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The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of Liberal Arts ON SECOND REFLECTION: ASSEMBLING CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE A Dissertation in English by Abram Foley © 2016 Abram Foley Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2016 The dissertation of Abram Foley was reviewed and approved* by the following: Jonathan P. Eburne Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and English Dissertation Adviser Chair of Committee Robert L. Caserio Professor of English, Comparative Literature, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Nergis Ertürk Associate Professor of Comparative Literature Brian Lennon Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature Daniel Purdy Professor of German Studies Benjamin Schreier Associate Professor of English and Jewish Studies Debra Hawhee Professor of English and of Communication Arts and Sciences Director of Graduate Studies, English Department *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School. ii Abstract On Second Reflection: Assembling Contemporary Literature examines a range of authors and academics who became editors and publishers of prominent literary magazines and publishing houses since 1945. The dissertation argues that practices of editing and publishing compel these writers and academics to undertake a “second reflection” on the forms and contexts of postwar writing in the United States. “Second reflection” provides an alternative for thinking about the reflective aspects of literary works by opening reflection to conditions of experience and production. As such, my project studies writers who became editors and publishers, and who made editorial work into a lens for theorizing how contemporary literature can be constituted. Charles Olson and Nathaniel Mackey take stock of their editorial practices to position their work against the limitations of New Criticism (1950s) and the identity politics of the canon wars (1980s). But they also foster in their writing what I call a “procedural metaphysics” and a “poetics of hospitality,” respectively, that derive from editorial experience. The Dalkey Archive Press republishes out-of-print works to lay bare the effects for-profit publishing has on literary criticism; but it also demonstrates how literary remainders—in the form of out-of-print books— operate within the discourse of contemporary literature. Chris Kraus’s Native Agents Series within the Semiotext(e) publishing house not only corrects problematic gender oversights in the press’s list before her editorship, but it also serves as a functioning model with which Kraus theorizes the relationship between gender and genre in postwar writing. And the Black Took Collective establishes an experimental “black” collectivity, but proposes that this collectivity gives rise to a critical dissonance the members associate with experimental arts. On Second Reflection concludes that these critical positionings sustain the task of assembling contemporary American literature in ways that demand the emergence of new literary histories as a prerequisite for understanding our literary present. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments.......................................................................................................................... vi INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................ 1 On Second Reflection ................................................................................................................................ 1 The Critical Field: A Brief Overview ......................................................................................................... 16 Two Backdrops: Postmodernism and Corporatized Publishing .............................................................. 21 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 31 CHAPTER 1. Charles Olson and the Process of Metaphysics ......................................................... 37 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 37 The Printed Word, in Theory................................................................................................................... 45 The Word on the Page ............................................................................................................................ 52 Interlude: Poetics between Explanation and Expression ....................................................................... 59 Islands Hidden in the Blood .................................................................................................................... 61 CHAPTER 2. A Literary History of the Dalkey Archive Press ....................................................... 78 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 78 “‘Contemporary literature’ is only certain people…” ............................................................................. 84 Founded upon a Void: On the Question of Literary History ................................................................... 91 Material Economy and Literary History: Sorrentino and the Dalkey Archive Press, Redux ................... 98 Interviews with Black Writers and the Lacunae of Literary History ..................................................... 101 CHAPTER 3. Hambone’s Call: Intellectual Labor and the Invitation to Literary Hospitality ...... 115 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 115 Hambone’s History................................................................................................................................ 126 Hambone’s Expeditions into Wholeness .............................................................................................. 130 On Hospitality and Hambone’s Call ...................................................................................................... 140 “Destination Out”: On Centrifugal Inconclusion ................................................................................... 151 CHAPTER 4. Another Frame: Chris Kraus, Semiotext(e), and the Economy of Letters .............. 158 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 158 Desire, Excess, and Literary Economy ................................................................................................... 167 The Law of Genre .................................................................................................................................. 172 Another Turn: I Love Dick as Vulgar Telling .......................................................................................... 183 A Narrative of Ghosts: From James to Kraus ........................................................................................ 192 iv Conclusion: James, Kraus, and the Future of the Novel ....................................................................... 197 CHAPTER 5. Coda: The Black Took Collective and Movement-in-Progress............................... 204 Works Cited ................................................................................................................................ 213 v Acknowledgments Given that this dissertation addresses the many processes that surround literary publication, it is fitting that “On Second Reflection” is itself the result of countless conversations that can be only informally documented in the project itself. Better, then, to make them somewhat more explicit here at the outset. It has been with great pleasure and gratitude that I have written this dissertation under the advisement of Jonathan Eburne, whose intellectual generosity has helped to improve the project immeasurably, while also serving as a model for how an engaged academic can approach this profession. Throughout the dissertation’s development, Jonathan has seen it through its advancements and missteps, always maintaining his uncanny ability to intuit— or simply to know—what I needed and when, when to guide and when to simply think along with me. My many thanks to him for showing how process becomes a part of the project. My other committee members played major roles in helping me to develop “On Second Reflection.” Professor Robert Caserio pointed me to Charles Olson after reading the direction of my thoughts in my comprehensive exam answers. Just as importantly, he was a close reader of everything I sent to him and always responded with wonderful insights, which he also always followed by asking: “How can I be helpful to you?” And he always was. Nergis Ertürk gave me my first extended introduction to the work of Edward Said, whose philological approach to abstract thought continues to influence my thinking about the development of “second reflection,” even if I don’t cite him extensively in what follows. She also encouraged me to think more closely about the public reception of the works I consider, which I hope to take up if this dissertation becomes a book manuscript. Brian Lennon introduced me to some of the foundational works of contemporary media theory, which had a profound effect on