© Laura Oulanne 2018 ISBN 978-951-51-4142-2 (paperback) ISBN 978-951-51-4143-9 (PDF) http:⁄⁄ethesis.helsinki.fi Unigrafia, Helsinki 2018 Cover Image: Eino Korkala University of Helsinki Faculty of Arts Laura Oulanne Lived Things Materialities of Agency, Affect, and Meaning in the Short Fiction of Djuna Barnes and © Laura Oulanne 2018 ISBN 978-951-51-4142-2 (paperback) Jean Rhys ISBN 978-951-51-4143-9 (PDF) http:⁄⁄ethesis.helsinki.fi Unigrafia, Helsinki 2018 Academic dissertation to be publicly discussed, by due permission of the Faculty of Arts, Cover Image: Eino Korkala at the University of Helsinki in lecture room 5 on the 6th of June, 2018 at 12 o’clock. Abstract The short fiction of Djuna Barnes (1892–1982) and Jean Rhys (1890– 1979) conveys intense moments of human characters interacting with material things. Clothes and furniture along with other material items, both human-made and of the natural world, have central roles in how the stories invite both interpretation and affective response. This is part of the way the two writers draw upon and develop modernist ideas and aesthetics, focus on lived experience and challenge the borders between the individual and the world, the human and the nonhuman. The form of short fiction allows for especially intense depictions of fleeting moments of experience. This study analyzes the way material things are present in such moments, and discusses their roles in the evocation of spatiality and temporality, their fictional agency and their part in literary affectivity and meaning-making. Barnes’s and Rhys’s stories invite sociocultural interpretations related to issues such as commodification and consumerism, marginality and belonging, and gendered power relations. This study explores the ways in which such interpretations are produced by narrative experientiality, especially the evocation of embodied, affective experiences of material things. With the help of theoretical insights into embodied cognitive narratology and new materialist thinking, the analyses investigate the ways in which cultural values suggested by the texts are entangled with basic, embodied experi - ences of being in the material world, and the ways such experiences can be evoked in the reader. The study shows how paying attention to the entanglements of the material and the cultural, humans and things, open new possibili - ties of interpretation and shift readers’ understanding of modernist fiction and the experientiality of stories, and how the stories in turn can shed light on the real-world relations between the human and the nonhuman. The analyses suggest a broader inclusion of mate - riality and worldly experience within the interpretation of Barnes’s and Rhys’s work and within canonized modernism. The attention to experienced materialities offers additional support especially for readings that focus on the stories’ reparative potential as regards their point of view on agency and subjecthood and their evocation of posi - tive affect, yet it also allows for the pairing of these affirmative tones with the recognition of the critical potential of the works. The analyses contribute to the discussion of narrative experientiality by high - lighting it as an embodied phenomenon rooted in the material world. Acknowledgements A study about material things invites its writer to recognize all the support she has received from the material world, and it is tempting to begin by a ”Latour Litany” of all the sustaining, nourishing and enabling things and spaces that I have leant on while completing this study: chairs and tables; offices, coffeeshops and all kinds of writing nooks; books and writing tools; black tea and dark chocolate. However, as the human and the nonhuman tend to be intertwined, all these material things come with a community of human beings, without whom this study would not have been possible, and to whom I wish to extend my deep gratitude here. I have been extremely fortunate to work with Professor Heta Pyrhönen as my main supervisor. I am grateful for her thorough comments, considerate guidance, and unwavering support, all of which have carried my work from one stage to the next. I thank Professor Annette Simonis, my supervisor at the Justus Liebig University, for her enthusiasm and encouragement throughout the writing process. I am also very thankful to Professor Klaus Brax, who took over the duties