Title The Archaic Shudder? Toward a poetics of the sublime (in two sections: creative and critical) Student Name Dan Disney Diploma of Arts (Editing), RMIT Bachelor of Arts, Monash University Master of Creative Arts (Research), University of Melbourne This thesis is submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by creative work (50%) and dissertation (50%), School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne. Submitted 15th September, 2009. 1 2 Abstract This cross-disciplinary investigation moves toward that sub-genre in aesthetics, the theory of creativity. After introducing my study with a re-reading of Heidegger’s essay, ‘The Origin of the Work of Art’, I appropriate into a collection of poems ideas from Plato, Kant, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, and a range of post-philosophical theorists. Next, after Murmur and Afterclap, in the critical section of my investigation I formulate a poetics of the sublime, and move closer to my own specialist term, poeticognosis. With this term, I set out to designate a particular style of apprehending-into-language, after wonder, as it pertains (I argue) to creative producers. Section One Murmur and Afterclap The poetry submitted here does not arise simply out of a theoretical position or theoretical concerns, and it is not in any sense exemplary or programmatic. It is, however, related in complex ways to the issues raised later in the critical section of my investigation, and indeed has provoked − necessitated − my theoretical discussion (rather than the other way around). The poems contained in this section of my investigation draw from the many documents I have encountered in my attempt to shape a discourse with philosophy. In his essay, ‘What is Enlightenment?’, Kant exhorts his fellow philosophers to ‘(h)ave courage to use your own understanding!’ I have followed Kant’s advice here, but not as a philosopher might. The understanding I use in Murmur and Afterclap is a style of intuitive and extra-logical responsiveness. Undertaking my own archaic shuddering, I have attempted to maintain a reflective gaze (I use the verb in both mimetic and meditative senses). The poems that result have unfolded, after wonder, as moments of defamiliarising epiphany. Section Two The Archaic Shudder? Toward a poetics of the sublime I conduct this critical section of my investigation in two parts. In the first, ‘Dialectics and Logic: two modes of the genre “philosophy”’, I address the materiality of language as my most pressing concern. I take up a discussion of theoria and gnosis in order to locate genre difference, and discern the sublime as an extra-logical style of apprehending (and agree with Kant, that the apprehensions of poets may well be sublime). Next, I recuperate Heidegger’s interpretation of techné as a mode of know-how that separates both phenomenology (apprehending, seeing, knowing) and approaches to language. I speculate the sublime is an active component in creative phenomenologies at work, as thinkers apprehend-into-language, into genre, after wonder. In part two, ‘Toward Poeticognosis? Re-thinking the sublime’, I read the poetries of Carson and Hass against pseudo-Longinus’ textual and Burke’s affective sublime. Reading across this range of poetries and philosophies, my investigation into imaginative processes speculates on language, genre, phenomenologies, and on the ‘transcendental power of imagination’ (Kant). Is there any difference between thinking poets and poetic thinkers? I come to valorise a sublime process – extra-logical, gnostic, and more-than-rational – as integral to that difference. I conclude this critical section of my investigation with an appraisal of Rilke’s ‘Sonnets to Orpheus’, which I take as a historicising moment in poetic wondering. At this point, I reify my own term, poeticognosis, as a style of responsiveness to wondering that remains particular to creative production. 3 Declaration This is to certify that – i. the thesis comprises only my original work except in places where indicated in the preface, ii. due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used, iii. the thesis is less than 100,000 words in length, inclusive of footnotes but exclusive of tables, maps, bibliographies and appendices. Dan Disney 15th September 2009. 4 Acknowledgements Since March 5th 2005, this project has never been more than a moment away from my thinking. To those friends who shared part or all of my journey, thank you for your forbearance at my (at times profound) inability to express what my research has been about. It is, in part, about what Kant fathoms as a ‘blind but indispensable function’; attempting to fit a theory of creativity to philosophical conjecture on how thinking happens has necessitated a fumbling (sometimes grumbling) unguided process as I have worked toward my own sense of the ‘transcendental power of imagination’ (Kant again). My speculations on imaginative processes as sublime have been elaborated thanks to one person in particular, Kevin Brophy, who has been my advisor, editor, mentor, foil and friend: a person for whom I cannot locate enough words to fit my sense of gratitude. Sincere thanks also (and with apologies) to those readers on whom I imposed – prematurely – a version of this investigation: Sue Disney, Sandy Fitts, and Matt Hetherington, many good things came after your generous and carefully-worded critiques. A range of writing from this investigation has been published (or has been submitted to, or is forthcoming, in journals), has won awards, and has received support from numerous organisations: • ‘Performative exile, theoria, and creativity: re-reading Plato’s The Republic through the lens of Wallace Stevens’ “An Ordinary Evening in New Haven”’ was published in Contemporary Aesthetics: an international, interdisciplinary, online journal of contemporary theory, research, and application in aesthetics (http://www.contempaesthetics.org/) in 2008. • ‘Heidegger, creativity, and what some poets do: on living in a silent shack for three months and not going mad’ has been accepted for publication in a future edition of New Writing: The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing. • ‘Does anybody else here not understand? Language, post-philosophers, bewitchment and confusion: some post-conference reflections’ has been accepted for publication in a future edition of Text: a Journal of Writing and Writing Courses. • ‘Apprehending, seeing, knowing: toward an account of techné after Kant’s architectonics and Heidegger’s conception of wonder’ has been submitted to British Journal of Aesthetics (17th July 2009). • ‘Decreating thinking: toward a theory of creativity? Rethinking the sublime after Anne Carson’s Decreation and Edmund Burke’s A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origins of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful’ has been submitted to New Writing: The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing (11th August 2009). 5 • A number of poems from the creative section of this investigation have been published in Antithesis, Blast, HEAT, Overland, Meanjin, and www.whenpressed.net. • Selections taken from the creative section of this investigation have been awarded as follows: first prize, the National Poetry Week’s Broadway Prize (2006); first prize, the University of Melbourne’s Creative Writing Prize (2005); runner up, the Arts Queensland Val Vallis National Poetry Award (2008). • During the research of this investigation I have received the Felix Meyer Travelling Scholarship from the Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne; a four week residency at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers’ Centre (Perth, Western Australia); and a two week residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre (Newbliss, County Monaghan, Republic of Ireland). I extend my sincerest thanks for this invaluable support, which has aided in both the arrival (creative) and formulation (critical) of ideas. 6 Table of Contents Prelude Heidegger, creativity, and what some poets do: on living in a silent shack for three months and not going mad................................... 9 Section One Murmur and Afterclap........................................................................................................................ 25 Section Two The Archaic Shudder? Toward a poetics of the sublime......................................................................... 89 Introduction A précis, methodology and glossary. What uses might a poet find for philosophies? What do poetries do (and how do poets do it)?...........................................................91 Chapter One A post-philosophical turn? On the in-between-nesses of de Man’s deconstructions ...........................................109 Part One Dialectics and Logic: two modes of the genre ‘philosophy’ .......................................................... 121 Chapter Two Performative exile, theoria, and creativity: re-reading Plato’s The Republic through the lens of Wallace Stevens’ ‘An Ordinary Evening in New Haven’ .......................................................................125 Chapter Three Apprehending, seeing, knowing: toward an account of techné after Kant’s architectonics and Heidegger’s conception of wonder....................................................................................................143 Part Two Toward poeticognosis? Re-thinking the sublime .............................................................................. 155 Chapter Four Decreating thinking: toward