Nonsense and other senses : regulated absurdity in literature

This book deals with a topic that is gaining increasing critical attention, the literature of nonsense and absurdity. The volume gathers together twenty-one essays on various aspects of literary nonsense, according to criteria that are deliberately inclusive and eclectic. Its purpose is to offer a gallery of 'nonsense practices' in literature across periods and countries, in the conviction that important critical insights can be gained from these juxtapositions. Most of the cases presented here deal with linguistic nonsense, but in a few instances the nonsense operates at the higher level of the interpretation of reality on the part of the subject - or of the impossibility thereof. The contributors to the volume are established and younger scholars from various countries. Chronologically, the chapters range widely from Dante to Vaclav Havel, and offer a large span of national literatures (Czech, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese) and literary genres (poetry, prose, and drama), inviting the readers to trace their own pathway and draw their own lines of connection. One point that emerges with particular force is the notion that what distinguishes literary nonsense is its somehow 'regulated' nature. Literary nonsense thus sounds like a deliberate, last-ditch attempt to snatch order from the jaws of chaos - the speech of the 'Fool' as opposed to the tale told by an idiot. It is this kind of post-Derridean retrieval of choice as the defining element in semantic transactions which is perhaps the most significant insight bequeathed by the study of nonsense to the analysis of poetry and literature in general. TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface........................................................................................................ ix Acknowledgements .................................................................................. xix Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 The Nose of Nonsense Giuseppe Antonelli SECTION I: NONSENSE VERSUS GODLINESS Chapter One............................................................................................... 25 “Pape Satàn, pape Satàn aleppe!” (Inferno 7:1) in Dante’s Commentators, 1322–1570 Simon Gilson Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 55 “Between Peterborough and Pentecost”: Nonsense and Sin in William Wager’s Morality Plays Elisabetta Tarantino SECTION II: "THERE, TAKE MY COXCOMB": LANGUAGE GAMES AND SUBVERSION IN EARLY MODERN LITERATURE Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 89 Off the Paths of Common Sense: From the Frottola to the per motti and alla burchia Poetic Styles Michelangelo Zaccarello Chapter Four............................................................................................ 117 François’s Fractured French: The Language of Nonsense in Rabelais Barbara C. Bowen Chapter Five ............................................................................................ 127 Performing Nonsense in Early Seventeenth-Century France: vi Table of Contents Chapter Six.............................................................................................. 147 Nonsense and Liberty: The Language Games of the Fool in Shakespeare’s King Lear Hilary Gatti SECTION III: THE MEANING(LESSNESS) OF MEANING(LESSNESS): MODERNIST NONSENSE Chapter Seven.......................................................................................... 163 Nonsense and Logic in Franz Kafka Neil Allan Chapter Eight........................................................................................... 181 Apollinaire and the Whatnots Willard Bohn Chapter Nine............................................................................................ 191 “Neither parallel nor slippers”: Dada, War, and the Meaning(lessness) of Meaning(lessness) Stephen Forcer Chapter Ten ............................................................................................. 207 The “Wippchen” to Mysticism: Nonsense and Children’s Language in Fritz Mauthner and German Nonsense Poetry Magnus Klaue Chapter Eleven ........................................................................................ 227 Nonsense, Ban, and Banality in Schwitters’s Merz Julia Genz Chapter Twelve ....................................................................................... 237 Buildings and Urine: Japanese Modernist Nansensu Literature and the Absurdity of 1920s and 1930s Tokyo Life Alisa Freedman SECTION IV: TAKE CARE OF THE SOUNDS: REAL NONSENSE Chapter Thirteen...................................................................................... 259 Nonsense and Other Senses Marijke Boucherie Nonsense and Other Senses vii Chapter Fourteen ..................................................................................... 275 From Limerick to “Rimelick”: The Finnish Nonsense Limerick and Its Transformations Sakari Katajamäki Chapter Fifteen ........................................................................................ 295 Meaning less: Giorgio Manganelli’s Poetics of Nonsense Florian Mussgnug Chapter Sixteen ....................................................................................... 313 Intercultural Nonsense? The Humour of Fosco Maraini Loredana Polezzi Chapter Seventeen................................................................................... 335 Fantastica as a Place of Games: Nonsense in the Works of Michael Ende Rebekka Putzke SECTION V: NONSENSE, POLITICS, AND SOCIETY Chapter Eighteen ..................................................................................... 357 Nonsense and Politics Jean-Jacques Lecercle Chapter Nineteen..................................................................................... 381 Sergio Tofano’s Vispa Teresa between Parody and Nonsense Federico Appel Chapter Twenty ....................................................................................... 399 Nonsense as a Political Weapon in Václav Havel’s “Vanek Plays” Jane Duarte Contributors............................................................................................. 415 Index........................................................................................................ 421 This book deals with a topic that is gaining increasing critical attention, the literature of nonsense and absurdity. The volume gathers together twenty-one essays on various aspects of literary nonsense, according to criteria that are deliberately inclusive and eclectic. Its purpose is to offer a gallery of “nonsense practices” in literature across periods and countries, in the conviction that important critical insights can be gained from these juxtapositions. Most of the cases presented here deal with linguistic nonsense, but in a few instances the nonsense operates at the higher level of the interpretation of reality on the part of the subject—or of the impossibility thereof.The contributors to the volume are established and younger scholars from various countries. Chronologically, the chapters range widely from Dante to Václav Havel, and offer a large span of national literatures (Czech, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese) and literary genres (poetry, prose, and drama), inviting the readers to trace their own pathway and draw their own lines of connection. One point that emerges with particular force is the notion that what distinguishes literary nonsense is its somehow “regulated” nature. Literary nonsense thus sounds like a deliberate, last-ditch attempt to snatch order from the jaws of chaos—the speech of the “Fool” as opposed to the tale told by an idiot. It is this kind of post-Derridean retrieval of choice as the defining element in semantic transactions which is perhaps the most significant insight bequeathed by the study of nonsense to the analysis of poetry and literature in general. Roger Corman is an ambiguous artistic figure. On the one hand, he is notorious for shooting and producing his films quickly, cheaply and with blatant disregard for safety measures, which, together with his ability to issue a dozen new films every year and his impressive filmography, have earned him the titles of "shlockmeister" and "the King of the B's" among film journalists. On the other hand, he became the youngest American director to be given a film retrospective at the prestigious Cinématèque Française in Paris, one of his directorial efforts—House of Usher— was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded him with an Academy Honorary Award "for his rich engendering of films and filmmakers." This book investigates this duality and explores whether Corman is indeed a shlockmeister or an artist whose works are worthy of the highest cinema awards. The scope of analysis is limited to his directorial efforts "only"—still encompassing 50 features—excluding the 400 films he produced. The methodology adopted here is based on the auteur theory in its structuralist version by Geoffrey Nowell-Smith and Peter Wollen, and focuses on three areas of interest: work ethic—personal elements in the films, personal control over and commitment to the production process outside direction; themes—topics and concerns common for many of the films regardless of the genre; and style—recurring stylistic motifs and elements in the camerawork, editing, and framing.