Witnessing beyond the Human

Kate Jenckes

Description

This book rethinks the nature of testimony beyond the ground of the human in works produced in Chile and Argentina from the 1970s to the present. Focusing on literature by Juan Gelman, Sergio Chejfec, and Roberto Bolaño, as well as art by Eugenio Dittborn, Kate Jenckes argues that these works represent life, death, and the relation between self and other "beyond the human," that is beyond the sense that we can know and represent ourselves and others, with powerful implications for our understanding of history, community, and politics. Jenckes engages with the work of Jacques Derrida together with the intellectually rigorous field of Chilean aesthetic theory to explore issues related to the nature of testimony.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction

1. Messianicity beyond Militant Messianism: Apostrophe and Survival in Juan Gelman’s Poetry

2. Myopic Witnessing and the Intermittent Possibilities of Community in Sergio Chejfec’s Los planetas and Boca de lobo

3. Living and Writing in the Deserts of Modernity: Roberto Bolaño and the Alter-immunological Potential of Literature

4. Image and Alterity Beyond the Sepulture of the Human: Eugenio Dittborn’s Photocollages

Conclusion
Works Cited & Bibliography
Notes
Index

Sujets

• Latin American
• América del Sur
• South America
• Latin America
• History of the Americas
• Caribbean

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 mai 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781438465722
• Langue: English

