1674) THE POETICS OF THE INCOMPLETE IN THE WORKS OF THOMAS TRAHERNE (CA. 1638-1674) A dissertation presented by Tanya Zhelezcheva to The Department of English In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the field of British Literature Northeastern University Boston, Massachusetts November, 2011 1 THE POETICS OF THE INCOMPLETE IN THE WORKS OF THOMAS TRAHERNE (CA. 1638-1674) by Tanya Zhelezcheva Abstract of Dissertation Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English in the Graduate School of Northeastern University November, 2011 2 Abstract This dissertation attends to the problems of the practice of writing in the early modern period and more particularly in the works of the seventeenth-century poet and prose writer Thomas Traherne (ca. 1638-1674). His works, which were discovered for the first time during the end of the nineteenth century and have been emerging in a series of chance discoveries throughout the twentieth century, are only now being read more fully for the first time. The dissertation, which takes into account the unfinished status of Traherne’s manuscripts, focuses on Traherne’s practice and method of generative writing in the context of seventeenth-century theories of discourse. It draws attention to the unfinished state in which the manuscripts have come to us and argues that these texts are informed by the physical and immediate practice of writing, rather than by prevalent theories of discourse or rhetoric, still less by any mystical imperative. In addition, the dissertation outlines the features of the genre of the non-finito work. Chapter 1, “The Problem of Exhaustible Writing,” outlines the problem of writing exhaustively and explaining everything thoroughly; it argues that for Traherne, the project dissipates because exhaustibility becomes associated with death and sin. Chapter 2, “Traherne’s Non-finito Closures: Rhetorical Moves, Syntactical Structures, and Typographical Markers,” examines the formal features of closure and resistance to closure and argues that closure is continually rewritten as a new beginning in Traherne’s work. Chapter 3, “Ways of Centrifugal Writing,” establishes the connection between centripetal forces of writing and the topoi of natural images and argues that the generative forces of nature permeate the process of writing, leading to an energizing condition of non-closure. The 3 final chapter, “Unsystematic Trajectories: The Flow of a Non-Systematic Procession,” extends the discussion in the previous chapter by pointing to the paradox of arche, telos, and the writing of anti-closural texts, where the practice of writing is not preceded by a theory of writing. 4 Abbreviations C Centuries CE Christian Ethics CH Commentaries of Heaven D Dobell Poems F Poems of Felicity KG Kingdom of God L Love PNB Philip Traherne’s Notebook (Thomas’ Notebook) RF Roman Forgeries SE Seeds of Eternity SM Select Meditations SV Sober View 5 Table of Contents Abstract of Dissertation ................................................................................................................................. 2 Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................................. 5 Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................................... 6 Introduction: Centuries of Oblivion ............................................................................................................. 7 Chapter 1: The Problem of Exhaustible Writing ...................................................................................... 78 Chapter 2: Traherne’s Non-finito Closures: Rhetorical Moves, Syntactical Structures, and Typographical Markers ............................................................................................................................. 109 Chapter 3: Ways of Centrifugal Writing ................................................................................................. 160 Chapter 4: Unsystematic Trajectories: The Flow of a Non-Systematic Procession ............................. 198 Works Cited ................................................................................................................................................ 261 6 Introduction: Centuries of Oblivion In the Centuries, in the last unfinished century, Traherne offers a meditation on the infinite artwork: Infinity of Space is like a Painters Table, prepared for the Ground and field of those Colors that are to be laid thereon. Look how great he intends the Picture, so Great doth he make the Table. It would be an Absurditie to leav it unfinished, or not to fill it. To leav any part of it Naked and bare, and void of Beauty, would render the whole ungratefull to the Ey, and argue a Defect of Time and Materials, or Wit in the Limner. As the Table is infinit so are the Pictures. Gods Wisdom is the Art, his Goodness the Will, his Word the Penicill, his Beauty and Power the Colors, his Pictures are all his Works and Creatures. ininitly more Real, and more Glorious, as well as more Great and manifold then the Shadows of a Landscape. But the Life of all is, they are the Spectators own. He is in them as in his Territories, and in all these, views his own Possessions. (C 5.5) There is a movement in this passage: initially there is a tendency toward the finished— the canvass has to be finished, but soon thereafter, hesitation steps in: the painting is vast, and it can hardly be finished. God’s ability to engage in continual creative acts—rather than His ability to produce a finished infinite painting—is the manifestation of His perfection. In the paragraph preceding this one, Traherne’s focus is on language; he quotes from Pico della Mirandola’s oration “On the Dignity of Man,” where Mirandola admires the potential for metamorphosis in man. Traherne comments on Mirandola’s writing style: “Any man may perceiv, that He permitteth his fancy to wander a little Wantonly after the maner of a Poet: but most deep and serious things are secretly hidden under his free and luxuriant Language” (C 4.78). Poetic wanton wanderings, “free and luxuriant Language,” a continual engagement with the act of creation of the unfinished and infinite work of art—these themes are the focus of this dissertation, and these themes invite the question about compositional completeness. I argue that in Traherne’s texts, each moment of composition finds generative potential; each moment of his writing 7 proliferates into new ones, and the strong generative potency of language can be severed only by the chance event of the death of the author. The scholarship on Traherne can be divided into three waves of criticism. The first wave comprises of those who are enthusiastic about Traherne’s style as well as those who find it repetitive and loose; the second wave comprises of critics who placing Traherne amidst Christian mystics and finding coherence in his works through mystical paradigms aim to refute those who claim that Traherne is not a poet craftsman. The third wave of criticism returns to the enthusiasm of the earlier critics and respond to the scholars of the second wave by pointing that the looseness of Traherne’s works is a central feature of his writing which needs no justification. The third wave of criticism, to which my dissertation belongs, is characterized by acknowledging the tendencies toward looseness and disorganization in Traherne’s works. However, these tendencies have not been explored fully for two reasons. Some of the scholars in this group are ambivalent in their assessment of these qualities because even though they admit them, they also make a brief case for the coherence in Traherne’s works. Others recognize these features in the works, but have projects other than the one I am advancing in this dissertation, i.e. that Traherne’s works are written in the non-finito mode. My aim is to isolate and develop the case for open composition in Traherne's works. This dissertation takes up the work of the scholars of the third wave of criticism and explores in depth the looseness of Traherne’s writing. I focus on the unfinished aspect of Traherne’s manuscripts in order to delineate the mechanisms of the forces of writing which defer or propel closure, so we can better understand Traherne’s practice and method of generative writing. I argue that by paying attention to the centrifugal and 8 centripetal forces of writing—those forces which tend toward dissipation and digression rather than the centripetal forces—those tending toward a center— we can better understand that Traherne’s practice of writing precedes the theory of writing. My argument is also a response to the critics of the second wave of criticism because it takes the unfinished nature of Traherne’s manuscripts more seriously. I argue that reading Traherne’s works as unfinished allows us to pay attention to the practice of composition rather than to the production of a theory of writing. Reading the works as unfinished is aided by an examination of the centrifugal forces of Traherne’s writing enable us to see how the texts eschew the codification of a theory of writing. The neglect of the nature of the unfinished work can be partially explained through the problem of authorship and the various confusing aspects concerning the printing of Traherne’s works, problems which I discuss in detail below.
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