“My Camel's Eye Will Needle Through the Shroud”
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“My camel’s eye will needle through the shroud” An Analysis of Dylan Thomas’s “Altarwise by owl-light” Sonnets with Particular Focus on their Intertextuality Von der Philosophischen Fakultät der Rheinisch-Westfälischen Technischen Hochschule Aachen zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades einer Doktorin der Philosophie genehmigte Dissertation vorgelegt von Tanja S. Romich, M.A. Berichter: Universitätsprofessor Dr. phil. Peter Wenzel Dr. Gavin R. Hopps Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 07. November 2014 Diese Dissertation ist auf den Internetseiten der Universitätsbibliothek online verfügbar. “My camel’s eye will needle through the shroud” To my parents and my sister – Because of you I never gave up. To my godchildren Silje and Noel – Believe you can and you will. Acknowledgements If it was not for Michelle Pfeiffer, this dissertation would not exist. It was her portrayal of a high school teacher in the 1995 movie Dangerous Minds that inspired me to start reading the poetry of Dylan Thomas. Who would have thought that my decision to go to the cinema at age fourteen would have such an impact on my academic endeavours? That being said, the completion of this doctoral dissertation would not have been possible without the support of a number of people. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all of them. My special appreciation and thanks go to my advisor, Professor Dr Peter Wenzel, for his support and the opportunity to write about a topic that is close to my heart. I thank him for his patience and for encouraging me to pursue my academic interests alongside building up my professional career. I also thank my second examiner Dr Gavin R. Hopps for his encouragement and inspiration and for traveling 800 miles to be present at my viva. Many thanks go to Louise Foulds-Saupe for proofreading the manuscript. I cannot thank my parents, my sister and my friends enough for their support and their faith in me. Every time I wanted to give up, they made sure I did not, and for this I will be forever grateful. – 2 – “My camel’s eye will needle through the shroud” Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................ 2 1. ‘There is no sixth commandment in art’ (Heine) – Introduction ................................. 5 2. Bard or Bastard? – Research on Dylan Thomas ............................................................. 9 3. Wales, Chapel, and Literature – Influences on Dylan Thomas .................................. 15 3.1 Dylan Thomas and Wales .......................................................................................... 18 3.2 Dylan Thomas and Literature ................................................................................... 23 3.3 Dylan Thomas and the Church ................................................................................. 30 4. Intertextuality .................................................................................................................... 41 4.1 The Definition of ‘Text’ .............................................................................................. 43 4.2 The Definition of ‘Intertextuality’ ............................................................................ 47 4.2.1 A Historic View .................................................................................................... 47 4.2.1.1 Ferdinand de Saussure ................................................................................. 51 4.2.1.2 Mikhail Bakhtin............................................................................................. 53 4.2.1.3 Julia Kristeva ................................................................................................. 57 4.2.1.4 Roland Barthes .............................................................................................. 63 4.2.1.4 Gérard Genette and Michael Riffaterre ..................................................... 65 4.2.2 Intertextual Relations .......................................................................................... 69 4.2.2.1 Intertextuality and the Author .................................................................... 69 4.2.2.2 Intertextuality and the Reader .................................................................... 71 4.2.2.3 Intertextuality and the Text ......................................................................... 74 4.2.2.4 Intertextuality and Culture ......................................................................... 76 4.3 Forms ............................................................................................................................ 78 4.3.1 Quotation .............................................................................................................. 82 4.3.2 Allusion ................................................................................................................. 93 4.3.3 Parody, Pastiche, Travesty .................................................................................. 96 4.3.3.1 Parody ............................................................................................................ 96 – 3 – “My camel’s eye will needle through the shroud” 4.3.3.2 Pastiche ......................................................................................................... 105 4.3.3.3 Travesty ........................................................................................................ 108 4.3.4 Translation and Plagiarism .............................................................................. 111 4.4 Intertextual Markers ................................................................................................. 112 4.5 Function ..................................................................................................................... 115 5. Intertextuality in Dylan Thomas’s Religious Sonnets ............................................... 118 5.1 The Fusion of Religious and Sexual Images ......................................................... 118 5.2 “Altarwise by owl-light” .......................................................................................... 130 5.2.1 “Altarwise by owl-light in the halfway-house” – Sonnet I .......................... 135 5.2.2 “Death is all metaphors” – Sonnet II............................................................... 148 5.2.3 “First there was a lamb on rocking knees” – Sonnet III ............................... 155 5.2.4 “What is the metre of the dictionary?” – Sonnet IV ..................................... 165 5.2.5 “And from the windy West came two-gunned Gabriel” – Sonnet V ........ 173 5.2.6 “Cartoons of slashes on the tide-traced crater” – Sonnet VI ....................... 185 5.2.7 “Now stamp the Lord’s Prayer on a grain of rice” – Sonnet VII ................ 191 5.2.8 “This was the crucifixion on the mountain” – Sonnet VIII .......................... 198 5.2.9 “From the oracular archives and the parchment” – Sonnet IX ................... 204 5.2.10 “The tale’s sailor from a Christian voyage” – Sonnet X ............................. 209 6. Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 214 7. Bibliography .................................................................................................................... 223 7.1 Works by Dylan Thomas ......................................................................................... 223 7.2 Works Cited and Consulted .................................................................................... 224 – 4 – “My camel’s eye will needle through the shroud” 1. ‘There is no sixth commandment in art’ (Heine) – Introduction Every man is a borrower and a mimic, life is theatrical, and literature a quotation. Ralph Waldo Emerson1 In 1837, Heinrich Heine wrote, “es gibt in der Kunst kein sechstes Gebot, der Dichter darf überall zugreifen, wo er Material zu seinen Werken findet”2 (Heine, “Sechster Brief”). This is a provocative hypothesis which may fuel the discussions about intellectual property and plagiarism in literature and art of our times. Of course when it comes to the use of texts from or on the internet, especially in an academic context, any unrecorded use of sources is unforgivable, but in modern literature and art, not only in the view of the flourishing hypotheses of the reproducibility of art in postmodern times, but since the early days of Modernism already, Heine’s principle has been accepted to such an extent that it can virtually be said to have become an important stylistic device. As an example consider Jean Rhys’s novel Wide Sargasso Sea. It was composed as a prequel to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and seeks to enlighten the reader on the life and fate of Mr Rochester’s wife, thus shedding a totally different light on Brontë’s original story. Another example is Ulrich Plenzdorf’s The New Sufferings of Young W., whose main character Edgar sees parallels to his own life in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s The Sorrows of 1 Emerson 709. 2 It is questionable whether Heine really meant the Sixth Commandment here, which is “Thou shalt not kill” (The Holy Bible, Exodus 20:13; cf. Deuteronomy 5:17), or whether he rather meant the Eighth Commandment “Thou shalt not steal” (Exodus 20: 15; Deuteronomy 5: 19; some Lutheran churches count the commandments differently: here, “Thou shalt not steal” is the Seventh Commandment). Reulecke, offers the following explanation for Heine’s ‘mistake’: