mapping topographies in the anglo and

323 Pages·2006·1.22 MB·English

by  Kristy Boney

MAPPING TOPOGRAPHIES IN THE ANGLO AND
GERMAN NARRATIVES OF JOSEPH CONRAD, ANNA SEGHERS,
JAMES JOYCE, AND UWE JOHNSON

DISSERTATION

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate

School of The Ohio State University

By

Kristy Rickards Boney, M.A.

*****

The Ohio State University
2006

Dissertation Committee:
Approved by:
Professor Helen Fehervary, Advisor

Professor John Davidson

Professor Jessica Prinz Advisor
Graduate Program in
Professor Alexander Stephan Germanic Languages
and Literatures
Copyright by

Kristy Rickards Boney

2006
ABSTRACT

While the “space” of modernism is traditionally associated with the metropolis,
this approach leaves unaddressed a significant body of work that stresses non-urban
settings. Rather than simply assuming these spaces to be the opposite of the modern city,
my project rejects the empty term space and instead examines topographies, literally
meaning the writing of place. Less an examination of passive settings, the study of
topography in modernism explores the action of creating spaces—either real or fictional
which intersect with a variety of cultural, social, historical, and often political
reverberations. The combination of charged elements coalesce and form a strong visual,
corporeal, and sensory-filled topography that becomes integral to understanding not only
the text and its importance beyond literary studies. My study pairs four modernists—two
writing in German and two in English: Joseph Conrad and Anna Seghers and James
Joyce and Uwe Johnson. All writers, having experienced displacement through exile,
used topographies in their narratives to illustrate not only their understanding of
history and humanity, but they also wrote narratives which concerned a larger global
ii
community. Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1900) and his Lord Jim (1904) compare to
Seghers’ Transit (1944) and Revolt of the Fisherman from St. Barbara (1928) in that each
explores crises of modernity. Instead of using the city, Conrad and Seghers utilize the
sea, the harbor, and marginalized communities to illustrate thresholds of historical crises.
The topographies echo a world affected by imperialism and particularly for Seghers,
fascism. In my analysis of Joyce’s Ulysses (1921) and Johnson’s Anniversaries (1970-
83), I steer away from a traditional examination of the classic modernist city narrative. I
show how the texts provide a broader and more encompassing look of the modern world
through the memory of imperialism and fascism as it is reflected from outside the city
limits, most notably on the coasts of the Mediterranean and Baltic seas, and on the banks
of the Hudson and Liffey. Merging a socio-historical approach with a close literary
analysis, my project seeks to explore an uncharted subset of modernism, and map out
poetic, durable, and visual contours for literary and cultural studies, sculpting new
textures for understanding history, memory, and humanity.

iii
Dedicated to my parents,
who never said no.

iv
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wish to thank my adviser, Helen Fehervary, for her untiring intellectual support,
encouragement, and enthusiasm which made this thesis possible, and her patience in
correcting my stylistic errors and helping me in understanding the historical background
of the project.
I thank John Davidson for stimulating discussions, clarity, and a constant
willingness to lend an ear when I needed a springboard for ideas.
I am grateful to Alexander Stephan and Jessica Prinz for discussing various
aspects of this thesis, and to Holger Lenz who gave time and effort in proofing parts of
this dissertation. I also wish to thank Andrew Spencer whose guidance on Hellerau
helped me to start formulating my method of research.
And finally, I am indebted to Alex Boney, without whose emotional support I
never would have finished this project.
This dissertation was supported in part by funding from the Department of
Germanic Languages and Literatures and the Film Studies Program at The Ohio State
University.

v
VITA

August 31, 1975 . . . . . . . . . . . . . Born – Maryland, United States of America

1997 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .B.A. English and German, Georgia Southern University

2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .M.A. German Literature, The Ohio State University

2000 – 2001 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Study Abroad Fellowship at the Freie-Universität in
Berlin, Germany, Germanic Languages and Literatures,
The Ohio State University

1998 – 2006 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bernard Blume Fellow, Graduate Teaching and
Research Associate, The Ohio State University

2006 – present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lecturer in German, Modern Classical Languages and
Literatures, The University of Kentucky

PUBLICATIONS

Research Publication

1. Kristy R. Boney, “Aufstand der Fischer von St. Barbara.” LitEncyc.com. (2006).

2. Kristy R. Boney, “Die Toten auf die Insel Djal.” LitEncyc.com. (2006).
3. Kristy R. Boney, “Don’t Drink the Water: The Function of Topography in the
Work of Anna Seghers and Joseph Conrad.” Proceedings of the Edward Hayes Research
Forum. The Ohio State University. (2003).

FIELDS OF STUDY

Major Field: Germanic Languages and Literatures

vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii
Dedication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .v
Vita . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi

Chapters:

Introduction: Mapping Topographies in the Anglo and German Narratives of
Joseph Conrad, Anna Seghers, James Joyce and Uwe Johnson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Defining topography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
The city’s topography in modernism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Topography and water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Topography and the journey, or experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

1. Of Cruising Yawls and Old Harbor Towns: Navigating New Waters in Joseph
Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Anna Seghers’ Transit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Waterscapes as a topographical paradigm in Heart of Darkness . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
The sea as a topographical paradigm in Transit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

2. Topography and the Journey in Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim and Anna
Seghers’ Aufstand der Fischer von St. Barbara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Topography in Lord Jim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Topography in Aufstand der Fischer von St. Barbara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

3. Washing in the Waves of Memory: Topography and Water in James Joyce’s
Ulysses and Uwe Johnson’s Jahrestage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

The sea and the shore in Joyce’s Ulysses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
The sea and the shore in Johnson’s Jahrestage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

4. Inner and Outer City Limits: Mapping Urban Topography in James Joyce’s
Ulysses and Uwe Johnson’s Jahrestage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

vii
James Joyce’s Ulysses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Uwe Johnson’s Jahrestage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Concluding Thoughts on the Epic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .301

viii
INTRODUCTION
Mapping Topographies in the Anglo and German Narratives of Joseph Conrad,
Anna Seghers, James Joyce and Uwe Johnson

“Where exactly did Keats listen to the nightingale? and which of the valleys and woods around
London begot the ‘Ode to Autumn’? We happen to know, but the poems do not tell us. Wordsworth
has less topography than we should expect, and so terrestrial and local a poet as Cowper has scarcely
any. They condescend upon particulars, as must every poet, but not upon this class.”
--John Buchan, Homilies and Recreations
Defining topography
In 1926, the Scottish writer John Buchan distinguished a need to understand
the particulars of topography. In his essay “Literature and Topography” Buchan
wrote that a “taste for topography is not the same thing as a love of the natural world;
it is not even the same thing as an interest in landscape. There have been many
eminent poets of nature who have scorned topography, and whose acute observation
is so generalized that it is hopeless to identify it with particular tracts of the earth’s
surface.”1 For Buchan it seems, topography is a means to identify specifically
regions and areas in nature. Topography, usually associated with the science of
geography, combines the Greek word for place (topos) with the verb “to write”
(graphein). Thus, topography literally translates into an action, or the writing of
place. While The Oxford English Dictionary (2005) defines topography as a
“detailed description or delineation of the features of a locality,” the word today also
implies action as it can mean the “practice of describing a particular place,
1