Perpetual Movement: Brief Forms in Latin America A
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PERPETUAL MOVEMENT: BRIEF FORMS IN LATIN AMERICA A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Geraldine Yvonne Monterroso August 2017 © 2017 Geraldine Yvonne Monterroso PERPETUAL MOVEMENT: BRIEF FORMS IN LATIN AMERICA Geraldine Yvonne Monterroso, Ph.D. Cornell University 2017 In this dissertation, I study the forms that attempt to capture experience in language. From the anecdotes that write a life, to the sentences that inscribe the language of prison-spaces, to the fictions that tell and retell old fables. Most importantly I examine the movement between these forms which are at once anachronic, synchronic and perpetual. In the first chapter, False Case: The Anecdote” I examine the desire that Macedonio Fernández, Jorge Luis Borges and Ricardo Piglia share for the anecdotal, which I define as the recording of an untraceable life. The writing of anecdotes I propose, consists of going to the limits of writing oneself in a single experience only to then erase oneself. In this “project” all three authors work with the anecdotal to challenge positions of authorship, to establish a community of writers who operate under the understanding that plagiarizing and copying are not a violation of the law but rather what brings them together. In my second chapter “Metaphysical Case: The Sentence,” I look at the ways in which an experience is captured in the form of a sentence as a specific form of the aphorism but also a grammatical and juridical structure for the inscription of order on a body. I analyze the works of Eduardo Lalo, Piglia and Borges, especially the texts written inside the prison. The prison, works both as the opening for a place to think, but also as a dead-end and a literal condemnation. For my third chapter “Fictional Case: The Fable” I study the way in which experience is organized in a causal way—as a sequence of events. Starting out from Aesop’s fables and biblical parables I look at the use of the form in a traditional sense and then I analyze how Augusto Monterroso and Juan José Arreola, revitalize and reappropriate old fables and parables in order to evaluate the causal construction of the form. For my last chapter “Perpetual Movement: The Flies” I see in Monterroso’s infinite collection of quotes about the fly the epitome of his whole literary project as well as the perpetual movement I trace throughout my chapters. By tracing this movement, I redefine what these “brief forms” have meant and still mean in the Latin American canon and I also propose them as critical maneuvers for any given text. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Geraldine Yvonne Monterroso (Guatemala City, 1983) obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Hispanic Studies and Philosophy, from Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago and a Masters of Arts from Cornell University in Ithaca New York. iii Para Grandma (Mary Grace Papadopolo) iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project was driven by an exodus, an enchantment with shadows a circle and one or two inconceivable affirmations. However, its execution would have never been possible without the work and care of the people who have, at one point or another, supported my endeavors throughout the years: I would especially like to thank my dissertation committee, Bruno Bosteels, Simone Pinet and Edmundo Paz-Soldán, for coming together and working with me during the past six years. Their commitment and support towards my ideas has been vital for my success. I want to thank my advisor Bruno Bosteels, for his time and patience but mostly for his generosity as a thinker and as a colleague. I cannot remember how many times we had meetings where I would stutter the chaos of my thoughts but that by the end of the meeting had turned into organized coherent and “brilliant” ideas that Bruno swore I had come up with. Without his relentlessness belief in me, his guidance, and thoughtful observations this dissertation would have stayed in the privacy of my thoughts. To Simone Pinet for engaging me with other temporalities and worlds. For the love that she always puts and shows when she teaches and in what she does. For her thoughtful comments and corrections on my chapters. And especially for having her feet on the ground, and pulling me down when needed. To Edmundo for having read everything that has ever been written and his generosity for sharing his knowledge. Also for helping me envision a tangible project rather than an impossible one. v I am deeply indebted to Christina Soto van der Plas, for her friendship and for her brilliance. Our never-ending conversations, and experiences over the past six years have been essential for the formation of my thoughts especially regarding this project. Additionally, this thesis would have never made it to its final version had not been for her editing skills and her expertise of the MLA format. To my sister, Jamie Monterroso for her love and friendship and the hours she spent listening to me and reading my chapters. For her thoughtful discussions on