DANIEL JACOBSEN SIVINSKI HERMENEUTICAL EXORCISM AND LITERARY INTERPRETATION: A BRIEF STUDY ON THE PROBLEM OF MEANING AND AN EXISTENTIALIST INTERPRETATION OF THE EXORCIST (1971) PORTO ALEGRE 2010 2 UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO GRANDE DO SUL INSTITUTO DE LETRAS PROGRAMA DE PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO EM LETRAS ÊNFASE: LITERATURAS DE LÍNGUA INGLESA LINHA DE PESQUISA: LITERATURA, IMAGINÁRIO E HISTÓRIA HERMENEUTICAL EXORCISM AND LITERARY INTERPRETATION: A BRIEF STUDY ON THE PROBLEM OF MEANING AND AN EXISTENTIALIST INTERPRETATION OF THE EXORCIST (1971) MESTRANDO: PROF. DANIEL JACOBSEN SIVINSKI ORIENTADORA: PROFª. DRª. ROSALIA NEUMANN GARCIA PORTO ALEGRE 2010 3 I dedicate this dissertation to: my son Davi, my lapis philosophorum; my parents, Eduardo e Enilda, to whom I will need an entire life to thank; my wife, Cris, for her patience and care. 4 ACKOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank to the Professors who dedicated their time and efforts to the reading of my dissertation. I would like to thank to Rosalía Neumann Garcia for accepting my invitation to advise this dissertation, and to Sandra Sirangelo Maggio for taking part in this project. I would also like to thank to Professors Rita Terezinha Schimdt and Michael Korfmann for the privilege of being their student (a gratitude I extend to Sandra and Rosalía). It is important to thank to my classmates Rodrigo, Caio, Carlos, Márcia, Mônica, and Lisia, who started this journey in the Post-Graduation course in the same year that I did, as well as all the others (too many to name here) who I met along these two years. Finally, I would like to thank everyone who makes Instituto de Letras more than books, walls and chairs, all those who make it a living being . 5 “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?” Epicurus (?) “Some things happen of necessity, others by chance, others through our own agency." Epicurus “Facts is precisely what there is not, only interpretations.” Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche 6 RESUMO Interpretar sempre implicará uma grande jornada. Não é por acaso que esta prática esteja associada à figura mitológica de Hermes. O próprio ato reflexivo em torno da questão ‘o que significa significar’ envolve uma longa viagem. É dividindo a interpretação em dois momentos, ao qual nos referiremos amplamente apenas por ‘ontológico’ e ‘prático’, que esta dissertação adquire sua forma. Num primeiro momento, há uma problematização sobre a questão do significado numa perspectiva hermenêutica. Partindo da discussão engendrada na obra Politics of Interpretation (1983), e passando pela argumentação sobre ‘intencionalidade’ em interpretação textual, especificamente caracterizada na obra de E. D. Hirsch Jr. Validity in Interpretation (1967), busca-se um estudo introdutório sobre a questão do significado do texto literário em relação a um outro problema que é denominado como ‘o narcisismo do leitor’, para enfim culminar na proposta hermenêutica de Ricoeur. Ou seja, antes de especificamente lidar com a interpretação de O Exorcista (1971), busca-se uma abordagem teórica sobre a questão do significado. Num segundo momento, que não implica numa aplicação da teoria exposta, pois partimos do princípio que não há divisão entre teoria e prática, passamos à interpretação da obra The Exorcist (1971) de William Peter Blatty. Aborda-se esta obra por constituir-se um problema hermenêutico. Porém, a virada existencialista desta obra proposta por esta dissertação será precedida por uma releitura tanto do autor como um texto e sua conseqüente relação com a interpretação do romance, quanto por uma abordagem relacional entre não só a recepção crítica desta obra, assim como em relação aos demais romances do autor, na tentativa, primeiro, de demonstrar a insuficiência de caracterizações da obra como ‘horror’ e ‘teodicéia’, para, finalmente, propor a abertura da obra em direção a uma perspectiva existencialista. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: O Exorcista ; Hermenêutica; Significado; Literatura de Horror; Existencialismo. 7 ABSTRACT Interpreting will always implicate a long journey. It is not by chance that this practice is associated to the mythological figure of Hermes. The very reflexive act about the question of ‘what it means to mean’ involves a longe travel. It is by dividing interpretation in two moments, which will be referred to merely as ‘ontological’ and ‘practical’, that this dissertation achieves its form. In a first moment, there is a problematization about the issue of meaning in a hermeneutical perspective. Beginning from a discussion engendered in the work Politics of Interpretation (1983), and passing through an argumentation about ‘intentionality’ in textual interpretation, more specifically characterized in E. D. Hirsch Jr.’s Validity in Interpretation (1967), we