MARGINS OF POETRY: PERFORMING THE FORMLESS IN LORCA’S SURREALISM By David Fred Richter Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Spanish December, 2007 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Christina Karageorgou-Bastea Cathy L. Jrade Edward H. Friedman David C. Wood Copyright © 2007 by David Fred Richter All Rights Reserved To: my Mom, whose Michael the Martian taught me from my youth that the line between history and poetry is thin my Dad, for his friendship Mindy, for being by my side Jeffrey, whose smile inspires my own learning to live and Ella, “¡Qué alegría más alta: vivir en los pronombres!” iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The interest in this project began several years ago in a dimly lit and dilapidated university classroom at Brigham Young University when I first read poets like Federico García Lorca and thinkers including Georges Bataille. It was at that moment—thanks to an inspiring teacher, mentor, and friend, Dr. Greg Stallings—that I first began to think seriously about Spanish literature, poetry, philosophy and the implications of these discourses in my life. I owe the development of these ideas (as well as much of my own intellectual development) to the enthusiastic teaching of Professor Stallings. At one moment when I considered another path, Professor Stallings, echoing Joseph Campbell, urged me to follow my bliss. I like to think that this dissertation it the fruition of some of that bliss. Thanks Greg. The support at Vanderbilt University has been equally superb. I wish to thank my advisor, Professor Christina Karageorgou-Bastea, who has encouraged me in my efforts from my first day on campus. She has provided a stimulating and rigorous sounding board for my ideas and has met my project with optimism as she has pushed me to refine my analytical skills. This work would not have been possible without her. I am grateful for her close readings of my research, for her counsel and suggestions (which are always extensive), and for her friendship which is equally plentiful. My committee members have been foundational to my development as a scholar and have greatly contributed to my education at Vanderbilt. My first contact with Vanderbilt came when Professor Cathy Jrade taught a mini-course on Modernismo at BYU. She has read my work with care and has offered valuable insight as a meticulous literary critic. I also owe a great deal of thanks to Professor Edward Friedman, who has been a wonderful source of iv counsel, support, and encouragement of my work. His seminars on literary theory and meta- fiction have been highlights of my course work at Vanderbilt and his professionalism has provided a model for my own development as a scholar. I am grateful to Professor David Wood, whose courses on Heidegger, Derrida, 20th-century philosophy, and Nietzsche have sparked my interest and challenged my intellect. I feel fortunate to have been a part of these courses and to have enjoyed the fresh and at times entertaining insights to the thinking of important intellectuals of the last two centuries. The ethical and aesthetic facets of these philosophies have been important to me both academically and personally. Thanks for helping me see that sometimes the best way forward is found by taking the step back. Professors William Luis and Carlos Jáuregui have also been valuable sources of friendship and encouragement throughout the writing of this dissertation. I have profited from my association with them during this época de la soledad and thank them for their counsel and support. The academic and financial support at Vanderbilt has been constant and gracious. I am indebted to the College of Arts & Science for summer research grants during the summers of 2004 and 2005, and also to the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities for the summer 2006 and full-year 2006-2007 fellowships that enabled me to finish my dissertation. These grants have allowed me to dedicate my efforts to this project for the last three years. The Warren Center’s Director, Mona Frederick, has been a warm and welcome source of friendship and support. I am grateful to her and to the Warren Center staff for their interest in my work. It has indeed been an honor to work in their presence. I express many thanks to the staff and graduate students of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, for their friendship and interest in my development as an intellectual. I have v felt fortunate to be among such a stimulating group of young scholars at Vanderbilt. I am grateful to the Graduate Fellows with whom I have had the pleasure to work for the last year at the Warren Center: Lisa Battaglia (Religion), Carola Daffner (German), LeeAnn Reynolds (History), Tim Boyd (History), and Brian Rabinovitz (Philosophy). These scholars have met my work with unique perspectives and relevant insights. I have benefitted from associating with them in the inter-disciplinary environment provided by the Warren Center. Finally, I offer my most sincere thanks to my family and friends who, even though they do not exhaust themselves considering the intricacies of my argument here, have offered a continual and needed moral support. My efforts have been magnified by their constant care and encouragement. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION.....................................................................................................................iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...................................................................................................iv INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................1 Chapter I. POETRY AND PHILOSOPHY: BATAILLEAN SURREALISM AND THE SPANISH AVANT-GARDE..........................................................................16 Philosophy, Poetry, and the Literary Tradition..........................................................16 Avant-Garde Art and Theory....................................................................................27 Post-Structural Poetics and Performance..................................................................31 Surrealism and Its Discontents.................................................................................37 The Spanish Context: Dehumanization, Vanguardia, and Surrealism....................45 II. AN AESTHETICS OF INFORME IN LORCA’S NEW YORK............................62 A Nietzschean Beginning.........................................................................................68 The Formless in New York.....................................................................................77 Subjectivities of Anguish............................................................................................80 A Philosophical Poetics...........................................................................................87 Desires and Memories..............................................................................................92 Base Matter and Primal Drives...............................................................................103 Pulse: Primitivism and Desire................................................................................112 III. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE THEATER AND THE CLOSURE OF REPRESENTATION: SOVEREIGN SUBJECTS IN LORCA’S RETABLILLO AND EL PÚBLICO...............................................121 A Lorquian Theory of Drama..................................................................................124 The Methectic Stage...............................................................................................130 The Closure of Representation...............................................................................135 Sovereign Art and Lorca’s Puppet Plays.................................................................139 The Confusion of Frames in the Retablillo..............................................................146 El público and the Theater Beneath the Sand.......................................................157 vii IV. ROTTEN ROSES AND OTHER BOTANICAL BEREAVEMENTS, OR, THE INADEQUACY OF THE BINARY........................................................183 Rose Traditions......................................................................................................190 Vanguardist Variations of the Rose: Lorca’s Floral Fascinations.............................194 Lorca, Bataille, and the Language of Flowers ..........................................................211 Weeding through Lorca and Bataille.......................................................................224 CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................228 An Ethics of Informe: On Poetry and Learning to Live.........................................228 BIBLIOGRAPHY.............................................................................................................240 viii INTRODUCTION [A]ffirming that the universe resembles nothing and is only formless amounts to saying that the universe is something like a spider or spit. — Georges Bataille Nothing in and of itself, the formless has only an operational existence: it is performative, [...] The formless is an operation. — Rosalind Krauss Así sea la poesía que buscamos, gastada como por un ácido por los deberes de la mano, penetrado por el sudor y el humo, oliente a orina y a azucena, [...] Una poesía impura como un traje, como