"Is Not Outside Seeming Real as Substance Inside": A Bakhtinian Reading of the Relationship Between Art and Life in Robert Browning's Dramatic Monologues Karolle Lynn Wall B .A., Simon Fraser University, 1991 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of English O Karolle Lyrm Wall Simon Fraser University November, 1995 All rights reserved. Thls work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. APPROVAL NAME: Karolle Lynn Wall DEGREE: Master of Arts TITLE OF THESIS: "Is Not Outside Seeming Real as Substance Inside:" A Bakhtinian Reading of the Relationship Between Art and Life in Robert Browning's Dramatic Monologues Examining Committee: Chair: June Sturrock \ - Assistant Professor of English I Janet Giltrow Assdciate Professor of English , Y Pamela Dalziel External Examiner Assistant Professor of English University of British Columbia r Date Approved: (~~WIXY6 15 PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENSE I hereby grant to Simon Fraser Universi the right to lend my thesis, pro'ect or extended essay (the title oB which is shown below) to users of" the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. I further agree that permission for multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by me or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this work for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Author: (signature) 16 (date) iii Abstract Thoughout their extensive careers, both Robert Browning and Wail Bakhtin were pre-occupied with the problem of aesthetics, with the position of the self in relation to others, in both art and Me. Although volumes of literature were produced by both the poet and the phlosopher, neither one of them came up with a theory of art that could be considered conclusive. Their work is forever marked by the movement that marks each of our lives -- the movement of quest and question. Without providmg any conclusive answers, thls thesis engages Bakhtin's theories of answerability, dialogism, laughter, and speech genres (to name a few), in order to provide a new and enrichmg context wibwhch to explore three of Browning's more popular dramatic monologues: "My Last Duchess," "Andrea del Sarto," and "Fra Lippo Lippi." Following Bakhtin's belief that it is the "reader's reaction to reactions in the work of art that transforms a text into an event by giving it meaningN(A&Axxxi) an emphasis is placed on the interaction that takes place between the "author," reader, "hero," and the larger socio-hstorical world as they all meet and interact through that hchis spoken as text. It is my position that what Browning valued most in the relationship between art and life is what Bakhtin would defrne as that whlch takes place on the boundary, on the threshold between one's own and someone else's consciousness. As readers of the dramatic monologue, we occupy a threshold space betwixt and between varying perspectives, a space whch forces us to understand that truth and meaning, for Browning, were always expressed as a matter of potential -- as that whlch is always worth seelung. for Westley and Kaela Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisors, Tom Grieve and Janet Giltrow, for their help, advice, encouragment, and patience. Thanks to my family who, as always, have been both supportive and inspirational. My mother, who wished on every new moon and put her editing slulls to work on more than one occasion, deserves a special thank-you. Thanks to my children, Westley and Kaela, who managed to grow into two of the finest and most supportive teenagers a mother could ask for, even though the fridge was all too often bare, and the table was all too rarely set. Thanks to all those fnends who got me where I needed to go when my health got in the way of my dnver's licence: Melinda, David, Graham, Gloria, Del, Catherine M, Catherine H, Rory, Tom, Dennis, Robin, Cory, Ellen, Sharon, Debbie, Duane, Sylvie, Nancy, Tim & Leith. A special thanks to Arnold Shoichet and David MacDonald, the two doctors who actually believed me when I said I was losing my mind and were willing to let me take the risks necessary to complete thls. For it is with this world, as starting point and basis allke, that we shall always have to concern ourselves: the world is not to be learned and thrown aside, but reverted to and relearned. The spiri@al comprehension may be m.fiinitely subtilized, but the raw matenal it operates on must remain. There may be no end of the poets who communicate to us what they see in an object wth reference to their own indwiduality: what it was before they saw it, in reference to the aggregate human mind will be as deslrable to know as ever. (Robert Browning, An