IRONY 1s LIKING TUINGS: DONALD BARTHELME'S POSTMODERN POETICS BY MARK CAUGHL IN A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS Depar tment ot Engl i sh University of Manitoba Winnipeg, Manitoba (c) August, 1997 National Library Bibliothèque nationale du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Semices services bibliographiques The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National LI* of Canada to Bibiiotheqe naîionale du Canada de reproduce, loan, disbn'bute or seJl reproduire, prêter, distncbuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/" de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. 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ABSTRACT On the one hand, the fiction of Donald BartheIme is distinctive and makes a strong impact on its reader, but on the other, both its meanings and accomplishments are ehsive. 1 argue, however, that Barthelme must first and foremost be understood as an ironist, and in order to contextualize his work, 1 have formulated a theory of postmodern irony that borrows more from the philosophy of Schlegel and of Husserl than from traditional literary theory. 1 also contend that BartheIme employs language as an object, and that from the avant-garde and pop art traditions, as well as from Iate modernism, Barthelme has Iearned to express language as manifestation rather than as meaning. Such a strategy, in conjunction with his use of the meaningless of signs, not only allows him to transform the reified state of Ianguage under Iate capitalism, but also allows him to radicalize the commodity logic that 1 argue is inherent in literature. 1 conclude, finally, that Barthelme's fiction has productive results, despite its tendency to rupture and to parody existing forms. 1 demonstrate, for instance, how it counters the pessmistic vision of the world Baudrillard offers but affirms the epistemological positives that Lyotard uncovers in the postmodern condition. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1 would like to thank Dr. Evelyn J. Hinz for her general openness to my ideas, for her specitic input concerning this project, and for her diligence in editing my work. I would also like to thank the University of Manitoba for financial support in the torm of a University of Manitoba Graduate Fellowship (1995-96), and the Department of English, for support in a variety of forms. For Mom and Dad TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACTmmoo,~m*,oammom~omemoo.ommmmommom~mmo~moo~m~mommmomoi CHAPTER 1: "Schlegel, Not Hegel: Towards a Theory of Postmodern Irony"m~mmmommmm~~emmmmmm~m~ommmmmo.mmmmmmommmmmm7 CHAPTER 3: "From Pop to a Sensual Economy of Fiction: The Ontology of Late Capitalist Sur~ace"aao~~om~m.ao~~amm.~~m~125 INTRODUCT ION Living in rhat during bis tire came to be knoun as "the postmodern world," American author Donald Barthelme intuited that as a subject and as an author, he was without agency and, for that reason, potent indeed. In incorporating other people's terts and illustrations, in parodying other people's styles, in grafting his language ont0 an indeterainate signitying systei, and in refusing to create any definite systei of ieaning of his own, Barthelre produces writing the value of which is indirect and contingent. Yet his work has a distinct style, and iroa his slippery use of language and from his skeptical acceptance ut the world, he creates works that are not only stirringly imaginative but also peculiarly responsive to the enviro~enthe inhabits. hfluenced in part by the tendencies of what Peter Burger calls the "historical avant-garde" movement, Barthelme's fiction absorbs both the surrealist's dreamscape, and the dadaist's world of real objects. 1 ri11 argue that Barthelme, however, atteipts to express more than do these artistic precursors, especially the dadaists, whose structural attack against the discourse ot art itself was by necessity of limited scope. This he does chiefly by aestheticizing their interventions and, in fact, by following the lead ot what is actuallg a later phase of the avant- garde: strangely accepting of the wasteland ot late capitalist culture, of the slipperiness of signs, and of the 2 meaningiess of bis own subjectivity, Barthelie adopts certain strategies typical of the pop art moveient, such as its ambivalence to the coriodity and, in particular, its discourse of irony. Irony is, in tact, of paramount importance to Barthelie's vision and expression of the world. His adoption of the iode is both expansive and elusive, however, and so my opening chapter locuses on the use of irony in his work. Irony is, in addition, crucial to postmodernity in general, so tbis chapter is in part an attempt to posit a theory of postrodern irony, as well as an attempt to better understand Barthelme's work. Barthelme could be considered an ironist above al1 else. His irony gives his writing its distinguishing tone and voice; it is his authoc-function. Without it, and without, of course, the unifying authority of his name, it would be difficult to tic Barthelme's works together at all, for his writing teatures a multiplicity of strategies; he variously produces fragments, dialogues, fantastic stories, collages, parodic allegories, experiments in language, critiques of the media and of pop culture, and extended jokes. Comon to ruch of this iedley of treatments is a parodic tendency in which, Charles Molesrorth notes, there are often more than two layers; in other words, there is seldom a single clearly parodied structure or content against which a "straight" or serious counterpart is being set. The story becomes a t ield of f ree-f loat ing parody, where no anchor ing content or style serves as the central vehicle of intention against which the other structures are judged or intecpreted. (46) For Molesuorth, Barthelmets "chiet stylistic device" is collage, and his collage of iodes "creates an ironic context that qualifies the validity of each, without giving priority to any" (53). Such de-prioritization, however, though born of a pop attitude of acceptance, is more the result of the mixture of authorial self-effacement and of authorial agency that is of a kind with the rorantic impulses that philosopher Friedrich Schlegel outlines in his theory of irony. My intention is to show how Schlegel's irony is not only crucial to Barthelme's artistry and vision, but how its roiantic component is also critical to an effective understanding of postmodernism itself and constitutes an important part of the discourse that takes us beyond iodernism to postmodernisr. The extent of the scbisi betueen the two periods is rooted in the level of control that the ironist has over bis-raterial. Furtheriore, postmodern writers view undecidability not as an end-point, as do the iodernists and the post- structuralists intent on theorizing the-, but rather as a possibility for expression. In "Toward a Concept of Postiodernism," fhab Hassan derives a rather usefuI neologism that hints at the nature of Barthelme's strategy: " indetermanence. " Hassan uses the term to designat e " two central, constitutive tendencies in postiodernisrl'--0bvious1y indetecminrcy and iranence (92). His view of the interplay betreen the two concepts is quite on the mark, though his second tero is in dire need of development. My contention is that the question of being is central to the concept of immanence, and so 1 tocus on hou Barthelme's fiction moves away from problems of repcesentation to the use of language as a means to uncovering the being of words, worlds, and objects. Liberated perhaps by a knorledge of Husserl and Heidegger, Barthelme is predisposed against the kind of epistemological closure that both interpretation and determinacy insist upon. 1 deploy these two philosophers to show hou Barthelne's use of icony is not so iuch epistemological as it is ontological, which in elfect allows him to eibrace indeterminacy as a positive value. Barthelme is furthei. libecated by having watched Beckett, Stein, and Joyce take iodernism to its logical extreme. By confronting him rith the inscrutibility of their works, these figures suggest to Barthelme the possibility that the literary work is an object in its own right, a point to which 1 give extended treatrent in my second chapter. 1 argue that, enlightened by this vision of words and works of literature as abjects--and hence, as objects with their own being-while simultaneously informed by a pop sensibility that allons him simply to accept the givenness of objects, especially the reified and reaningless objects of late capitalisr, Barthelme is able to turn modernist pessiiism about undecidabikity into s free appreciation of the ontological and qualitative value of language.