PERFORMING THE NOVEL: VOCAL POETICS OF NOVELISTIC DISCOURSE By Julian Ainsworth Ledford 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 French December, 2014 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Robert F. Barsky, Ph.D. Joy H. Calico, Ph.D. Andrea Mirabile, Ph.D. Lynn T. Ramey, Ph.D. Virginia M. Scott, Ph.D. Copyright © 2014 by Julian Ainsworth Ledford All Rights Reserved ii To my parents, Derrick and Lillieth (June), and my brothers Derek and Paul, For their unwavering love and support, and for always encouraging me to pursue the creative Impulses of my mind. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is unfair that my name should be the only one on the cover of this project because the company of people who worked to bring it to fruition is great. I therefore owe a huge debt of gratitude to all those whose contributions manifested themselves not only in the completion of this current work, but in the ones visible in the general disposition of a well-supported, well- cared-for, well-loved, and very fortunate young man. Firstly, I’m fortunate to have had Dr. Robert Barsky as my thesis director. I thank him for taking what started as a frightfully-strange project and guiding me through the processes of making it into something I am now proud to share. Thank you, Dr. Barsky, for all the work you have done on this project. Thank you for your constant encouragement and positive outlook that have always reassured me. I’m grateful to you, too, for arranging to meet me to discuss my project at all times of the day, and in different countries, even during your busy schedule. Also, to the members of my dissertation committee, Dr. Andrea Mirabile, Dr. Joy Calico, Dr. Lynn Ramey, and Dr. Virginia Scott: thank you so very much for discussing various areas of my project with me. I am indebted to you for all the time you spent reading through drafts, editing my writing, answering emails, meeting with me one-on-one, and writing me feedback on my work. You, along with Dr. Barsky, are easily the greatest mentors I could ask for. I look to you to find leading examples of inspiring teacher-scholars. Within the Department of French and Italian at Vanderbilt University, I'd like to thank past and current members of the administrative staff, namely, Ms. Liz Shadbolt, Ms. Veronique Homer, and Ms. Tamra Hicks, for assisting me with navigating the sometimes complicated world iv of graduate-school paperwork, thus making me free to work. Thank you, too, for being so kind and friendly to me. Along with the Department of French and Italian at Vanderbilt, I’d like to thank the Graduate School at Vanderbilt for their financial support of my work, each awarding me a Dissertation Enhancement Grant during summer 2013 and winter 2014, respectively. Next, I’d like to thank my colleagues and friends at Vanderbilt University, namely Dr. April Stevens, Ms. Annette Quarcoopome, Ms. Raquelle Bostow, and Mr. Killian Quigley, who have not only advised me on different aspects of my work, but who have served as writing partners, copy editors, laughing buddies, and really wonderful friends to me. Your friendship is very dear to me and I look forward to many years of collaboration. Very special thanks go to two people who have made my time at Vanderbilt very memorable and manageable, Ms. Roxane Pajoul, and Dr. Eva Dessein. This project presented me with conflicting moments of solitude and collegiality, sadness and happiness, self-doubt and assertiveness, ignorance and knowledge, despair and hope, and countless permutations of these. But throughout all these changes—and still today—I’m always able to confide in and rely on these two dear friends. Your friendship is more than I deserve and I’m so fortunate to have had you present for all the great events that took place while I was at Vanderbilt. In Nashville, I give much thanks to the musicians at Christ Church Cathedral, who not only gave me the opportunity to sing with and learn from them, but also formed my little family in Nashville. Thank you for always surrounding me with your comforting and warm spirits. Away from Nashville, special thanks go to Mr. Daniel Fortune, who read portions of my work and served as my writing coach. Thank you for holding me to writing deadlines, and being firm and kind at times when I lost motivation. Thank you, too, for always helping me to put v things into perspective and for inspiring me with your extraordinary musicianship and your great spirit. To my friends in Washington D.C, especially my “second family,” thank you for taking care of my psychological well-being, for feeding me, and for making me laugh. Thank you for allowing me to fall off the radar from time to time and for always welcoming me back into your hearts; your friendship is invaluable to me. I especially thank the soprano, Ms. Adriana Gonzalez Collins, for assisting me with aspects of this project that pertained to operatic performance. Your kindness and your great talent are very inspiring to me. Lastly, I give the most thanks to my family, namely my parents Derrick and Lillieth (June), my brothers Derek, Jr. and Paul, my sisters-in-law Ashley and Meredith, my nephew Mason, and my nieces Mckenna, and Kennedy. I dedicate this work to all of you because, without your support—that you have sent in countless ways with phone calls, visits, cards, envelopes, gifts, hugs, kisses, smiles, and laughter—this project would not have been possible. Thank you for spoiling me with your love and your patience. And for all the times that I’ve selfishly locked myself away at my desk and have been closed-off from you, you’ve never been bitter towards me. Thank you for that, and thank you for always being there for me. