Against Ulro: on the Creation of Poetic Space in the Work of Delmira Agustini, Alejandra Pizarnik and Marosa Di Giorgio
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Against Ulro: on the Creation of Poetic Space in the Work of Delmira Agustini, Alejandra Pizarnik and Marosa di Giorgio by Jeannine Marie Pitas A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Centre for Comparative Literature University of Toronto © Copyright by Jeannine Marie Pitas 2014 Against Ulro: on the Creation of Poetic Space in the Work of Delmira Agustini, Alejandra Pizarnik and Marosa di Giorgio Jeannine Marie Pitas Doctor of Philosophy Centre for Comparative Literature University of Toronto 2014 Abstract Poetry is the language of subversion. It is a linguistic mode where rules are broken and foundations are shaken, where reality twists and changes its shape, where metaphors startle and confound us. Looking at the work of Southern Cone writers Delmira Agustini (1886-1914), Alejandra Pizarnik (1936-1972) and Marosa di Giorgio (1932-2004), this dissertation explores the ways in which poetry becomes a discourse of resistance. I argue that these writers, though traditionally considered apolitical, have created a discourse that is actually politically charged. Drawing extensively on literary theorist Maurice Blanchot’s The Space of Literature, I argue that all three poets seek contact with a “space of knowledge” of an ultimate reality, refusing to abandon their quest even as it proves unrealizable. Through this search, all three poets subsequently create a “space of resistance” that subverts the epistemic structures of their social context. Whether or not these authors intended for their work to make a political statement lies ii beyond the scope of this investigation and, in my view, has little bearing on the outcome. Because the social structures in which they lived – technocracy and rational utilitarianism during Agustini’s era and dictatorship in Pizarnik’s and di Giorgio’s – are inherently oppressive, the three poets’ determination to go beyond them is indeed a political act. iii Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to the memory of three exceptional women: my grandmothers Emille Frost Pitass (1902-1995) and Helen Pazderski Kwiatkowski (1911-1999) as well as my aunt Susan Pitass (1938-1985). This dissertation is also dedicated to my cousin Margaret Pitass, who never ceases to inspire me. iv Acknowledgements This dissertation would not have come into being without the steadfast support of my family and friends. My parents Carol and Nicholas Pitas, my partner Giles Edkins, and my dear friends Jo and Keith Edkins provided constant moral and intellectual support; Keith also applied his painstaking editorial skills to the project. This dissertation also would not have been completed without the guidance of the many excellent teachers I have had during my graduate studies. I thank my thesis supervisor, Professor Néstor Rodríguez, for offering thoughtful and insightful advice from beginning to end and also for helping me to find this project’s central theoretical framework. I thank my thesis committee members, Professors Susan Antebi, Victor Li and Ricardo Sternberg, for generously providing invaluable critical feedback throughout the process. I am very grateful to Professor Tina Escaja for serving as my external evaluator. I thank Professor Eva-Lynn Jagoe and all of the professors, administrators and students of the Centre for Comparative Literature and Department of Spanish and Portuguese for guiding and supporting me throughout this endeavour. I especially thank Bao Nguyen and Aphrodite Gardner for their unceasing dedication to the Centre for Comparative Literature and its students. My research on these three writers was greatly enhanced by the opportunity to travel to Uruguay and Argentina for six weeks in 2013 on a travel grant provided by the School of Graduate Studies. While in the Río de la Plata region I was fortunate to conduct research at the Biblioteca Nacional del Uruguay and also to meet several writers and critics who graciously took the time to give me new perspectives on these poets. I thank Paola Gallo, Roberto Echavarren, Álvaro Miranda, Nidia di Giorgio, Jazmín Lacoste, Amir Hamed, Hebert Benítez Pezzolano, Hugo Achugar, Hugo Daniel Albernaz, Myriam Albisu and the Asociación de Marosa di Giorgio de Salto, Leonardo Garet, Fernando Loustaunou, Ivonne Bordelois, Cristina Piña, Adriana Hidalgo, Karina Macció and Romina Freschi for taking the time to discuss this poetry with me. I also thank Ivonne Azarola, Pablo Galante and Olga Iasnaia Sarser for making me feel at home in the beautiful city of Montevideo. I am grateful to Oscar Montagut and Ruth Vincent for their editorial work. Finally, I must thank Professor Tamara Trojanowska and my dear friend Jonathan Allan for giving me the courage to write the dissertation I actually wanted to write. v Table of Contents Introduction......................................................................................................................................1 0.1 Approaching the Limits.............................................................................................................8 0.2 Heirs of Maldoror ....................................................................................................................19 0.3 On the Creation of Poetic Space..............................................................................................31 Chapter 1 Reaching for the Nothingness Beyond: Delmira Agustini and the “World’s Inner Space”..........43 1.1 Space of Knowledge: The Poet Weighs the Anchor................................................................51 1.2. Fragments of the Ancient Name.............................................................................................71 1.3 Space of Resistance: Agustini in the context of modernismo..................................................85 1.4 Toward the blissful dissolution: Agustini’s erotic mysticism..................................................99 Chapter 2 Up Against the Wall: Alejandra Pizarnik’s Search for a Patria...................................................107 2.1 Space of Knowledge: Songs into Silence..............................................................................116 2.2 Toward the Non-Existent Centre...........................................................................................127 2.3 Space of Resistance: The Absent Patria.................................................................................137 2.4 Wound and Repetition...........................................................................................................149 Chapter 3 Spaces of Escape and Wandering: Marosa di Giorgio’s Worldmaking.......................................158 3.1 Space of Knowledge: In Search of the Lost Authentic..........................................................164 3.2 Fearful Asymmetries..............................................................................................................172 3.3 Space of Resistance: Against Ulro.........................................................................................193 3.4 ¿Adónde voy? Errantry and Relation.....................................................................................198 Conclusion...................................................................................................................................209 vi Introduction Poetry is the language of subversion. It is a linguistic mode where rules are broken and foundations are shaken, where reality twists and changes its shape, where metaphors startle and confound us. As linguist and philosopher of language Ivonne Bordelois comments in her essay La palabra amenazada (The threatened word), Cuando Platón expulsa a los poetas de la ciudad está reconociendo la capacidad de subversión que conlleva la poesía. La ciudad contemporánea no es ciertamente platónica pero sí patriarcal y autoritaria; sigue sospechando los conmocionantes poderes de la palabra poética y por eso la confina a las catacumbas (29). (When Plato expels the poets from his city, he is recognizing the capacity for subversion that poetry carries. The contemporary city certainly is not platonic, but still patriarchal and authoritative; it remains suspicious of the poetic word’s disruptive powers, and it thus confines poetry to the catacombs).1 According to Bordelois, language is given a designated public space in the realm of the media, which initially sought to permit the free flow of information. But, she argues, in this globalized, corporatized age in which we live, the media cannot legitimately be described as vehicles of such uninhibited communication. Instead, they serve the interests of power. And, in her opinion, words uttered in the service of power hardly deserve to be called language (which is inherently a free space where ideas are freely given and received), but instead become a form of exploitation (30). Nevertheless, since the time of Plato, writers have dared to challenge the rules and norms that govern our language and, as a consequence, our thought. At times, this challenge is direct and explicit, as it is in the case of much twentieth-century Latin American writing, such as Ernesto Cardenal’s denunciation of Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza and Roque Dalton’s advocacy for Salvadoran peasants and workers. At other times, this rebellion is much more subtle; it does not seek to make its voice loud, to be heard over the din of chanting crowds and 1 Unless otherwise indicated, all translations are mine. 1 political speeches. Rather, it works through a quiet subversion,