search an introductory study about the meaning of a literary text in relation to another problem which is denominated as ‘the narcissism of the reader’, in order to finally culminate in Ricoeur’s hermeneutical proposal. It means that, before specifically dealing with the interpretation of The Exorcist (1971), we seek a theoretical approach to the question of meaning. In a second moment, which does not implicate in the application of the exposed theory, since we follow the principle that there is no division between theory and practice, we develop an interpretation of William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist (1971). This work is approached because it configures a hermeneutical problem. However, the existentialist shift in this work proposed by this dissertation will be preceded by a reading of the author as a text and its consequent relation to the interpretation of the novel, as well as a relational approach not only to the specific critical reception of the mentioned title, but also in relation to the author’s other works, in the attempt, first, to demonstrate the insufficiency of the characterization of the novel as ‘horror’ or ‘theodicy’, and, finally, to propose the opening of the work in the direction of an existentialist perspective. KEYWORDS: The Exorcist ; Hermeneutics; Meaning; Horror Literature; Existentialism. 8 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AE – SZUMSKYJ, Benjamin (Ed.). American Exorcist: critical essays on William Peter Blatty. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008. CI – RICOEUR, Paul. The Conflict of Interpretations: essays in hermeneutics. Ed. Don Ihde, Trans. Willis Domingo et al. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1985. FM – RICOEUR, Paul. Fallible Man. New York, Fordham University Press, 1986a. FT – KIERKEGAARD, Søren. Fear and Trembling and The Sickness Unto Death . Trans. Walter Lowrie. Garden City: Doubleday, 1954. 1 HHS – RICOEUR, Paul. Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences: Essays on Language, Action and Interpretation . Ed., Trans. John B. Thompson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981. IT – RICOEUR, Paul. Interpretation Theory: discourse and the surplus of meaning. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1976. OA – RICOEUR, Paul. Oneself as Another . Trans. Kathleen Blamey. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1994. SE – RICOEUR, Paul. The Symbolism of Evil . New York: Beacon Press, 1986b. SUD – KIERKEGAARD, Søren. Fear and Trembling and The Sickness Unto Death . Trans. Walter Lowrie. Garden City: Doubleday, 1954. 1 TE – BLATTY, William Peter. The Exorcist . New York: HarperCollins, 1994. TN1 – RICOEUR, Paul. Time and Narrative – Vol.1. Paperback Ed. Transl. Kathleen MacLaughlin and David Pellauer. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1990a. TN2 – RICOEUR, Paul. Time and Narrative – Vol.2. Paperback Ed. Transl. Kathleen MacLaughlin and David Pellauer. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1990b. TN3 – RICOEUR, Paul. Time and Narrative – Vol.3. Paperback Ed. Transl. Kathleen Blamey and David Pellauer. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1990c. 1 This is a volume which contains both books. 9 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 FOREWORD……………………………………………………………………10 2 MEANING THE ISSUE (PROLOGUE)………………………………………14 2.1 The Politics of Interpretation…………………………………………………17 2.2 A Defense of the Author?..................................................................................37 2.3 Ricoeur’s Hermeneutical Phenomenology…………………………………...60 3 ISSUING THE MEANING (EPILOGUE)…………………………………….87 3.1 The Beginning………………………………………………………………….92 3.2 The Edge………………………………………………………………………107 3.3 The Abyss……………………………………………………………………..135 4 AFTERWORD…………………………………………………………………222 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………..230 10 1 FOREWORD According to Ricoeur (1985), “an introduction will have fulfilled its task if it permits the reader to better question, read, and think the book he is about to take up.” (p.377) Therefore, allow me to call this dissertation “embryotic”. I will explain. Unavoidably, the reader will find two lines of argumentation here, because what was supposed to be merely introductory ended up becoming half of the text. At first, this scared me. However, I am one of those persons who may easily consider theoretically the question of abortion, but who will never effectively agree with an affirmative option. I was not able to suppress what was coming up. This text is, more than anything else, a hermeneutical journey. Basically, it poses the question ‘what does it mean?’ to a novel called The Exorcist (1971) 2. However, I was not satisfied in starting right away with the text proper. I then decided to include as an introduction 3 to my dissertation a very brief research on the subject of what