ENIkő BOLLOBÁS S Á B This collection brings together critical studies framed by several theo- retical perspectives, including performative, intersubjective, postmod- ern, feminist, tropological, and rhetorical. The prose texts have been READING selected in such a way that they are best interpreted through these the- oretical approaches. Specifically, they turn on processes whereby the (gendered) subjects are performatively constructed, while characters, THROUGH often informed by rhetorical processes and structures, are formed via NIKő BOLLO their interactions with others. The poetic texts are interpreted within E the frames of poetological paradigms that problematize referentiality, THEORY self-expressivity, and performativity. The approach of “reading through theory” might be called ekphrastic, STUDIES IN THEORY-frAMED INTERPRETATION where theory acts as a filter through which we read literature. Theory OF THE LITERARY TEXT is put in the service of interpretation, while its use or usefulness is also tested in the process of critical reading. In other words, not only does the text demand the theory, but also the theory demands the text. Enikő Bollobás is professor of literature at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, and corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. This is her tenth book. BTK ISBN 978-963-489-297-7 READING THROUGH THEORY bollobas_borito.indd 1 2021.04.28. 10:04:53 Enikő Bollobás READING THROUGH THEORY Enikő Bollobás READING THROUGH THEORY Studies in Theory-framed Interpretation of the Literary Text Budapest, 2021 The publication of this book was made possible by the National Research, Develop- ment, and Innovation Office, Budapest, in support of the Thematic Excellence Pro- gram Community Building: Family and Nation, Tradition and Innovation, Eötvös Loránd University, 2020/21. ISBN 978-963-489-297-7 ISBN 978-963-489-298-4 (pdf) © Enikő Bollobás, 2021 www.eotvoskiado.hu Executive Publisher: the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities Eötvös Loránd University Project manager: László Urbán Layout: János Csánki Cover: Ildikó Csele Kmotrik Print: Multiszolg Ltd TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface . 7 From Logocentric to Discursive: On the Paradigms of Performativity ..... 15 Behavioral Paradigms in the Short Fiction of Henry James: An Intersubjective Approach . 27 The Marking and the Telling: Versions of the Stigma Narrative as Given by Anne Hutchinson, Emily Dickinson, and Philip Roth ..... 39 Tropes of Intersubjectivity: Metalepsis and Rhizome in the Novels of H. D. (Hilda Doolittle) ......................................... 53 The Fantastic as Performative: Mark Twain and Ambrose Bierce Performing the Unreal . 67 Making the Subject: Performative Genders in Carson McCullers’ The Ballad of the Sad Caféand David Hwang’s M. Butterfly . 79 Troping the Unthought: Catachresis in Emily Dickinson’s Poetry ......... 99 Plots of Domination, Plots of Relationality: On the Triangular Positioning of Characters in American and European Literature ...... 129 Versions of Triangular Desire in Hungarian Literature: Reading Sándor Márai and Péter Nádas . 147 TheDouble Entendre of Sex: Pornographies of Body and Society in Péter Esterházy’s Fiction ..................................... 159 In Imploded Sentences: On Charles Bernstein’s Poetic Attentions . 175 Writing on the Margins of Sound and Sight: Augusto de Campos and Transnational Poetic Traditions . 199 Historical Reconstruction, Rough Book Poetry, and the Withdrawal of the Self: Susan Howe and the Olsonian Tradition . 215 Works Cited . 245 Acknowledgements . 267 Index .......................................................... 269 5 PREFACE This collection brings together critical studies framed by several theoretical per- spectives, including performative, intersubjective, postmodern, feminist, tropolog- ical, and rhetorical. In some essays I discuss the theoretical frameworks themselves, delineating the various paradigms and giving historical overviews of how these paradigms evolved, while also demonstrating how they can be applied in literary interpretation. In other studies, I put the literary text into the center, and perform readings informed by particular theories. The prose texts have been selected in such a way that they are best interpreted through these theoretical approaches; specifi- cally, they turn on processes whereby the (gendered) subjects are performatively constructed, while characters, often informed by rhetorical processes and structures, are formed via their interactions with others. That is, performative and rhetorical constructions of the subject and interactions of characters are foregrounded in these narratives; they “stick out” to such an extent that they call for specific theoretical readings. The