Essay on Shelley) The work and the world represented in it enter the real world and enrich it, and the real world enters the work and its world as part of the process of its creation, as well as part of its subsequent life, .m a continual renewing of the work through the creative perce tion of listeners and readers. &&bail Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination) vii TABLE OF CONTENTS . Approval Page .......................................ii ... Abstract ...........................................ill Dedcation .........................................iv Acknowledgements ...................................v Quotation ..........................................vi Table of Contents ................................... vii ... Abbreviations ...................................... .wii Chapter 1.Introduction ...................................... 1 2. The 'Depth and Passion' in an 'Earnest Glance' ...........26 3. Andrea del Sarto: A Slave to the Soul ................. .59 4. Fra Lippo Lippi: "ALaugh, a cry, the business of the world--" 93 Workscited ........................................ 126 Works Consulted .....................................132 ... Vlll Abbreviations All works below are signed by Bakhtin unless otherwise identified. A&A Bakhtin, M.M. Art and Answerability. Early Philosophical Essays. Ed. M. Holquist and V. Liapunov. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990. In tlus thesis, I make reference to the following essays printed in tlus anthology: "Art and Answerability" (19 19), "Author and Hero in Aesthetic Activity" (ca. 1920-1923). Cop Mikhail Bakhtin, Creation of a Prosaics. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990. By Gary Saul Morson and Caryl Emerson. DI The Dialogic Imagination. Ed. M. Holquist. Trans. C. Emerson & M. Holquist. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981. In thts thesis, I make reference to the following essays printed in this anthology: "Epic and Novel," "From the Prehistory of Novelistic Discourse," "Forms of Time and the Chronotope in the Novel," and "Discourse in the Novel." FCS Freudianism--A Critical Sketch. Ed. Neal H. Bruss. Trans. I.R. Titudc. Bloornington: Indrana University Press, 1976. Signed by V. N. Voloshmov. In tlus thesis, I make reference to the following appendrx printed in tlus anthology. "Discourse in Life and Discourse in Art." (also signed by V.N. Voloshmov) MPo_fZ Marxism and the Philosophy of Language. Trans. L. Matejka & I.R. Titudc. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973. Signed by V.N. Volosinov. PofDP Problems of Dostoevky's Poetics. Ed. & Trans. Caryl Emerson. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984. This anthology includes two appendxes hchare referred to in this thesis: Problems of Dostoevky's Art (1929) and "Toward a Reworkmg of the Dostoevlq Book" (1961). R&HW Rabelais & His World. Trans. Helene Iswolslq. Bloomington: Indana Unversity Press, 1984. SG Speech Genres & Other Late Essays. Ed. Caryl Emerson & Michael Holquist. Trans. V. McGee. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986. In hsthesis, I make reference to the following essays printed in hsanthology include: "Response to a Question fiom the Novy Mir Editorial Staff," "The Bildungsroman and its Signrficance to the History of Realism (Toward a Historical Typology of the Novel," "The Problem of Speech Genres," "The Problem of the Text in Linguistics, Phlology, and the Human Sciences: An Experiment in Phlosophcal Analysis," "From Notes Made in 1970-71 " and "Toward a Methodology for the Human Sciences." PofA Toward a Philosophy of the Act. Ed. V. Liapunov & M. Holquist. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993. Chapter One: Introduction WailBakhtin's distaste for the "monologic steadfastness" of poetic genres is as well-known and well-documented as hs appreciation and celebration of the "novelized" form. Although there is still a general tendency among literary critics to argue that Bakhtin's theories are most relevant to the study of narrative fiction, the application of hs ideas to other genres, includmg certain forms of poetry, is becoming more and more common. The poetry of Robert Browning is no exception. As a few critics have recently proven,1 a Bakhtinian interpretation can enable the reader to better understand the incongruities, the lalogic interplay of voices, and the ironies in Browning's poems. What has yet to be illustrated is the extent to whch Bakhtin's theories can shed some much needed light on the relationshp between the dynamics of the dramatic monologue and what constituted, for Browning, his own "theory of art." When it comes to defining Browning's "aesthetic