The Production of Lateness Production the Analysis with Cultural Gerontology
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SAA SCHWEIZER ANGLISTISCHE ARBEITEN 146 SWISS STUDIES IN ENGLISH This study examines how selected authors of the late 20th and early 21st centuries write about their Rahel Rivera Godoy-Benesch creative processes in old age and thus purposefully produce a late style of their own. Late-life creativity has not always been viewed favourably. Prevalent The Production of "peak-and-decline" models suggest that artists, as they grow old, cease to produce high-quality work. Aiming to counter such ageist discourses, the Lateness present study proposes a new ethics of reading literary texts by elderly authors. For this purpose, it de- Old Age and Creativity in velops a methodology that consolidates textual The Production of Lateness Production The analysis with cultural gerontology. Contemporary Narrative Rivera Godoy-Benesch ISBN 978-3-7720-8698-4 38698_Umschlag.indd Alle Seiten 15.04.2020 12:16:34 The Production of Lateness Schweizer Anglistische Arbeiten Swiss Studies in English Begründet von Bernhard Fehr Herausgegeben von Andreas Fischer (Zürich), Martin Heusser (Zürich), Daniel Schreier (Zürich) Band 146 Rahel Rivera Godoy-Benesch The Production of Lateness Old Age and Creativity in Contemporary Narrative Umschlaggestaltung: Martin Heusser, Zürich Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek. Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http:// dnb.dnb.de abrufbar Rahel Rivera Godoy-Benesch ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4534-6545 Die vorliegende Arbeit wurde von der Philosophischen Fakultät der Universität Zürich im Frühjahrssemester 2018 auf Antrag der Promotionskommission Prof. Dr. Martin Heusser (hauptverantwortliche Betreuungsperson) und Prof. Dr. Harm-Peer Zimmermann als Dissertation angenommen. Publiziert mit Unterstützung des Schweizerischen Nationalfonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2357/9783772056987 © 2020 · Rahel Rivera Godoy-Benesch Das Werk ist eine Open Access-Publikation. Es wird unter der Creative Commons Namensnennung – Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen | CC BY-SA 4.0 (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) veröffentlicht, welche die Nutzung, Vervielfältigung, Bearbeitung, Verbreitung und Wiedergabe in jeglichem Medium und Format erlaubt, solange Sie die / den ursprünglichen Autor / innen und die Quelle ordentlich nennen, einen Link zur Creative Commons-Lizenz anfügen und angeben, ob Änderungen vorgenommen wurden. Die in diesem Werk enthaltenen Bilder und sonstiges Drittmaterial unterliegen ebenfalls der genannten Creative Commons Lizenz, sofern sich aus der am Material vermerkten Legende nichts anderes ergibt. In diesen Fällen ist für die oben genannten Weiterverwendungen des Materials die Einwilligung des jeweiligen Rechteinhabers einzuholen. Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG Dischingerweg 5 · D-72070 Tübingen Internet: www.narr.de eMail: [email protected] CPI books GmbH, Leck ISSN 0080-7214 ISBN 978-3-7720-8698-4 (Print) ISBN 978-3-7720-5698-7 (ePDF) ISBN 978-3-7720-01147-7 (ePub) Contents Acknowledgements . 7 1 Introduction: Approaching Late-Life Creativity in Literature . 11 1.1 Old Age, the Age of Style . 11 1.2 Theorizing the Elderly Artist . 15 1.3 Late-Style Narratives in Context . 20 2 Late Style through the Ages: From Criticism to Creative Practice . 25 2.1 Late Style or Old-Age Style? . 25 2.2 Universalist and Individualist Approaches . 35 2.3 Adorno and His Legacy: Shaping the Late Artist . 41 2.4 Expanding Lateness in Literature: Late Style as a Code of Production . 51 3 Old Age, the Intruder: John Barth’s Young and Old Artists . 59 3.1 From the Künstlerroman to the Late-Style Narrative . 59 3.2 The Artist, His Body, and the Text: Lost in the Funhouse . 65 3.3 Trial and Error: The Development . 78 3.4 Death and Dementia: Writing to Forget and to Remember Old Age . 79 3.5 Authorial Power Games: Controlling and Constructing Old Age . 88 4 Disrupting Closure, Challenging Death: Karen Blixen’s Pellegrina Stories . 101 4.1 The Continuation and Revision of Earlier Work . 101 4.2 Female Art in a Male Disguise: “The Dreamers” . 106 4.3 Writing for Life: “Echoes” . 117 4.4 Opening Historical Spaces . 118 4.5 Blixen’s Lateness: A Conscious Gesture . 126 6 Contents 5 Getting Old, Getting Real: Joan Didion’s Late Autobiography . 131 5.1 The Autobiographical Project as Artistic and Communicative Practice . 131 5.2 Style and Stability: The Emergence of Didion’s Authorial Persona . 138 5.3 Style on Display: “The White Album” . 139 5.4 Recovering the Past: The Year of Magical Thinking . 144 5.5 Rejecting the Past: Blue Nights . 155 5.6 Facing the Truth of Old Age . 158 6 Conclusions: Late-Life Creativity Revisited . 167 6.1 The Critic as Skeptic . 167 6.2 Concepts of Late-Life Creativity and Their Social Implications 169 6.3 Towards an Ethical Practice of Literary Analysis . 