of a supervisor at the final stages of my disser - tation and handled everything with kindness, patience, and interest. My appreciation also goes to Professor Emeritus Hannu K. Riikonen and Docent Janna Kantola, whose help and inspiration played a great part in bringing this study into existence. Many others have read and provided insightful comments on versions of texts included in this dissertation. I want to thank espe - cially Professors Pirjo Lyytikäinen, Ingo Berensmeyer, Isabel Capeloa Gil, Angela Locatelli, Ansgar Nünning, and Elizabeth Wåghäll Nivre for their contributions to the discussions in the seminars of the European PhDnet, and the time and energy they have put into making our texts better. I am grateful to all commentators in the seminars of the Doctoral Programme in Philosophy, Arts, and Society, as well as the research seminar of Comparative Literature at the University of Helsinki, especially Sanna Nyqvist, Merja Polvinen, and Riikka Rossi. My colleagues have supported this work not only by commenting on my writing, but also by forming a community of peers and friends that I am fortunate to be part of. It is thanks to them that doing the PhD has never felt like a solo endeavor. My deepest gratitude goes to Anna Ovaska, with whom I have shared high and low points, plans and discoveries, experiences of learning and teaching, trains and airplanes across Europe and the United States, unconventional offices, and spec- tacular lunches. Anna read and commented on the entire dissertation manuscript, and provided irreplaceable practical help in the finishing process. I look forward to more shared academic adventures! Among my colleagues, I also wish to thank Kaisa Kortekallio for her warm, supporting presence and an openness of mind that has taught me a lot, and Lieven Ameel, Sarianna Kankkunen, Vappu Kannas, Elise Nykänen, Anna Tomi, and Essi Varis for inspiring collaborations, teaching and conference experiences. I have been lucky to share both an office and ideas with Harri Mäcklin and Hanna Mäkelä, and co-working experiences and peer support with Saara Moisio, Niina Into, and Arianna Marcon. I also thank Hannasofia Hardwick, Vesa Kyllönen, Lauri Niskanen, Tero Vanhanen, and other doctoral researchers in Comparative Literature at the University of Helsinki for their insights and encouragement. Reading groups have played an important part in the formula - tion of the theoretical basis of my research, and in providing peer support. The Enactivism reading group at the University of Helsinki has hosted wonderful discussions that have been crucial for the emergence of several ideas central to this study. The Philosophy of Psychiatry reading group, subsequently evolved into the Helsinki Network for Philosophy of Psychiatry, has not only provided the most brilliant company for thinking and learning about phenomenology and philosophy of mind, but also the chance to make friends with amazing people. My warmest thoughts are with Ferdinand Garoff, Pii Telakivi, Sanna Tirkkonen and Tuomas Vesterinen; may the tradition of tin foil hats be long and prosperous! I also wish to thank my friends and colleagues from differenc disciplines, Annika Lonkila and Marika Pulkkinen, with whom I have had the privilege to compare experiences and share moments of support and inspiration. I have also been lucky to share my work internationally with several people, to whom I wish to extend my appreciation. I shared a unique experience of academic discovery and friendship with the members of the European PhDnet: thank you Ana do Carmo, Sara Eriksson, Eva Fauner, Ioanna Kipourou, Stella Lange, Verena Lindemann, Sanja Nivesjö, Sabine Schönfellner, Emanuel Stelzer, Snezana Vuletic, and Anna Weigel! I am also indebted to Natalya Bekhta, Nora Berning and Imke Polland for all the practical support and help they have provided throughout the PhDnet journey. My warm thanks go to David Rodriguez and Marlene Karlsson Marcussen for inspiring collaboration and insights that have played a great role in the final stages of this study. Finnish and international conferences and seminars such as the Turku Winter School in Posthumanism, Narrative, American Comparative Literature Association Annual Meeting, and Cognitive Futures in the Arts and Humanities have been an invaluable platform for learning, sharing thoughts and testing out ideas that have become part of