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ETHICAL (IN)DIFFERENCE IN SELF AND TEXT IN GRACQ, BEN JELLOUN AND GERMAIN By JEANNINE ARIAS A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 1998 Copyright 1998 by Jeannine Arias ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my mentor. Professor Carol J. Murphy, for her continuous invaluable guidance and encouragement. I would also like to extend my gratitude to Professors Bernadette A. Cailler, William C. Calin and Ofelia Schutte for their careful readings, extremely helpful comments and ongoing support. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the loving support of my parents, Jorge and Ines, and of my best friend, Paul. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii ABSTRACT CHAPTETRhe1Re(vINo)luDtIiFoFnEaRrENyCETexItN SInELFDiAfNfDereTnEcXeT 91 The Self In and Respectful of Difference 14 Writing and Reading the Ambiguous Text: A Means to the Self In Difference 25 Limited Narcissism and The Ethical Self 38 Melancholia, Aesthetic Play and the Ethical Self/Text 47 CHAPTER 2 THE FORTIFIED SELF AND TEXT IN DIFFERENCE IN JULIEN GRACQ'S UN BALCON EN FORET 65 Psychic Ambivalence as Self-Fortification 69 Limited Narcissism: Towards A Respect For the Other B6 MelancOhtohleric (In)Difference: A Passive Relation to the93 PThleayiWrnigteTrh,rouRegahde(rA,TraanvderTse)xtMeIlnanDcihfofleircencPeain....!..* ’1l1067 CHAPTER 3 PSYCHIC, SEXUAL, AND CULTURAL DIFFERENCE IN TAHAR BEN JELLOUN'S LA NUIT SAGREE 130 Melancholia or the Potentially Ethical Entombment of Alterity Love as a Means to Limited Narcissism 145 Reading and Listening to the Other 163 NTaerxtruaatlingOthtehreneOstsheras Cultural Otherness ! ! ! 118916 CHAPTER 4 FACING THE OTHER IN SYLVIE GERMAIN'S OPERA MUET 203 Narcissistic (In)Difference or I'Etre en Pierre 205 MelancNhaorlciicssu(sIn)Difference or the Hidden Face of . 215 Discovering The Other 223 Aesthetic Activity: An Ambiguous Process of Self-Formation 241 The Text As An Opening To The Other 263 CONCLUSION 268 LIST OF REFERENCES 278 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 285 V Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy ETHICAL (IN)DIFFERENCE IN SELF AND TEXT IN GRACQ, BEN JELLOUN AND GERMAIN By Jeannine Arias December, 1998 Chairperson: Professor Carol J. Murphy Major Department: Romance Languages and Literatures My study examines why Julien Gracq's Un Balcon en foret (1958), Tahar Ben Jelloun's La Nuit sacree (1987) and Sylvie Germain Opera muet (1989), three disparate novels in French, display similarly ambiguous language, imagery and plots in their depictions of depressed, indifferent protagonists. Indeed, such language and themes could easily be construed as meaningless textual play, typical, as some allege, of much (post)modern literature. However, my dissertation argues that, in these three novels, textual indeterminacy and the focus on the melancholic, ambivalent self reveal, in fact, the practice and thematization of an ethical opening to the other in its variant forms. VI All three novels exemplify texts in difference where textual ambiguities highlight both meaning and its negation or disruption which, in turn, reflect the analogous struggle in the speaking, writing and/or reading subject. To the extent that these indeterminate literary texts underscore not only narcissistic identity but the unconscious other as well, and, in so doing, acknowledge the split self, rather than suppress it, ethics, as Julia Kristeva defines it, inheres in these works. Moreover, the texts offer meditations on the self in difference in their portrayals of characters who not only (re)discover their divided psyche but also learn to respect the human other's alterity. Each narrative fiction presents the protagonist's path to ethical becoming, that is, to appreciating the internal and external ineffable other, as a complex process, ranging from violent, narcissistic rejection to joyful acceptance by way of play or aesthetic activity, with interim moments of melancholia. Analyizing the ambivalent self and the ambiguous, poetic text in three disparate novels while using varied theoretical approaches, including those of Julia Kristeva, Helene Cixous and Emmanuel Levinas, my project highlights the fruitful consideration of difference at all levels. Indeed, the choice of novels for this dissertation, written Vll during different historical moments, by male and female as well as French and other Francophone authors, underscores the study of difference within and between these works and, subsequently, questions the discipline's inclination to compartmentalize the study of literature in French. . . CHAPTER 1 (IN)DIFFERENCE IN SELF AND TEXT The poststructuralist critique of metaphysics/ identity, meaning, and truth has undergone incessant, heavy criticism for its lack of social and ethical value. Indeed, poststructuralist theory, as well as postmodern art which instantiates such theory,^ take as their focus indecision, deferral, and ambiguity in notions of self and text which critics denounce as nihilistic and anarchical. For many, the constant play of self-reflective language in poststructuralist thought precludes the representation of ^In An Introductory Guide To Post-Structuralism and Postmodernism, Madan Sarup defines poststructuralism as the theoretical approach that continues many of the critiques already present in structuralism, such as the critiques of the subject, of historicism and of philosophy, but that "reject[s] the assumptions implicit in the Saussurian model of linguistics on which structuralism was based" (130) "Postmodernism," Sarup goes on to say, "is in part a description of a new type of society [i.e., the post- industrialist society since the Second World War] but also, in part, a new term for post-structuralism in the arts (133) Sarup further notes how these two terms tend to conflate. "In my opinion post-structuralists like Foucault, Derrida and Lyotard are postmodernists. There are so many similarities between post-structuralist theories and postmodern practices that it is difficult to make a clear distinction between them" (144). 1 . . , 2 ethical and social concerns,^ Consequently, this type of theory and art, the detractors allege, occupies a position of indifference that "leads to moral and political nihilism" (Sarup 186). Arthur Kroker's The Postmodern Scene: Excremental Culture and Hyper-Aesthetics depicts postmodernist theory and culture as signaling the end of an ethical society or, as he puts it, as "a melancholy descent into the violence of the death of the social" (9) Kroker repeatedly proclaims that postmodernism's ethic-less practice displays a "loss of solidarity" (13), thereby inflicting a postmodern "deep sense of melancholia" (13) But how did poststructuralists and/or postmodernists come to be associated with this so-called "melancholic" theoretic and aesthetic stance, seemingly bereft of all social and ethical considerations? Geoffrey Galt Harpham offers a provocative explanation in his essay "Ethics" which traces the dynamics between ethics, theory, and literature starting with the emergence of the "Theoretical Era" circa 1968 and continuing up to the present. Harpham contends that ethics, for the majority of poststructuralist ^In The Rhetoric of Failure, Ewa Ziarek discusses the common misinterpretation of contemporary art's play with language. She states, the effects of the rhetorical subversion of meaning can be misread as the infinite play of self-reflective language, separated from the tasks of representation and social obligations" (4)