| The premise of this dissertation is the assertion that literature brings into being the situation to which it is also, at the same time, a reaction (Fredric Jameson). The thesis calls this situation which literature "brings into being" (articulates) a cultural and political "closure." The term "closure" stands for the variety of practices which in their given contexts prevent the "breakthrough" of liberating ways of thinking, writing and/or acting. Literature articulates these closures by reacting to them; thus, the literary work spells out at the same time not only the closures it reacts to (as their "negative"), but also the liberating practices which enact the reaction to and "breaking through" of these "closures" (the "positive" work of literature).;Each of the three chapters of the thesis constructs a dialogue between one "Eastern European" and one American or English literary work. These dialogues explore the ways in which literature is not only an agency of its own cultural and political context, but has also the potentials of being an agency in a very different context. Thus, American literature not only articulates the closures and liberating practices relevant for "Eastern Europe" (and vice versa), but also enters into a dialogue with "Eastern European" literature, a dialogue which constitutes literatures (and places they come from) as relational rather than essential. The three chapters displaying this situation in which the literary works of various places relate to each other are: "Danilo Kis and John Cage: Literature Against the Closures of Language;" "Tadeusz Borowski and Kazuo Ishiguro: Literature Against the Closures of Power;" and "Irena Vrkljan and Susan Howe: Literature Against the Closures of Gender.".;The six books I focus on are Danilo Kis's A Tomb for Boris Davidovich (Yugoslavia, 1976), John Cage's Silence (USA, 1961), Tadeusz Borowski's This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen (Poland, 1948), Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day (England, 1989), Irena Vrkljan's Marina (Yugoslavia, 1986) and Susan Howe's My Emily Dickinson (USA, 1985). |
