Marcin Gołąb Instytut Anglistyki Wydział Neofilologii Uniwersytet Warszawski Jean Baudrillard’s Theories of Simulations Applied to Recent Crime Fiction Praca doktorska napisana pod kierunkiem prof. dr hab. Dominiki Oramus Warszawa, 2016 Table of Contents Preface..............................................................................................................................................4 Section One: Theories....................................................................................................................10 Chapter 1: Fatal Philosophies – from structuralism to hyperreality and beyond...........................11 1.1 Textual Premise...................................................................................................................12 1.2 Semiotics and Structuralism................................................................................................16 1.3 Baudrillard and Structuralism.............................................................................................21 1.4 Simulacra and Simulation...................................................................................................29 1.5 Baudrillard and Poststructuralism.......................................................................................32 1.6 Beyond Baudrillard.............................................................................................................35 Chapter 2: Contexts for Analysing Popular Fiction.......................................................................37 2.1 Definitions...........................................................................................................................37 2.2 New Historicism, Cultural Studies and Exchange Value....................................................46 Chapter 3: The Detective Genre....................................................................................................57 Chapter 4: Embodied Cognition and the Detective Genre.............................................................69 Section Two: Analyses...................................................................................................................91 Chapter 5: A Traditional Detective Story – Death in Holy Orders by P.D. James........................92 5.1 The Structure of the Mystery and Generic Conventions.....................................................93 5.2 A Baudrillardian Reading of Themes................................................................................117 Chapter 6: An Appeal to Mass Sensibilities – When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson ......................................................................................................................................................124 6.1 The Plot.............................................................................................................................125 6.2 Synopsis............................................................................................................................128 6.3 Crimes and Thriller-Inspired Structure.............................................................................147 6.4 Themes..............................................................................................................................170 Chapter 7: Breaking Generic Boundaries – Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon.......................182 7.1 Character Cast and Plot Overview....................................................................................186 7.2 Aspects of Detective Fiction.............................................................................................205 7.3 Hypertextuality, Postmodernism and Cognitive Elements................................................216 7.4 An Intangible Reality – Baudrillardian Influences............................................................228 2 Chapter 8: Conclusions................................................................................................................237 8.1 “Popular” and “highbrow” as critical terms......................................................................237 8.2 Baudrillard's theories and embodied cognition as tools for analysing fiction..................241 Bibliography and Works Cited.....................................................................................................246 Primary Sources...........................................................................................................................247 Secondary Sources.......................................................................................................................250 3 Preface This dissertation deals with detective fiction, using two non-standard approaches that seem potentially well-suited to the analysis of popular literature. The first of these is Jean Baudrillard's theory of simulation, understood through his prior works describing the consumer society. The second approach is intended as an empirical counter-balance to the radical views of Baudrillard – embodied cognition, as proposed by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. The aim of this work is to compare the merits of both approaches on the grounds of literary analysis. My reason for choosing Jean Baudrillard's theories in a dissertation devoted to popular fiction is his unique focus on the workings of the consumer society, stemming from his sociological and semiotic background. It appears to me that applying Baudrillard's ideas to a heavily conventionalised, widely-read genre can result in insights concerning not only the thematic layer of a novel, but also its structure. In particular, the idea of hyperreality, a self- referential system that seeks to supersede the things it was made to simulate, seems to be an excellent match for formulaic, engaging entertainment. And since Baudrillard was interested in mass phenomena, detective fiction—probably the most widely read literary genre in the 20th century—is a fine starting point for analysis. However, while Baudrillard's thoughts are captivating in their own right, they are also too chaotic and obscure to be used as an analytical tool without the support of other methodologies. This is hardly surprising, since the French sociologist departed from a disciplined academic style after Symbolic Exchange and Death (1977). Simulacra and Simulation (1981), which inspired this project, requires some interpretative effort in order to be employed for critical purposes. Hence, I decided to broaden the methodological scope of this dissertation to provide a counter- balance to the loose character of a Baudrillardian analysis. My choice is embodied cognition, which encompasses multiple avenues of research. Its chief proponents in the areas of philosophy and language, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, emphasised the empirical nature of their project in the book Philosophy in the Flesh (1999). According to Lakoff and Johnson, evidence from a broad range of academic fields points towards the conclusion that human reasoning, including abstract thinking, is fundamentally embodied – based on our bodily interactions with the world. This notion runs counter to all structuralist and post-structuralist thought, including that of Baudrillard, because it rejects the 4 arbitrariness of language and the idea that signs gain meaning only in opposition to each other. The proponents of embodied cognition argue that language is grounded in our bodily experience. Concepts from embodied cognition have been used by several critics in the study of literature, for purposes ranging from poetics to genre analysis. The allure of embodied cognition in a discussion of detective fiction is its capability of explaining thought patterns which guide the structure of mysteries. Furthermore, it can serve as a good contrast to Baudrillard's ideas, since it is capable of both structural and thematic analyses. This juxtaposition of methodologies naturally leads to the question: can one perspective be better than the other? In other words, is it possible to replace Baudrillard's obscure ideas with a more systematised approach which readily defers to empirical data and requires less effort to implement? This is less a conflict of objectivism and subjectivism, than of verifiability and ease of use versus laborious interpretation and difficult implementation. Numerous concepts taken from Baudrillard require extensive explanation before they can be used in an analysis. Similar problems do not exist in the case of embodied cognition, although a literary critic will not be sufficiently prepared to take advantage of its vaunted empiricism, relying instead on the findings of other researchers. Considering the influence that Baudrillard's works have had on culture, and the influence that proponents of embodied cognition would like their project to have on philosophy, I believe that this comparison is a useful contribution to field of literary theory. Yet another reason for which it seems worthwhile to contrast Baudrillard's theories with embodied cognition is the totality of both approaches. The French post-structuralist had an undeniable tendency towards controversial generalisations, and the claims made in Philosophy in the Flesh by Lakoff and Johnson, despite their common-sense delivery, are nothing if not radical to a Western intellectual. Simulacra and Simulation posits that reality is dead, Philosophy in the Flesh denies the duality of the body and the mind on scientific grounds. While the latter claim might seem less far-reaching, if we look