REPRESENTATION OF OTHERNESS IN LITERARY AVANT-GARDE OF EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY: DAVID BURLIUK’S AND EZRA POUND’S JAPAN Mikhail Oshukov TURUN YLIOPISTON JULKAISUJA – ANNALES UNIVERSITATIS TURKUENSIS Sarja - ser. B osa - tom. 430 | Humaniora | Turku 2017 University of Turku Faculty of Humanities School of History, Culture and Arts Studies Department of Comparative Literature Supervised by Professor Liisa Steinby, Professor Kirill Postoutenko, University of Turku Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies Professor Pirjo Ahokas, University of Turku Reviewed by Professor Tomi Huttunen, Professor Vladimir Feshchenko, University of Helsinki Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences Opponent Professor Vladimir Feshchenko, Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences Cover image: by Maria Oshukova The originality of this thesis has been checked in accordance with the University of Turku quality assurance system using the Turnitin OriginalityCheck service. ISBN 978-951-29-6754-4 (PRINT) ISBN 978-951-29-6755-1 (PDF) ISSN 0082-6987 (PRINT) ISSN 2343-3191 (ONLINE) Painosalama Oy – Turku, Finland 2017 ABSTRACT The subject of the dissertation is the East‐West opposition and the image of Japan in the works of Ezra Pound and David Burliuk, representatives of European/American Vorticism and Russian cubo‐futurism respectively. The opposition is discussed in the cultural and historical context of the early twentieth‐century Russian and European avant‐garde esthetics with a focus on the typological similarities and radical differences between the two literary groups. The primary material used in the analysis consists of little‐studied Japan‐related materials in the oeuvre of the two authors: Pound’s Noh‐based dramatic works A Supper at the House of Mademoiselle Rachel and Tristan (1916, published in 1987), as well as his Japanese correspondence (published in 1987) and essays which appeared in Japanese periodicals (1939‐1940), and, on the other hand, Burliuk’s prose narratives and poetry written during his stay in Japan in 1920‐1922 (The Ascent to Fuji-san, Oshima, and In the Pacific Ocean, published in the USA in 1926‐1927 and never reprinted, as well as verse collections Marusia-san and ½ Century published in the USA in 1925 and 1932 respectively). The dissertation draws on Roman Jakobson’s dichotomy (outlined in “Two Aspects of Language and Two Types of Aphasic Disturbances”, 1954) of two opposite language modes, those of metaphor and metonymy, understood by the scholar in a broad sense as paradigmatic and syntagmatic relationships structuring any semiotic system. In accordance with Jakobson’s view, the dissertation discusses the Vorticist and cubo‐ futurist esthetic assumptions, and the representation of the East/West opposition in particular, as examples of respectively metaphoric (based on analogy) and metonymic (based on contiguity) approaches. The analysis of Pound’s and Burliuk’s Japan‐related texts within the frame of Jakobson’s dichotomy allows foregrounding the essential difference between the Oriental projects of the two poets: while Pound builds a similarity‐based East‐West paradigm that challenges the familiar Western culture, Burliuk creates a contiguous background image of Japan, which legitimizes familiar cultural assumptions and essentially frames his dialogue with the West. TIIVISTELMÄ Väitöskirjan aiheena on itä‐länsi ‐oppositio ja Japania koskevat representaatiot eurooppalais‐amerikkalaisen vorticismin edustajan Ezra Poundin ja venäläisen kubo‐ futurismin edustajan David Burliukin teoksissa. Tutkimuksessa käsitellään oppositiota 1900‐luvun alun venäläisen ja eurooppalaisen avantgarde‐estetiikan kulttuuri‐ historiallisessa kontekstissa keskittyen typologisiin yhtäläisyyksiin ja radikaaleihin eroihin kahden kirjallisuusryhmän välillä. Tutkimuksen alkuperäislähteet ovat edellä mainittujen kirjailijoiden vähän huomiota saaneet Japania koskevat tekstit. Tutkin Poundin kahta japanilaiseen Noh‐ teatteriin perustavaa näytelmää, A Supper at the House of Mademoiselle Rachel ja Tristan vuodelta 1916 (julkaistu 1987), hänen kirjeenvaihtoaan Japanista (julkaistu 1987) sekä vuosina 1939‐1940 japanilaisissa aikakausilehdissä ilmestyneitä esseitä. Burliukin teksteistä tutkin hänen Japanissa oleskelun aikana, vuosina 1920‐1922, kirjoittamiaan proosakertomuksia ja runoja The Ascent to Fuji-san, Oshima ja In the Pacific Ocean, sekä runokokoelmia Marusia-san ja ½ Century (kaikki julkaistu vuosien 1925‐1932 aikana Yhdysvalloissa). Väitöskirja pohjautuu Roman Jakobsonin kahtiajakoon, jonka hän esittää teoksessaan Two Aspects of Language and Two Types of Aphasic Disturbances (1954) ja joka siis koskee kahta vastakkaista kielikuvaa ‐ metaforaa ja metonymiaa. Jakobson tulkitsee näitä kielikuvia laajassa merkityksessä eli paradigmaattisina ja syntagmaat‐ tisina suhteina, jotka jäsentävät tai rakentavat minkä tahansa semioottisen systeemin. Tutkimus käsittelee Jakobsonin näkemyksen mukaisesti vorticismin ja kubo‐futurismin esteettisiä periaatteita, ja erityisesti itä‐länsi ‐opposition ilmenemistapoja, esimerkkeinä metaforisesta eli ennalta odottamattomaan analogiaan perustuvasta ja metonymisesta eli kulttuurisesti jo tunnustettuihin asiayhteyksiin perustuvasta lähestymistavasta. Jakobsonin kahtiajaon soveltaminen tutkimuksellisena menetelmänä Poundin ja Burliukin Japania koskevien tekstien analyysissä tuo esiin olennaisen eron kahden runoilijan suhteissa itään. Pound rakentaa itä‐länsi ‐paradigmaa, joka perustuu ennakoimattomalle samankaltaisuudelle (metafora) ja joka näin haastaa perinteisen länsimaisen kulttuurin. Burliuk puolestaan luo Japani‐kuvaa, joka perustuu ja oikeuttaa jo tunnustettuja kulttuurisia näkemyksiä (metonymia) ja joka jäsentää olennaisesti hänen vuoropuheluaan lännen kanssa. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................................... 6 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................... 7 1. Western rediscoveries of Japan ........................................................................................................ 10 2. Russia: between East and West ........................................................................................................ 22 3. Italian Futurism: Oriental dimension ............................................................................................. 38 4. Theoretical and methodological framework .............................................................................. 43 5. Previous research and dissertation structure ............................................................................ 50 CHAPTER 1. RUSSIAN FUTURISM BETWEEN EAST AND WEST .................................................. 61 1.1. Russian Futurism: negotiating origins ....................................................................................... 61 1.2. Russian Futurism: Oriental background ................................................................................... 6 6 1.3. Russian Futurism: facing the Occident ...................................................................................... 71 1.4. Russian Futurist manifestos and the East/West opposition ............................................ 76 1.5. Theoretical background: Velimir Khlebnikov's “Asia” ........................................................ 82 CHAPTER 2. DAVID BURLIUK’S ORIENTAL QUEST ........................................................................... 97 2.1. Background ............................................................................................................................................ 97 2.2. Characters: an ideal combination ............................................................................................. 103 2.3. Imaginary Japan: literary contexts ........................................................................................... 108 2.4. Imaginary geography ..................................................................................................................... 115 2.5. Exotic paradise .................................................................................................................................. 122 2.6. Facing the reality .............................................................................................................................. 139 CHAPTER 3. VORTICISM, FENOLLOSA AND THE ORIENT ........................................................... 155 3.1. English Vorticism and the East/West opposition .............................................................. 156 3.1.1. Marinetti and English rebels .............................................................................................. 157 3.1.2. Vorticist geographical axes: the North, the South and the East ......................... 173 3.2. Pound: from Imagism to Vortex ................................................................................................. 192 3.3. Binyon, Whistler and the Japanese ........................................................................................... 204 3.4. Ernest Fenollosa and the ideogram ......................................................................................... 213 3.4.1. Intermediary between East and West ........................................................................... 216 3.4.2. Orient: a diagnostic tool and a remedy ........................................................................