THE NOTION OF THE PRESENT IN LESLIE SCALAPINO’S AND VIRGINIA WOOLF’S WORKS D i s s e r t a t i o n zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Doktor der Philosophie in der Philosophischen Fakultät der Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen vorgelegt von SERAP FIRAT aus ERZINCAN, TURKEY 2019 Gedruckt mit Genehmigung der Philosophischen Fakultät der Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen Dekan: PROF. DR. JURGEN LEONHARDT Hauptberichterstatterin: PROF. DR. INGRID HOTZ-DAVIES Mitberichterstatter: PROF. DR. CHRISTOPH REINFANDT Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 31.05.2016 UNIVERSITÄTSBIBLIOTHEK TÜBINGEN TOBIAS LIB. THE NOTION OF THE PRESENT IN LESLIE SCALAPINO'S AND VIRGINIA WOOLF'S WORKS Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of the University of Tübingen for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Serap Firat March 2016 1 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Ingrid Hotz-Davies, who tirelessly supported and supervised my project from its early beginnings to its final stage. For her inspiration, help, knowledge, insight, generosity, saint-like patience and understanding, I am grateful. Her guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis. I could not have imagined having a better advisor for my Ph.D. study. If it were not her, this project would not be possible. Besides my advisor, I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Christoph Reinfandt for his insightful, valuable comments, innovative discussions, scholarly advice, guidance and kind attention on my work and encouragement. My most enduring gratitude goes to my landowners, Renate and Jurgen Wulle and their daughter Edda Wulle. I owe profound thank to them for renting to me their wonderful flat with all its furniture for a price that a student can afford, where I was fondly sheltered could work in peace and achieve the goal of writing my thesis. Besides this, they supported me in all possible ways. Their support can only be compared with the support that might have been given by one’s own family. For this, I owe my deep gratitude and heartfelt thanks to them. I owe a depth of amiable gratitude to Penny Pinson, who read all drafts with untiring dedication. Her support has been priceless. I thank her for her invaluable time and effort. I am also thankful to Katharina Luther, who read all the latest drafts. I convey my feelings of gratitude to my colleagues for reading various chapters of this thesis and for their stimulating discussions. I express my gratitude to my friends and my dearest aunt for showering their love and emotional support. Finally, I would like to thank my family for everything they did for me. 2 CONTENTS Introduction …........................................................................................................................... 5 The Notion of Time in Physics and Philosophy ….................................................................... 5 The Notion of Time and the Notion of Reality ………………………………………………. 8 The Revelations of Quantum Physics and Phenomena ..…………………………………….. 11 The Notion of Complementarity, Indeterminacy and Epistemology ………………………... 12 The Notion of Time and its Impacts on the Notion of Ontology …………………………… 15 The Notion of Time and Literary Works …………………………………………………… 17 Chapter One: Leslie Scalapino and Her Poetics …..................................................................24 1.1 The Notion of Time in Scalapino's Works: The Continuous Present …............................ 30 1.2 The Continuous Present, Serial Thinking/Writing and Change ….................................... 33 1.3 Scalapino's Notion of Reality: Scalapino's Notion of Epistemology …............................ 36 1.4 Reality in Relation to Authority and Hierarchy: “Travelling” .......................................... 41 1.5 Reality in Relation to Experience and Events/Occurrences ........................................... 45 1.6 The Notion of Reality in Relation to Experience, Culture and Language …................. 55 1.7 Reality in Relation to Thought, Cause and Effect Relation, History and Writing …...... 57 1.8 Phenomena ….................................................................................................................. 60 1.9 Mind as a Phenomenon ….............................................................................................. 62 1.10 Mind and Exterior Phenomena ….................................................................................. 64 1.11 Perception as a Phenomenon ….................................................................................... 66 1.12 The Notion of Self: Scalapino's Ontology ….............................................................. 68 Chapter Two: WAY ………………………………………………………………………… 77 2.1 Way and Impermanency: Phenomena or Events Have No Inherent Existence …......... 77 2.2 Inside and Outside …....................................................................................................... 84 2.3 The Notion of Time in Way …........................................................................................... 92 2.4 Way and the Philosophy of Quantum Physics ….............................................................. 95 2.5 Revealing Reality/Truth through Opposites …............................................................. 98 2.6 Way and Norms …........................................................................................................... 100 2.7 Norms and Scalapino’s Syntax ……………………………………………………… 101 2.7 Way and Scalapino’s Notion of Self …………………………………………………… 106 3 Chapter Three: Virginia Woolf and Her Philosophy ……………………………………… 109 3.1 Woolf’s Life and ‘Life-Writing’ ….................................................................................. 109 3.2 Woolf's Notion of Time: Exceptional Moments; Moments of Being …......................... 121 3.3 The Present as a Platform to View the Past; The Past in the Present; Time Is Always the Present …........................................................................................................................ 129 3.4 The Present-Past Relationship and Scene-making ….................................................... 135 3.5 Woolf's Notion of Reality; Woolf's Epistemology …..................................................... 138 3.6 Woolf's Epistemology and Quantum Physics …............................................................. 146 3.7 Reality through the Image of “Granite and Rainbow” …............................................... 154 Chapter Four: The Waves ……………………………………………………………… 162 4.1 What is Life? …............................................................................................................... 162 4.2 Is Life Flux? …............................................................................................................... 167 4.3 Life and the Images of Swimming and Diving ……………………………………… 170 4.4 The Rhythm of Life ….................................................................................................... 171 4.5 Substantial and Unsubstantial Realms of Life …............................................................ 175 4.6 Life and Death …............................................................................................................. 178 4.7 Woolf's Notion of Self: Woolf's Ontology ….................................................................. 182 4.8 The Notion of Art in Woolf's Philosophy ….................................................................... 189 Chapter Five: Conclusion …………………………………………………………………. 197 Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………… 219 4 Introduction The Notion of Time in Physics and Philosophy The starting point of my thesis is marked by the notion(s) of time. I will discuss how and when the notion of time is perceived differently from the conventional classical linear notion of time; how the notion of time is related to and intertwined with epistemological and ontological notions; and whether a different perception of time subverts and transgresses existing established epistemological and ontological boundaries. Although the notion of time is obviously related to physics, I do not have even the slightest intention to intervene in this realm; rather, I am going to focus on it by merging theories of physics and philosophy. Since St. Augustine (AD 354-430), the notion of time has posed itself as a profound question or even as a puzzle. St. Augustine was one of the pioneers who uncovered how complicated the notion of time is, which his famous quotation reveals: What, then, is time? I know well enough what it is, provided that nobody asks me; but if I am asked what it is and try to explain, I am perplexed. (qtd. in De Warren 2009, 3) After surmounting his preliminary confusion, Augustine comes to the point that time does not actually exist outside the mind. Augustine is not alone in his bewilderment about the nature of time is and related questions such as whether the division of time as past, present and future is valid (Callender / Edney 2010, 3-10). Some ancient cultures such as those of the Incas, Mayas, Hopi, Native American Tribes, the Babylonians, Ancient Greeks, Hindus, Buddhists and Jainists had the notion of a wheel of time which considers time as “cyclical” and “quantic”1 (Layton 1994, 7). With Judeo-Christianity, the notion of time changed and it is perceived as linear. In this view, time begins with the act of creation by God and it will end with the end of the world once again as the act of God (Jones 2005, 287). 1“Quantic: A homogeneous