this study. Participating in these events has been enabled by grants from the University of Helsinki and the Doctoral Programme of Philosophy, Arts and Society, for which I am extremely grateful. Even more importantly, I have had the good fortune to be able to work full-time on my dissertation, employed for three years in the Doctoral Programme, and funded for one year by the Alfred Kordelin Foundation. Secured funding and work-space access have been crucial for the completion of the study, and the community, feed - back and teaching experience offered by the Doctoral Programme have been unique learning opportunities. I am also thankful for Päivi Väätänen, who as the coordinator of the Doctoral Programme handled all practicalities with efficient patience. I wish to extend my gratitude to the pre-examiners of the disser - tation, Professor Suzanne Keen and Professor Maurizia Boscagli, for their close comments and extremely helpful suggestions; I also thank Suzanne Keen for agreeing to serve as my opponent in the defense. I am thankful to Marlene Broemer for her thorough language check, and the amazing Eino Korkala for the layout of this book. My deep gratitude goes to friends and family who have been there throughout the journey. I especially want to thank Tessa Siira for being the great person and friend she is, and for maintaining our tradition of in-depth talks even with an ocean between us. I am forever thankful to Enna Mäki and Michael Jacobs for their sustaining and inspiring presence throughout my life, and to Pirjo Mäki for the combination of academic and emotional support and cultural nour - ishment she continues to provide. I am thankful to my mother for always having faith in my choices and my ability to tread my own path. Finally, I thank Lauri for being such a wonderful companion on this journey, like on all journeys, and for our life together that has made me the person I am. Brooklyn, March 2018 Table of Contents Abstract — 3 Acknowledgements — 5 Introduction — 11 1.1 The Material World of Modernist Short Fiction — 14 1.2 Things, Objects, and Materialities — 21 1.3 Reading and Experience — 27 1.4 From Lived Space and Time to Agency, Affect, and Meaning — 31 Things, Space, and Time: Bodily Experiences and Cultural Interpretations — 37 2.1 The House and the Other Space — 42 2.1.1 Solid and Shaky Houses — 44 2.1.2 Disregarded and Decaying Houses — 60 2.2 Public Spaces, Mobility, and Traces of Experience — 68 2.2.1 The Hotel, the Hospital, and the Prison — 69 2.2.2 The Street and the Café — 75 2.3 Containers and Clothes — 82 2.3.1 Collections, Containers, and Plots — 83 2.3.2 Moments of Being within Clothes — 88 The Agency of Things — 99 3.1 Mannequins, Spirits, and Magic Fashion: Animism and Fetishism in The Left Bank — 101 3.1.1 Mannequins and Surrealist Fetishism — 103 3.1.2 Magical Practices and Supernatural Irony — 113 3.1.3 Lucky Dresses and Loquacious Parks: Magical and Material Challenges to Modern Fetishism — 118 3.2 Djuna Barnes and the Excess of Fetishism — 124 3.2.1 Dolls and Dismemberment — 125 3.2.2 Little Women, Large Boots — 129 3.2.3 Laces, Corsets, and Furniture: The Case of the Madames — 134 3.3 Communities of Commodities — 138 3.3.1 Having Something of One’s Own — 140 3.3.2 Style, Taste, and Community — 142 3.4 Entanglements of Humans and Things — 148 3.4.1 Things as Fictional Agents — 151 3.4.2 Characters as Thing-like Agents — 155 Affective Things — 163 4.1 Nice Things: Belonging, Happiness, and Empathy with Things in Jean Rhys’s Stories — 167 4.1.1 Normative and Lived Happiness — 168 4.1.2 Objects Having Fun — 174 4.1.3 Empathy, Sympathy, and Being-with-Things — 178 4.2 The Materiality of Affect in Djuna Barnes’s Stories — 186 4.2.1 Touching Things: Two Affective Journeys — 187 4.2.2 Gesturing with Things — 200 4.2.3 Pleasure in Things — 206 Making Sense of Things — 215 5.1 Meaning with the Masses: Sense-making, Aesthetics, and Ethics in The Left Bank — 219 5.1.1 Sprinklings and Masses of People — 220 5.1.2 “Vividnesses”: Lively Things and Thing-like People — 230 5.1.3 The Author, the Narrator, and Levels of Sense-making — 236 5.2 Everything, Something, and Nothing: Meaning and Detail in Djuna Barnes’s Stories — 242 5.2.1 Collecting References: from Allegory to Archaeology and Back — 247 5.2.2 The Materiality of the Symbolic — 253 5.2.3 Meaning in Gestures — 258 Conclusion — 265 References — 268