philosophy and psychoanalysis that without a doubt enriched my work. To Silvia Caserta who has been always a friend, with the biggest heart. To Lacie Cunningham, my friend, cohort member and former roommate for sharing the worst and best of times. To Bécquer Seguín and Ilil Benjamin for their friendship and passion for what they do. To Melisa Friel for her care and friendship. To Katryn Evinson for pushing me to finish. I want to acknowledge my parents, Yvonne and, Roberto Monterroso, for in a country like Guatemala they always sacrificed much to give me the best education available. Also, my aunts Marjorie and Cynthia Monterroso who at one point or another, contributed so that I could further my education, which before Cornell University’s generous scholarship, did not come without cost. To Stephen Tien for his kindness, his serenity. And for the novel I will never write. To Jason Mohaghegh for the chaotic imagination and the unnamable. And to Mateo Lang for his love, understanding, patience and support in this unbearable last stretch. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Biographical Sketch.....................................................................................................................iii Acknowledgements......................................................................................................................v Introduction..................................................................................................................................viii 1. FALSE CASE: THE ANECDOTE…………………………...........................................1 2. THE METAPHYSICAL CASE: THE SENTENCE .......................................................34 3. THE FICTIONAL CASE: THE FABLE .......................................................................67 4. PERPETUAL MOVEMENT: THE FLIES ……………………………………………..98 Works Cited.................................................................................................................................126 vii Introduction Writing and speaking are not the same. The latter sentence is both true and a generalization. But most importantly it is one of the conclusions of the vast experiences of the project that lays before us and which are invisibilized by the grammar of the first statement. It could certainly also be the comment made in passing by someone who is repeating an old cliché. However, in this case it is the result of the affirmation of the same old saying—the cliché—after a long and thoughtful project on the perpetual movement of anecdotes, aphorisms, sentences and fables. We could call it a case of repetition where “everything has already has been said” and at the same time the articulation of something new. People who know me, are first surprised to learn what kinds of texts I like to read or the style of my writing. This is mostly because when I speak, I can extend myself for hours telling stories about the characters that surround my life. It is as if I would be “reciting a novel”—if such a thing would exist—straight out of my thoughts. Many times, I have fooled myself with the idea that I could do this—write a novel—especially following the many remarks I have received in conversation with friends who have told me “you should write this down”. But the truth is that if I would want to write down those stories, I would not be able to do so—at least not in the same form in which I tell them. I know that the impossibility of copying the spoken word into the written form is something that happens to many of us. I remember Eduardo Lalo writing about a similar issue when he says that all of us have at one point or another have constructed perfect paragraphs in our minds but then hit the impossibility of writing them on the blank page. viii Many of the stories I frequently repeat are anecdotes about my father. All the stories I tell about him reiterate an essential characteristic which is that he is like a broken record, always repeating the same old tune. Besides him being an excellent character of anecdotes he is also a storyteller himself. However, it took me many years, and probably this dissertation to see him as a traditional storyteller, instead of him as the man who keeps lecturing me with the same old phrase. I do not remember at what point it was I noticed that my father always repeated the phrase, or that he was repetitive in nature. I also do not remember how old I was when I realized that he would apply the same sentence when he would sense that he had just witnessed something extraordinary. Certainly, you would have to know my father to understand what “extraordinary” means to him, but whenever one of these moments had just occurred, he would call on me or anyone around him to presence the “extraordinary moment” that would inevitable be followed by the phrase: existen otros mundos y están aquí. To a dentist, a lover of birds and a self-taught astronomer, extraordinary still is: a rare molar infection, the sighting of an unfamiliar bird, the hour without a shadow (an astronomical event) but also could refer to the experience of seeing the old, but same corrupt political order coming into power.