City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 6-2014 Paris and Havana: A Century of Mutual Influence Laila Pedro Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/264 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] Paris and Havana : A Century of Mutual Influence by LAILA PEDRO A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in French in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2014 © 2014 LAILA PEDRO All Rights Reserved i This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in French in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Mary Ann Caws 04/22/2014 Date Chair of Examining Committee Francesca Canadé Sautman 04/22/2014 Date Executive Officer Mary Ann Caws Oscar Montero Julia Przybos Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK ii Abstract PARIS AND HAVANA: A CENTURY OF MUTUAL INFLUENCE by Laila Pedro Adviser: Mary Ann Caws This dissertation employs an interdisciplinary approach to trace the history of exchange and influence between Cuban, French, and Francophone Caribbean artists in the twentieth century. I argue, first, that there is a unique and largely unexplored tradition of dialogue, collaboration, and mutual admiration between Cuban, French and Francophone artists; second, that a recurring and essential theme in these artworks is the representation of the human body; and third, that this relationship ought not to be understood within the confines of a single genre, but must be read as a series of dialogues that are both ekphrastic (that is, they rely on one art-form to describe another, as in paintings of poems), and multi-lingual. Finally, I contend that these translational relationships must be examined within the greater context of twentieth-century modernisms, particularly Surrealism. I apply critical, theoretical and philosophical frameworks articulated by Édouard Glissant, Antonio Benítez Rojo, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty to four case studies of inter-genre, inter-national, multilingual dialogues unfolding over the course of the century to reveal dynamic figurations of bodies that are at once visual, poetic and performative. iii Acknowledgments I am deeply indebted to many individuals for their support, insight, criticism and encouragement in this process. My dissertation Director, Mary Ann Caws, has been an incomparable and indefatigable source of inspiration and guidance. It has been a profound privilege to work with her. The faculty of the Graduate Center’s French Program are peerless in their dedication and rigor. I have been extremely fortunate to work with Professors Julia Przybos, Francesca Canadé Sautman, Peter Consenstein, Oscar Montero, Distinguished Professor Domna Stanton, visiting Professor Sylvie Kandé, and the late and inimitable Édouard Glissant, and I am forever grateful to each of them. In my undergraduate work at Connecticut College, Rhonda Garelick inspired me to continue studying literature and art with a careful, critical, and questing eye. This project would not have been possible without the unique collaborative energy of the Graduate Center. I am grateful to my cohort and fellow French Program students for their humor and perseverance. In particular, I am thankful to Phillip Griffith, whose insight and finely calibrated sensibility continually challenge and inform me. Finally, I am thankful to my family for their unstinting support, and to my partner, Jethro Rebollar, for his loving patience and forceful encouragement. Most of all, I thank my mother, Esther Mosak, without whom this effort would have been impossible. This is dedicated to her. iv A Note on Language In the The Task of the Translator, the 1923 introduction to his translation of Baudelaire, Walter Benjamin writes: “Translation is a mode. To comprehend it as a mode one must go back to the original, for that contains the law governing the translation: its translatability. The question of whether a work is translatable has a dual meaning. Either: Will an adequate translator ever be found among the totality of its readers? Or, more pertinently: Does its nature lend itself to translation and therefore, in view of the significance of the mode, call for it? ”1 All of the works I investigate in this study are notable for an essential, and subtle, translateability. They are in dialogue and interrleated, operating at the interstices and junctures of image, and text, language and culture, space and place. Translation as a mode, therefore, underlies, and often defines, the critical approach I have taken to engaging these artists and their works. In some cases, as in the diaristic oeuvre of Anais Nin, translation is explored and deployed explicitly as a poetic device. In others, it is an inherent dynamic in the dialogue or exchange between artists and words (the correspondence between Casal and Moreau, for instance, comprises both linguistic translation and translation between artistic genres, or ekphrastic adaptaion). In the process of analyzing these works, I relied upon texts in several languages (French, English, Spanish, Italian, Hebrew, Portuguese), and on numerous editions and translations of written works. Because translation, translatability, and multi-lingual dialogue play an essential role in my analysis, I have had to make some complex strategic and structural decisions with regard to translation, adaptation, and sourcing. In some cases, for instance in the work of Édouard Glissant, there are substantial variations in some editions of texts. In others, I have 1 Walter Benjamin. The Task of The Translator v furnished my own translation where I found it necessary to highlight aspects that previous translators had not chosen to focus on. For many of these works, the exisiting translations were more than sufficient, so I relied on them. My own translations, or places where I have relied on multiple editions or different translation sources, are noted in the text. I have striven to be, to use Benjamin’s phrase, an adequate translator of these images and words. vi Table of Contents A Note on Language..................................................................................................................... viii Chapter 1 : Space and the Critical Imagination : Aesthetic Affinity and the Antilles .................. 12 II : Benítez Rojo: Rupture and Repitition ................................................................................. 39 Chapter 2: Inscribed Surface and Tattooed Verse : Julián del Casal and Gustave Moreau ....... 46 Chapter 3 : Of Nerve-Meters and Nervous Conditions: Antonin Artaud and Anaïs Nin Translate the Speaking Body ......................................................................................................................... 82 I : The Vessel ............................................................................................................................ 84 III : Errant Exile; Madman ........................................................................................................ 96 III : La belle infidèle ............................................................................................................... 111 Chapter 4: Lyric and Look: Wifredo Lam and Aimé Césaire ..................................................... 133 I : Seeing the Seers .................................................................................................................. 133 II : “Des os qu’explosent grand champs” ............................................................................... 143 III : The Cane Field : Line and Limit in Wifredo Lam ........................................................... 153 IV : “À la limite de la terre et de la mer” ................................................................................ 177 Chapter 5 :The Body and The Blood : Severo Sarduy Unexiled ................................................ 189 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 223 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 234 vii List of Illustrations Figure 1, page 54. Moreau, Gustave. Salomé dansant devant Hérode. Print in Burlingham, Cynthia. A Strange Magic : Gustave Moreau’s Salomé. New York and London: Prestel, 2013. Print. Figure 2, page 58. Moreau, Gustave. Salomé (detail). Print in Burlingham, Cynthia. A Strange Magic : Gustave Moreau’s Salomé. New York and London: Prestel, 2013. Print Figure 3, page 59. Moreau, Gustave. L’Apparition. Print in Burlingham, Cynthia. A Strange Magic : Gustave Moreau’s Salomé. New York and London: Prestel, 2013. Print. Figure 4, page 100. Artaud, Antonin. Self-portrait [Untitled]. Print in Antonin Artaud Works on Paper. New York : The Museum of Modern Art, 1996. Print. Figure 5, p. 105. Artaud, Antonin, La présence du gouffre. Print in Antonin Artaud Works on Paper. New York : The Museum of Modern Art, 1996. Print. Figure 6, p. 107. Artaud, Antonin, Le soldat au fusil. Print in Antonin Artaud Works on Paper. New York : The Museum of Modern