In Recognition of William Gaddis

222 Pages·1984·15.044 MB·English

by  John Kuehl, Steven Moore (Editors)

In Recognition of
WILLIAM GADDIS
~~GatIA,~
Edited with an Introduction by
John Kuehl and Steven Moore
SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1984
In Recognition of
WILLIAM GADDIS
Copyright © 1984 by Syracuse University Press
Syracuse, New York 13210
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
FIRST EDITION
Excerpts from The Recognitions, copyright © 1955 by William Gaddis, are reprinted by per
mission of William Gaddis.
Excerpts from J R, copyright © 1975 by William Gaddis, are reprinted by permission of Al
fred A. Knopf, Inc.
Excerpts from The Diary of Anais Nin, Vol. Four, copyright © 1971 by Anais Nin, are re
printed by permission of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.
"Gaddis Anagnorisis" reprinted with permission of Itinerary. Copyright © 1977 by the Itin
erary Series.
"To Soar in Atonement: Art as Expiation in Gaddis' The Recognitions" reprinted with per
mission of Novel. Copyright © 1977 by Novel Corp.
"Disclosing Time: William Gaddis' J R" reprinted with permission of The Journal of Narra
tive Technique. Copyright © 1982 by The Journal of Narrative Technique.
"Paper Currencies: Reading William Gaddis" reprinted with permission of The Review of
Contemporary Fiction. Copyright © 1982 by John O'Brien.
"The Paper Empires and Empirical Fictions of William Gaddis" reprinted with permission
of The Review of Contemporary Fiction. Copyright © 1982 by John O'Brien.
Excerpts from American Fictions, copyright © 1983 by Frederick R. Karl, are reprinted by
permission of Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
In recognition of William Gaddis.
Bibliography: p.
1. Gaddis, William, 1922- -Criticism and
interpretation-Addresses, essays, lectures. I. Kuehl,
John Richard, 1928- . II. Moore, Steven, 1951-
PS3557.A28Z74 1984 813'.54 84-159
ISBN 0-8156-2306-2
Manufactured in the United States of America
For Jack Green
Contents
Preface
lX
Introduction 1
1 The Writing of The Recognitions
DAVID KOENIG 20
2 Gaddis Anagnorisis
JOHN LEVERENCE 32
3 To Soar in Atonement
Art as Expiation in Gaddis' The Recognitions
JOSEPH S. SALEMI 46
4 Flemish Art and Wyatt's Quest for Redemption in
William Gaddis' The Recognitions
CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT S8
S Dryad in a Dead Oak Tree
The Incognito in The Recognitions
JOHN SEELYE 70
6 Peer Gynt and The Recognitions
STEVEN ~OORE 81
7 "il miglior fabbro": Gaddis' Debt to T. S. Eliot
~IRIAM FUCHS 92
8 Love and Strife in William Gaddis' J R
STEPHEN ~ATANLE 106
Vlll Contents
9 Disclosing Time: William Gaddis' ] R
SUSAN STREHLE 119
10 Art as Redemption of Trash
Bast and Friends in Gaddis' ] R
JOHAN THIELEMANS 135
11 Paper Currencies: Reading William Gaddis
STEVEN WEISENBURGER 147
12 The Paper Empires and Empirical Fictions
of William Gaddis
JOEL DANA BLACK 162
13 Gaddis: A Tribune of the Fifties
FREDERICK R. KARL 174
Bibliography 199
Contributors 207
Preface
Jk; Ulysses, Finnegans Wake, The Waste Land, and The Cantos, Wil-
J
liam Gaddis' The Recognitions and R are among those twentieth
century texts that demand and deserve close attention: "demand" because
of their complex nature; "deserve" because of their undeniable stature. In
Recognition of William Gaddis attempts to remedy past neglect, affirm
ing what many have known all along-that the creator of these two re
markable novels will inevitably join Herman Melville as a major force in
the history of American letters.
We are all familiar with the history of M oby-Dick: how the novel re
ceived mixed reviews; how Melville stopped writing imaginative prose; how
his masterpiece was not revived until the 1920s. Virtually the identical thing
happened to Gaddis' first book. This should surprise no one, for the two
novels have so much in common that Moby-Dick even recurs in The Rec
ognitions as a work written by the counterfeit Melville, Mr. Feddle. Though
published nearly one hundred years apart (1851 and 1955), both are ency
clopedic, crammed with abstruse information and literary, historical, and
religious allusions. Their form and content, which bear striking resem
blances, made the earlier book a precursor of modernism, the later a tem
plet of postmodernism. Consequently, they suffered the same fate: neglect.
Recently called "the indispensable novel of the last thirty years in Amer
ica" by Frank McConnell, The Recognitions initially encountered review
ers dismayed at its length and complexity. So too were the critics, for ten
years passed before the first academic article appeared. And, like Melville,
who published no fiction between The Confidence-Man and Billy Budd,
Gaddis, admitting, "I've been posthumous for 20 years," experienced a pro
tracted hiatus between The Recognitions and J R. However, there is one
crucial difference in this pattern. Whereas Melville died in obscurity in
1891, Gaddis has begun to acquire a reputation. The turning point was
1976, when he won the National Book Award for JR (1975). During 1982,
IX
x Preface
The Review of Contemporary Fiction devoted a special issue to Gaddis;
the University of Nebraska Press published Steven Moore's A Reader's