176 Works Cited . 183 Primary Texts . 183 Secondary Sources . 184 Databases and Web Sources . 197 Index . 200 Acknowledgements Writing a book-length literary study means spending long hours in solitude. However, as I think about all the friends, colleagues, and acquaintances that were, in one way or another, part of this research project, I must say it turned out to be not so lonely after all. My deep gratitude is due to all those who kept me company. In the first place, I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Martin Heusser, whose un‐ failing encouragement and support have accompanied me throughout my years of study and research, and with whom I could always share my thoughts and ideas. Further thanks go to Prof. Dr. Harm-Peer Zimmermann, who provided valuable input in the final stages of the project. I owe much gratitude to all those colleagues and friends who critically commented on parts of this study: Martin Mühlheim, Nicole Frey Büchel, Johannes Riquet, and Simone Heller-Andrist. Shane Walshe agreed to proofread the text on very short notice and did a mar‐ vellous job; many thanks go to him, as well. There are others: Dieter Sulzer and the staff of the Pro Senectute Library, who provided guidance in the field of ageing studies; Michelle Dreiding, with whom I shared an office as well as the joys and sorrows of being an assistant and a PhD student, and who has become a dear friend; Madeleine Eberhard, whose enriching conversation, moral sup‐ port, and steadfast encouragement to think ‘outside the box’ I would not want to have missed; and, finally, my students, who shared my enthusiasm for old age in literature. I would further like to thank the Swiss National Science Foundation for fi‐ nancing the publication of this book. Kathrin Heyng from Narr Francke At‐ tempto was very helpful during the publication process, for which I am deeply grateful as well. Not last, I would like to express my appreciation to Peter Lang Copyright AG for granting permission to reuse a few passages which I had formerly published in an article. Life is full of coincidences, and one of them was meeting Linda and Michael Hutcheon during a colloquium in Zurich. They spontaneously invited me to participate in a late-life creativity workshop with Gordon McMullan, David Amigoni, Sam Smiles, Amir Cohen-Shalev, and many other ageing-studies scholars, as well as ageing artists themselves. A further key event was a cap- tivating lecture on Beethoven’s late style by Hans-Joachim Hinrichsen, which I only became aware of thanks to one of my students. Very probably, none of these 8 Acknowledgements scholars remembers me but they unknowingly contributed to the way I have come to think about lateness. Finally, there is my family: my children Daniel, Anna, Isabel, and Celia, who tolerated my long absences with patient understanding. My parents helped out whenever they were needed, cooking countless meals and taking the children for day trips and holidays. I feel blessed to have them in my life. Speak now before it is too late, and then hope to go on speaking until there is nothing more to be said. Time is running out, after all. Paul Auster, Winter Journal 1 Introduction: Approaching Late-Life Creativity in Literature It is most true, stylus virum arguit, our stile bewraies us, and as Hunters find their game by the trace, so is a mans Genius descried by his workes. (Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy 13, original italics) 1.1 Old Age, the Age of Style This study explores artists’ creative practice in old age. However, it does not, as one might expect, investigate the three authors of the texts under scrutiny, John Barth, Karen Blixen, and Joan Didion. Authors are persons of flesh and blood who write and publish works; besides that, they have families and friends, daily household routines, worries and reasons to be joyful. In their families, they may be good or bad or average parents and spouses; to their friends, they may be close confidants or merely good for an occasional chat. They may like going for a walk on a sunny Sunday afternoon, cry over a sentimental movie, or get an‐ noyed at politics. In their works, however, these authors make their appearance as artists. This is not to say that, when authors write, they take on a different, altogether fictional identity, disguising ‘who they really are’ (some may do so, some may not – as some might or might not let their spouses or children or friends know ‘who they really are’). Rather, it is placing emphasis on the fact that writing a text means making a number of decisions, and one of these deci‐ sions is how to appear as the originator of the work: what tone to adopt, what qualities to foreground or suppress, what stance to take, and certainly not least, what style to use. In other words, ageing authors, as any other author, choose how to inscribe their creative agency in the text, and they do so through their style.