University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies Legacy Theses 1997 A poetics of translation in twentieth-century writing Holbrook, Susan L. Holbrook, S. L. (1997). A poetics of translation in twentieth-century writing (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/14070 http://hdl.handle.net/1880/26651 doctoral thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY A Poetics of Translation in Twentieth-Century Writing by Susan Holbrook A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL mLFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF =TOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH CALGARY, ALBERTA SEPTEMBER, 1997 Q Susan Holbrook 1997 National Library Bibïîuenationale 1+1 OfCrnada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisiions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 WelIingtm Çtreet 395. me Wellington OttawaON K1AW Ottawa ON KlA ON4 Canada canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Libraty of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distrriute or sell reproduire, prêter, distriiuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la fonne de microfiche/£h, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. "A Poetics of Trans- in Twentieth Centwy Wsitingm articulates a mode of composition marked by iteration, or repetition with deviance. My particular focus is on the iterative texts of Nicole Brossard, Lyn Hejinian, bp Nichol and Gertrude Stein. As the title suggests, translation serves as a primary informing figure in this study of text generated out of text by the same author, in the same language. The topoi of translation theoty -- among them the notions of fidelity, equivalence, and invisibility -- facilitate an elaboration of this poetics, particularly as the authors themselves declare vriting and translation to be shared attentions. Nichol's Translating Translating Apollinaire and Brossard8s Le Désert mauve, for instance, explore translation as a generative mode1 for a compositional process which seeks to engage the inner workings of a single language. In addition to translation, 1 bring various other critical and theoretical optics to the works under study, among them psychoanalytic and queer theories, in order to address the questions raised by this processual poetics. My discussion of the kind of subjectivity an iterative text proposes is informed by both Kristeva's formulation of a heterogeneous sujet-en-proces and Judith Butler's notion of the performative constitution of identities. Reconciling iii these theorizations, 1 suggest that a 8subject-in-trans-' can be discerned in, for example, Lyn Hej inianrs two versions of the autobiographical My Life. The works of both Kristeva and Butler prove key, as well, in my investigation of the trans- poetic8s potential for the resignification of phrases, words, letters This study is occupied, in other words, not only with the ways that repetitive text might represent, but also with the ways it might productively agitate a language sedimented with the values favouring its presumed straight, white, male subject. Stein' s iterative poem, "Lifting Belly, " for ëx~le8 deploys language in such a way as to enable its imagination, performance, and representation of a lesbian erotics It is through a trans- poetic that we Mght discover a way, as Brossard puts it, "through the very practice of language to conceive of what is inconceivable outside language." My first thanks go to my superoisor, Fred Wah, for his critique, support, enthusiasm, eccentricity, humour, and patience. 1 consider myself lucky to have proceeded with rny work inspired by his good ear, encouraged by his good will. This project would have been impossible without the financial support of a SSHRC doctoral fellowship and an Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship; 1 thank the University of Calgary's Graduate Scholarship Committee for their votes of confidence, which led to these generous awards from SSHRC and the Killam Trustees. 1 would also like to thank the English department at Calgary for awarding me a Graduate Teaching Fellowship, whicb provided both financial support and invaluable professional experience. For wise and generous critiques and /or conversations which inf luenced my pro ject, 1 am indebted to Steve McCaf fery, Jeanne Perreault, and Helen Buss. 1 am very grateful to Estelle Dansereau for her direction in my study of Kristeva, and also for hes ludic approach to Brossardrs ludic poetics. Thanks to Susan Rudy, for showing me ways to talk about the interimplications of politics and poetry. 1 thank also Elizabeth Meese, whose work (Sem)Erotics remained on or very close to my desk for two years, precious for its demonstration that passion and criticism do mix. Warm thanks to: Andrew Klobucar, Rob Manery and Deanna Ferguson of the Wednesday night Poetry group, for reading, listening, drinking, and the hours spent with schemes for chance-generated texts which yielded maybe a couple of decent lines. Dorothy Trujillo Lusk for gossip. AL1 the other writers on the Kootenay School Collective, for welcoming me into their energetix. So many peers and friends whoove been there for inspiration and support, among th-: BJ Wray, Adnan Qayyum, Mical Moset, Mark Nakada, Jef f Derksen, Louis Cabri, Melanie Kolbeins, Cindy Holmes, Anne Fleming. Suzette Mayr for letters, Hiromi Goto for words. Denise Woodley, for whisking me off to Queen Elizabeth park just in time. 1 am grateful to my family, for their encouragement and interest, and for the example of their committed, idiosyncratfc and obsessive approach to their own various pursuits . To my sister Alex, a decade younger but my biggest role model. And to my mother, who welcomed my cornputer into the cabin last suimner, entertained my half- baked ideas, and plimiped me back up for fall. In the spring of 1994, just as 1 began to study for this project, 1 was shaken by two critical and visceral events; al1 at once 1 discovered that 1 had an ovariaa tumour and that 1 was a dyke. The scar on my stomach healed in time, but for a woman who had treasured ten years of marriage with her best friend, coming out was a slow and often painful process, fraught with the further loss of many friends and family members. Ouring this tlme two people kept me afloat. One is Nicole Markotic, who has been a great miting and scholarly companion, and also turns out to the dearest faithful champion the right moments. And the other is my former partner Kevin Shortt, whose interest and belief in my work has always propelled me. More importantly, however, Kevin gave me the most generous gift 1 have ever received -- acceptance and love in the face of his own loss. 1 continue to be astonished by this love which, although shifted in kind, semains unwavering in its strength. vii For my mother, Catherine Holbrook, who blazed a nature trail in the surmuer of 96, and each &y brought guiding metaphors to the writing going on inside the cabin. After days of deliberating whether to cut a path above or below two Eastern Hemïocks, she decided to proceed between them. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Approval Page ........................................... ii Abstract ................................................iii Acknowledgements .......................................... v Dedication ............................................. viii Table of Contents ........................................ h INTRODUCTION: A POETICS OF TRANS- ......................... 1 LOOK BOTH WAYS FOR TRANS ................................. 12 "the original author ...#.................................33 THE INTERIOR OUTSIDE: RECONCILING BUTLER AND KRISTEVA .... 36 "repetition is a fear .... ................................ 49 DESIRE AND DELIRIUM IN LE DÉSERT MAUVE / mmDESERT .... 50 "The desert is unscriptable ...M........................+.76 Delirium tremens ......................................... 77 "hey four eyes .... ....................................... 78 AURA ...................................................... 79 ÇHUDDER .................................................. 85 MAUVE ARROWS AND THE EROTICS OF TRÀNSLATION .............. 86 HOMOEOPATHIC TRANS- ..................................... 100 KAKA. FL. AND THE VALUE OF LESBIAN PARAGRAMS ............ 105 SECRET .................................................. 125 LETTERAL SENSE .......................................... 127 Dear N: ................................................. 143 TRANSLATING TRANSLATING THE PROPER NAME ................. 144 Guillaume qpollinaize Group Portrait .................... 162 PORTRAITS. LAUGHTER AND REPETITION t QOESTIONING