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Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9* black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. ProQuest Information and Leaming 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 UMÏ EIHETORICAL HYBRIDITY: ASHBERY, BERNSTEIN AND THE POETICS OF CITAHON DISSERTATION Presented in. Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree Doctor of Philosophy m the Graduate School o f The Ohio State University By \fatthew Richardson^ hlA . ***** The Ohio State Unwersity 2001 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Jon Erickson. Adviser Professor Jessica Prinz . ___ Adviser Professor Stephen Melville Graduate Program m. English. UMI Number: 3031255 Copyright2002 by Richardson, Matthew John All rights reserved. UMI' UMI Microform 3031255 Copyright 2002 by Bell & Howell Information and Leaming Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Beil & Howell Information and Leaming Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 ABSTRACT This dissertation attempts to answer two apparent^ straight&rward questions: (1) What is the nature and function o fcitation? (2) How does contemporary poetry make use of it? The &st question seems the easier one, because citation is of course quite familiar to scholars. Traditionally, one cites or quotes from another work to illustrate or decorate the citmg text. In the case o f illustration, a citation functions to support the aims and claans o f the citing text, which are typically advanced m a linear and expository way. In the case o fdecoration, citation's function is to adorn the text with a stylûtic flour^h. In both situations, however, a citation plays a role subservient to that of the citmg text. An illustrative citation is simply the indififerent mstrument for substantiatmg the citing text. And an ornamental citation, despite possessing more mdependence than an illustrative citation, is nevertheless shuffled away to the actual marginso f the page as epigraph or footnote, lest it mterrupt the flow o f the writing and contammate the citmg text. But what happens when châtions fmd their way into poetry, a mode o f writing that does not lend hself as well to Imear and expository expression? When the context is altered m this way, the mherent capachy o fcitations to déplace and substhute for the n citing text may be explored, generating new possibilities for the status of authors, texts and readers. Citation's nature is thus revealed as hybrid, as capable of both illustratfoa and displacement. Poetry would seeiato be the last place to fold citations, because poets are supposed to speak m thek own miinitable voices and o # r literary works of originaliQf. But a host of poets have been makmg creative use of citation for nearly a century. Eliot and Pound are obvious cases m. pomt and are discussed m Leonard Diepeveen’s Changing Voices: The Modernist Quoting Poem. My project follows in the footsteps o f this work by addressing the postmodern situation, particularly so by examining John Ashbery’s early poetry and the language poetry o f Charles Bernstein. Poets like these savor the latent possibility o f citations to dkrupt the citmg text and ofler multiple textures o f expression m a given poem. m For my parents IV ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank my adviser, Jon Erickson, for the mteilectual support and thought-provoking challenges that made this dksertation possible, and for his patience as [ struggled with some burdens that occasionally stood m the way o f progress on this work. I thank Jessica Prmz for her passion about post-modern art and literature and her unwavermg encouragement. I am gratefiil to Stephen Melville for mtroducmg me to many of the key critical voices that appear m this work. I am indebted to George Hartley for many long and mvaluable conversations about my project over the course o f several years. I express much gratitude to Maqorie Perloff whose teachmgs, writings and suggestions led me both to graduate school and to work on this project. And to my wife, Donna Baker, I owe the profound debt o f one who enjoys both critical and supportive attention day m and day out. VITA November 4,1968 ............................. Bom—Cmcinnati,OH 1992.................................. ................. AÆ. Englisfa, Stanford University 1992 -1 9 9 8 ........................................ Graduate Teachmg Associate, The Ohio State University 1994 ...................................................MJV* English, The Ohio State University 1998 -1 9 9 9 ....................................... Lecturer, The Ohio State University FIELDS OF STUDY Vfejor Field: English VI TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract................................................................................................................ii Dedication ............................................................................................................iv Acknowledgments................................................................................................ v Vita..................................................................................................................... vi Chapters: 1. Introduction: Metaphor and the Paradox of Citation ........................................ I 1.1 Citation and Metaphor. .................................................................... .4 Previous Studies o f Citation............................................................. 11 I J Previous Scholarship on Literary Uses of Citation ............................. 22 1.4 A Brief Overview o f the Remammg Chapters .....................................26 2. Ut Pictura Poeisfst John Ashbery^s Art o fCitation ........................................31 2.1 Ashbery’s Background .................................................................... J 4 2 2 The Role o f Surrealmn m Ashbery’s Art Criticfem ............................ .43 22 The Right Balance: The Interplay of Conscious and Unconscious Forces mKftaj................................................................................ 47 2.4 Rhetorical Mhcmg and the Problem of Automatic Writing ................... 52 2.5 Art Risks: Metaphysics, Illustration and Politically Involved Art ..........56 3. Citation and Paratactic Composition in Bernstein’s Essays ..............................63 3.1 Citation and Poetics: BemsteuTs “Tale of Terms”.............................. 67 3 2 Collage Composition m Bemstem’s Essays ....................................... 72 3.3 “Sightmg” and “Soundmgf’ Language ............................................... 87 3.3.1 Poetic Amblyopia .................................................................93 3 2 2 Soundmg and Citation ......................................................... .98 3.32 Performance: Sighting and Soundmg ................................... 107 3.4 A Few Quahns................................................................................ 109 vii 4. Citation and Artifice in Ashbery’s Early Poetry ......................................... 114 4.1 Temptations and Trappmgs: Some Trees ......................................... 117 4.LI “ThePamter” .....................................................................119 4.12 “lUustration”..................................................................... 124 4.1.3 “The Picture o f Little JA . ni a Prospect of Flowers” ............128 4 2 Emptymg Out the Mmd: The Tennis Court Oath............................... 131 42.1 “Europe”........................................................................... 132 42.2 “Thoughts o f a Young Girl” ............................................... 136 42.3 “’How Much Longer Will I Be Able To Inhabit the Divme Sepulcher...’” ...................................................................140 4.3 Citatfonal Triumph m Rivers and Mountains,................................... 146 4.3.1 “These Lacustrme Cities”....................................................147 4 3 2 “The Skaters”.................................................................... 151 5. Bemstem’s The Sophist: Citation and Philosophy ............................................. 159 5.1 Two Case Studies............................................................................161 5.1.1 “Dysraphism” .................................................................... 162 5.12 “Three or Four” Revisited .................................................