poetic texts are interpreted within the frames of poetological para- digms that problematize referentiality, self-expressivity, and performativity; among these paradigms, tropization, language-centered approaches, and anti-lyric models are foregrounded in the essays. This approach of “reading through theory” might be called ekphrastic, with the collection bringing together specimens of “critical ekphrasis,” where theory acts as a filter through which we read literature. Theory is put in the service of interpreta- tion, while its use or usefulness is also tested in the process of critical reading. Therefore, we might say that the process is reciprocal, for not only is the text read through theory, but theory is equally read through what is often referred to as the “primary” text. In other words, not only does the text demand the theory, but also the theory demands the text. The collection starts with the essay “From Logocentric to Discursive: On the Paradigms of Performativity,” in which I trace the history of the concept of per- formativity from its inception in linguistics to its vigorously adopted poststructur- alist reconceptualizations. I show that while the Austinian primary paradigm, informed by the modern episteme, exhibits traits of logocentric thinking, the new paradigm, informed by the postmodern episteme, bears the marks of the poststruc- turalist plea. Moreover, while the performative in the Austinian paradigm con- formed to a transitive process with its direct object outside the speech situation, 7 in the poststructuralist understanding the performative follows a reflexive process, having the subject of the sentence as its direct object. While the Austinian logo- centric concept, informed by transitivity, insists on object performativity, the poststructuralist reconceptualization, having replaced transitivity by reflexivity, insists on subject performativity. Finally, while the original concept was a product of linguistics and the philosophy of language, the adoptions reached well beyond the original disciplinary lines. Among the adoptions of the discursive-reflexive paradigm, I focus on subject performativity primarily. In the next study, entitled “Behavioral Paradigms in the Short Fiction of Henry James: An Intersubjective Approach,” I move to the short fiction of Henry James, an ideal ground for character studies, in particular, the investigation of interactional paradigms, from an intersubjective perspective. After providing an overview of the relevant claims of intersubjective theory that I apply in my interpretation, I discuss how some of James’ characters interact with the others in modes described by Maurice Merleau-Ponty. These characters are defined in terms of how they perceive themselves and the others; they recognize (or do not recognize) other perspectives than their own; they open onto Others, or are touched by Others (or not). Other characters bear gendered marks of language behavior, normative or transgressive styles of speaking. “The Marking and the Telling—Versions of the Stigma Narrative as Given by Anne Hutchinson, Emily Dickinson, and Philip Roth” is devoted to ways the subject is performed in the text. I first explore how power constructs the female intellect through the body. In the case of Anne Hutchinson, it is two men, John Winthrop and John Cotton, who make discursive gestures that turn a most private female or feminine situation (childbirth) into a public exhibit. Moving on to the example of Emily Dickinson, I examine the foregrounding of the female body in her poetry as well as the contemporary critical response to her poems. In the correspondence between Dickinson and T. W. Higginson, the critic expresses his curiosity for the female poet’s age and looks before giving his expert opinion. I read some of Hig- ginson’s letters as cases of stigmatization, discursive acts foregrounding the body so as to be able to disregard the mind. Discussing racial stigma, I first examine the 2000 New York exhibit of lynching photographs chronicling the events of physical torture. Here physical stigma is reinforced by social stigma, burned upon the body by the narrative gaze of the prejudiced witnesses. Finally, I show how in Philip Roth’s The Human Stain, the protagonist passes over from black to Jewish, which can be understood as the ethnically marked version of white. Having, as a man of 8 READING THROUGH THEORY colored ancestry, performed Jewishness, he simply replaces one stigma for another, allowing the novel to turn on the performative topos of interlocking stigma and narration. In “Troping the Unthought: Catachresis in Emily Dickinson’s Poetry” I treat catachresis as the trope of performativity in Emily Dickinson’s poetry. As one of the poetic devices used by this poet in favor of polytropy, it stands out as the trope