Extrait

Witnessing beyond the Human
SERIES EDITORS
David E. Johnson (Comparative Literature, SUNY Buffalo)
Scott Michaelsen (English, Michigan State University)
SERIES ADVISORY BOARD
Nahum D. Chandler (African American Studies, University of California, Irvine)
Rebecca Comay (Philosophy and Comparative Literature, University of Toronto)
Marc Crépon (Philosophy, École Normale Supérieure, Paris)
Jonathan Culler (Comparative Literature, Cornell)
Johanna Drucker (Design Media Arts and Information Studies, UCLA)
Christopher Fynsk (Modern Thought, Aberdeen University)
Rodolphe Gasché (Comparative Literature, SUNY Buffalo)
Martin Hägglund (Comparative Literature, Yale)
Carol Jacobs (Comparative Literature German, Yale University)
Peggy Kamuf (French and Comparative Literature, University of Southern California)
David Marriott (History of Consciousness, University of California, Santa Cruz)
Steven Miller (English, University at Buffalo)
Alberto Moreiras (Hispanic Studies, Texas A M University)
Patrick O’Donnell (English, Michigan State University)
Pablo Oyarzún (Teoría del Arte, Universidad de Chile)
Scott Cutler Shershow (English, University of California, Davis)
Henry Sussman (German and Comparative Literature, Yale University)
Samuel Weber (Comparative Literature, Northwestern)
Ewa Ziarek (Comparative Literature, SUNY Buffalo)
Witnessing beyond the Human
Addressing the Alterity of the Other in Post-coup Chile and Argentina
Kate Jenckes
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2017 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Jenn Bennett
Marketing, Fran Keneston
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Jenckes, Kate- author.
Title: Witnessing beyond the human : addressing the alterity of the other in post-coup Chile and Argentina / by Kate Jenckes.
Other titles: Alterity of the other in post-coup Chile and Argentina
Description: Albany, NY : State University of New York Press, 2017. | Series: Suny series, literature … in theory | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016031421 (print) | LCCN 2016050699 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438465715 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438465722 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Spanish American literature--20th century--History and criticism. | Other (Philosophy) in literature. | Other (Philosophy) in art. | Gelman, Juan, 1930-2014--Criticism and interpretation. | Chejfec, Sergio--Criticism and interpretation. | Bolaño, Roberto, 1953-2003--Criticism and interpretation. | Dittborn, Eugenio--Criticism and interpretation.
Classification: LCC PQ7081 .J46 2017 (print) | LCC PQ7081 (ebook) | DDC 860.9/982--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016031421
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1
Messianicity beyond Militant Messianism: Apostrophe and Survival in Juan Gelman’s Poetry
Chapter 2
Myopic Witnessing and the Intermittent Possibilities of Community in Sergio Chejfec’s Los planetas and Boca de lobo
Chapter 3
Living and Writing in the Deserts of Modernity: Roberto Bolaño and the Alter-immunological Potential of Literature
Chapter 4
Image and Alterity Beyond the Sepulture of the Human: Eugenio Dittborn’s Photocollages
Conclusion
Notes
Works Cited Bibliography
Index
List of Illustrations Figure I.1: Eugenio Dittborn, Pietá , 1980 Figure 4.1: Eugenio Dittborn, The 6th History of the Human Face (Black and Red Camino), Airmail Painting No. 70 , 1989 Figure 4.2: Eugenio Dittborn, El Cadáver, el Tesoro, Airmail Painting No. 90 (Detail), 1991 Figure 4.3: Cover from the Catalog of Final de Pista , 1977 Figure 4.4: Eugenio Dittborn, Por última vez , 1980 Figure 4.5: Eugenio Dittborn, Vea , from the Catalog of Final de Pista , 1977 Figure 4.6: Eugenio Dittborn, Un texto para final de pista , from the Catalog of Final de Pista , 1977 Figure 4.7: Eugenio Dittborn, La sagrada familia , from the Catalog of Final de Pista (Detail), 1977 Figure 4.8: José Guadalupe Posada, El ahorcado—Revolucionario ahorcado por los hacendados ( The Hanged Man—Revolutionary Hanged by the Landowners ), from Portfolio 36 Grabados: José Guadalupe Posada Figure 4.9: Eugenio Dittborn, If Left to Its Own Devices, Airmail Painting No. 75 , 1989–94 Figure 4.10: Eugenio Dittborn, The 6th History of the Human Face (Black and Red Camino), Airmail Painting No. 70 (Detail), 1989 Figure C.1.: Eugenio Dittborn, The Gloom in the Valley, Airmail Painting No. 74 , 1989 Figure C.2: Eugenio Dittborn, El Crusoe, Airmail Painting No. 127 (Detail), 1999–01
Acknowledgments
I began writing this book in the short interval between the death of my brother and the birth of my children. My fascination with the nature of survival, a sense of life that exceeds the distinction between life and death, intensified during this period, and enabled me to write this version of the project.
The book was conceived much earlier, while I lived in Chile and traveled regularly to Argentina, and was impelled to consider the nature of survival in relation to the ongoing effects of the various golpes associated with the dictatorships. It was shaped by the exhilarating intellectual environment I was exposed to while in Chile, and which I have followed to the best of my ability through readings and an occasional exchange.
I am deeply grateful to all those who inspired and supported the project and my intellectual development more generally, including friends, colleagues, and students from all of my numerous homes over the past several decades, including my current department at the University of Michigan, which is one of the most intelligent and supportive departments in my field. I would like to acknowledge the following individuals in particular, although there are countless others who contributed in their own ways. From Chile: Willy Thayer, Pablo Oyarzún, Nelly Richard, Federico Galende, Elizabeth Collingwood-Selby, Oscar Cabezas, Sergio Villalobos-Ruminott, and special appreciation to Eugenio Dittborn for the use of his images; from Michigan: Gareth Williams, Cristina Moreiras-Menor, Jaime Rodríguez-Matos, Irving Leon, Ross Chambers, and—why not?—Sergio again, since I am so happy he has joined our department. From various other places: Alberto Moreiras, Brett Levinson, Patrick Dove, and Erin Graff-Zivin (special thanks to these last two for keeping me in the game; their friendship and encouragement have played no small part in the completion of this book). I am immensely appreciative of the support I received from the editors at SUNY press, including David Johnson and Scott Michaelson, Beth Bouloukos, Jenn Bennett, Fran Keneston, and all the others, whose names I don’t know, who helped turn my words and ideas into a book. My mom provided invaluable assistance at the very end. Finally, my greatest gratitude goes to Thom, Claire, and Peter, for providing my life with sparkle, warmth, and—crucial for the writing of this book—basic, patient support.
Portions of Chapters 1 and 2 appeared in The New Centennial Review and the Revista de estudios hispánicos . It is with their permission that they are reprinted here.
Support from the Michigan Humanities Award (2014), combined with my sabbatical, gave me a precious year in which to finish the first draft of this book.
Introduction
A collage from 1980 by the Chilean artist Eugenio Dittborn features an image of a black boxer knocked against the ropes and a man in white leaning over him in a gesture of concern. 1 Behind the boxer appear the indistinct shapes of (mostly white) spectators, and the picture is framed by the unmistakable curvature of an early television screen, suggesting innumerable others. The piece is pointedly titled Pietá , which refers to the iconic scene of Mary bent in grief over Jesus’s dead and battered body before his ascension, and which finds a visual echo in the way the figures are positioned in the boxing ring. A faint inscription written beneath the image reads, “Humanidad: del latín humando , sepultar;” In tension with the Biblical scene of lamentation, the image of the prostrate boxer seems to pose the question of how the notion of humanity both resembles and differs from the Christian structure of redemption. Do the secular gazes of the boxing officials and spectators seek to bury the fallen boxer, containing and covering over mortal suffering and finitude—evoking the distant etymological link between humus (earth) and humanus ? Or do they constitute a form of redemption, their compassion ( pietá ) anticipating or replacing the Biblical moment of divine ascension? Or perhaps these are two versions of the same thing, human suffering serving as the ground from which redemption—whether Judeo-Christian, secular humanist, or as part of the culture of sport—springs. The piece can be seen as posing the question of what it might mean to