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION………………………………………………………………..…….iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………........iv LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………………........….x Chapter I. INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………….1 Cézanne and Renoir on Reading…………………………………………2 Two Thousand Words ...............................................................................4 Introducing Music and Opera…………………………………………….6 II. A MATTER OF VOICE: DISCOVERING THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY NOVEL’S ORAL PAST ……………………………………………………………………….…...22 The Twelfth-Century Novel ......................................................................24 A Brief History of Writing.........................................................................35 Writing and Speaking………………………………………………...…..44 III. OPERATIC TERRITORY: CONSIDERING THE NOVEL, SPATIAL DYNAMICS OF LANGUAGE, MUSIC, AND ORALITY…………......51 Placing Opera …………………………………………………………….51 Opera as an Inheritor of the Oral Tradition……………………………….53 Dialoguing Spaces to Create Meaning ………………………………...…59 Perrin and Cambert’s Pomone as Doubly-Altered Discourse ……………72 Considering the Novel……………………………………………………..81 IV. PERFORMING THE NOVEL: AN OPERATIC PERFORMANCE AND THE PARADOXICAL READER……………………………….…83 Performance Revisited…………………………………………………….83 Performance in Fiction: Violet’s Story …………………………………...87 Performance and Theory…………………………………………………..95 vii V. VOCAL POETICS OF NOVELISTIC DISCOURSE……………………113 Discordant Derivatives………………………………………………..…..113 Sound and Silence Signifying Much………………………………..….…122 Vocal Poetics……………………………………………………..……….137 VI. PERFORMING THE NOVEL…………………………...………..……...143 Performing a Novel………………………………………………..………143 My Own Passions …………………………………………………..……..147 I Hear Voices ……………………………………………………..……….159 VII. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………..…..173 BIBLIOGRAHY………………………………………………..…...……181 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Young Girl Reading by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1891) ……………………………2 2. Paul Alexis Reading Manuscript to Émile Zola by Paul Cézanne (1871) …………2 3. Kintzler’s Approach to Deriving the Poetics of Classical Opera………………….117 4. Proposed Approach to Deriving Vocal Poetics ……………………………………118 5. Diagram Showing Proposed Vocal Poetics ……………………………………….140 ix CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION It seems to me that a prominent thread that knits up the various philosophers and their budding philosophies is the fundamental act of creating a perfect object through which, and upon which, the philosophers’ ideologies may be developed and displayed. In the studies I’ve undertaken thus far, I’ve been fortunate to meet some of these objects or tools. I think of, for example, Plato’s Ion, the hero Roland in La Chanson de Roland, Montaigne’s Bon Sauvage, Pascal’s dream, Rousseau’s Emile, Radet, and Barré’s Négresse, and Poulin’s, Grandes Marées, just to name a few. And these created objects that are used to propel the authors’ philosophy also provide windows into the vast reaches of an ever-changing mind, revealing the authors’ passions, fears, uncertainties, and even her/his unexpressed torment. How else would Plato, for example, explain his concept of whether a poet’s performance is based on skill and knowledge of content or on divine inspiration, without first creating the ignorant-other, Ion, by which his philosophy could be guided and to whom his questions could be addressed? In fact, by creating the ignorant Ion, Plato is able to construct a dialogue in which Socrates, who can be considered the mouthpiece of Plato, is able to disperse his knowledge about divine inspiration and the talent of rhapsodizing. While I don’t pretend to be any such great philosopher, the writing that is contained here begins with a brief study of two objects from where the source of my curiosity comes, and which will later lead me to the study of two genres: opera and the novel. At the onset of my work, the two perfected objects that serve as the impetus for the seedling of a philosophy I have, are two paintings that depict the act of reading. 1 Cézanne and Renoir on reading Figure 1. Young Girl Reading - Oil Figure 2. Paul Alexis Reading Manuscript to Painting by French Artist Pierre-Auguste Émile Zola-Oil Painting by Paul Cézanne (1871) Renoir (1891) It was some time ago that I came upon these two paintings. I was preparing to attend a lecture on obscenity in literature, when I discovered the Renoir painting.