Guide to William Gaddis's "The Recognitions"; and Gaddis became a Mac
Arthur Prize Fellow. This generous five~year grant will help him complete
his third novel, tentatively entitled, "That Time of Year," a work tersely
described by the author in The New York Times Book Review of 6 June
1982:
I am engaged in a novel of which for the moment there's little more to say
than that, to assist the unwary, it will have proportionately more commas
than its predecessor, fewer characters and locales than the book before that,
be prudently shorter than either and, if the characters behave themselves,
be labled "a romance."
It would seem, then, that twenty~nine years after the publication of The
Recognitions the time is propitious for a collection of essays illuminating
and evaluating Gaddis' achievement. By 1983, when he was finally the sub~
ject of a special session at the MLA convention, Gaddis criticism had grown
so extensive a separation of the wheat from the chaff became necessary.
Our criteria were simple: we decided to include only essays that made an
original contribution to the field (eliminating otherwise fine general in~
troductions) and that were relatively free of factual errors, the bane of this
criticism. Several essays qualified, but only thirteen survived the winnow~
ing process, seven unpublished, five published, and one specially adapted
from a newly printed book.
Biographical information on Gaddis is scarce and scattered, yet the in~
troduction preceding these essays supplements the available data with many
unpublished. "facts contained largely in the author's letters to various cor~
respondents. Thus, the Introduction-which also addresses the reception
and history of The Recognitions - dispels several rumors and sets the rec~
ord straight.
The first seven essays deal with the earlier novel, the next three, the la~
ter, and the last three, both. In the opening essay, David Koenig, who had
access to the Gaddis notes and manuscripts, investigates how The Recog
nitions was conceived, revised, and edited. We learn about the original love
story; the impact of the Faust legend, The Golden Bough, and the Recog
nitions of Clement; the abortive epilogue/prologue; and the deleted Mu
nich section.
John Leverence's "Gaddis Anagnorisis" follows "The Writing of The Rec~
ognitions." After analyzing the novel's loose baroque style and postmodern
design, Mr. Leverence demonstrates the relation of alchemy to its form and
Preface
Xl
content and discusses the ouroboros adorning the Harcourt and Meridian
title pages.
The complex connection between art and religion constitutes the sub
ject of "To Soar in Atonement: Art as Expiation in Gaddis' The Recogni
tions," by Joseph S. Salemi, and "Flemish Art and Wyatt's Quest for Re
demption in William Gaddis' The Recognitions," by Christopher Knight.
Whereas Mr. Salemi believes that genuine art atones for falsity, Mr. Knight
feels that salvation may be achieved only through love. Mr. Salemi makes
some interesting comments on the novel's self-reflective and anti-modern
aspects, while Mr. Knight's detailed exploration of Flemish painting is
particularly rewarding.
There ensues "Dryad in a Dead Oak Tree: The Incognito in The Recog
nitions," an essay which considers Gaddis the literary heir of Melville and
Hawthorne. According to Mr. Seelye, the author's fundamentally evil world
is dominated by male homosexuals who reflect contemporary sterility. Ef
feminate art critic and Devil, Basil Valentine, tempts saintly Wyatt during
an action that inverts Christian rituals.
John Seelye emphasizes the pursuit of the father, but Steven Moore's
"Peer Gynt and The Recognitions" focuses on the exorcism of the mother.
Gaddis uses the Ibsen playas an opportune analogue, since both works
are preoccupied with attaining selfhood. However, Mr. Moore points out
that Peer remains stunted through an unhealthy attachment to Aasa-Solveig,
whereas Wyatt finally triumphs over his Stabat-Mater, Camilla-Esme.
Miriam Fuchs, in '''il miglior fabbro': Gaddis' Debt to T. S. Eliot," also
examines a literary influence. This debt includes shifting points of view,
juxtaposition of past and present, spatialization of events, arid landscapes,
mourning women, quester, imposters, fertility figures, chapels, bells, buri
als, and resurrections. Wyatt's progress toward integration mirrors the
harmony of the Four Quartets, as civilization's regression toward disinte
gration echoes the cacophony of The Waste Land.
With Stephen H. Matanle's "Love and Strife in William Gaddis' ] R,"
the collection shifts from the 1955 to the 1975 novel. Mr. Matanle argues
that] R, like The Recognitions, enacts what the author has termed, "the
separating of things today without love." Three interrelated topics are then
presented: "The Problem of Chaos"; "The Rule of Strife"; and "The Plural
ity of Discourse." Especially effective is the discussion centering on Em
pedocles, whose name recurs in ] R and whose Love vs. Strife conflict
parallels the tension Ms. Fuchs found between the two Eliot poems.
Another version of this dichotomy inspired "Disclosing Time: William
Gaddis' ] R," where Susan Strehle poses successive or public time against
durational or private time. Victimized by the former, the characters own