_book_id: 0 _book_language: en _book_alttitle: 0 _dedication_title: 0 _publisher_id: 0 _collection_id_series: siim i Meaningful Absence Across Arts and Media © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004394520_001 ii Studies in Intermediality Series Editor Walter Bernhart (Graz) Editorial Board Lawrence Kramer (New York) Hans Lund (Lund) Ansgar Nünning (Gießen) Werner Wolf (Graz) VOLUME 11 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/siim iii Meaningful Absence Across Arts and Media The Significance of Missing Signifiers Edited by Werner Wolf Nassim Balestrini Walter Bernhart LEIDEN | BOSTON iv Cover illustration: idea: Werner Wolf, realization: Pieter Kers The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at http://catalog.loc.gov LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/ Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 1871-8787 isbn 978-90-04-39172-7 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-39452-0 (e-book) Copyright 2019 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi, Brill Sense, Hotei Publishing, mentis Verlag, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner. CCoonntteennttss v Contents Preface vii 1 Introduction: Meaningful Absence across Media. The Potential Significance of Missing Signifiers 1 Werner Wolf 2 Absent Signifiers in Contemporary American Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction 32 Nassim Winnie Balestrini 3 A Sentence is a Half-Formed Thing: Observations on Iconic and Indexical (Morpho)Syntactic Blanks Inspired by Eimear McBride’s Debut Novel 59 Olga Fischer 4 On the Impact of Voids: Musical Silence and Visual Absence in Film 87 Saskia Jaszoltowski 5 Significant Absence in Narrative Fiction Film 101 Klaus Rieser 6 Gaps as Significant Absences: The Case of Serial Comics 126 Daniel Stein 7 Dramaturgy of Silence: Absence as a Means of Structural Tension in Joseph Haydn’s String Quartets 156 Peter Revers 8 Absence of Words and Absence of Music in Opera 173 Walter Bernhart 9 “Où est l’art? perdu, disparu!”: Meaningful Absence in 19th- to 21st-Century Painting 193 Henry Keazor vi Contents 10 Silent Spaces: Absent Signifiers in Modernist Architecture 217 Anselm Wagner Contents Contents v Preface vii List of Figures 245 Chapter 1 Introduction: Meaningful Absence across Media. The Potential Significance of Missing Signifiers 1  Werner Wolf Notes on Contributors 247 Chapter 2 Absent Signifiers in Contemporary American Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction 32  Nassim Winnie Balestrini Chapter 3 A O lSgean Ftiesnchceer is a Half-Formed Thing: Observations on Iconic and Indexical (Morpho)Syntactic Blanks Inspired by Eimear McBride’s Debut Novel 59 Index 251 Chapter 4 On the Impact of Voids: Musical Silence and Visual Absence in Film 87  Saskia Jaszoltowski Chapter 5 Significant Absence in Narrative Fiction Film 101  Klaus Rieser Chapter 6 Gaps as Significant Absences: the Case of Serial Comics 126  Daniel Stein Chapter 7 Dramaturgy of Silence: Absence as a Means of Structural Tension in Joseph Haydn’s String Quartets 156  Peter Revers Chapter 8 Absence of Words and Absence of Music in Opera 173  Walter Bernhart Chapter 9 “Où est l’art? perdu, disparu!”: Meaningful Absence in 19th to 21st-century Painting 193  Henry Keazor Chapter 10 Silent Spaces: Absent Signifiers in Modernist Architecture 217  Anselm Wagner List of Figures 245 Notes on Contributors 247 Index 251 PrefacePreface vii Preface In the study of literature and other media we are used to focusing on what is presented by the works under scrutiny – i.e., on visual and/or acoustic pres- ence. However, since meaning is generally based on difference, it is worthwhile investigating to what extent the opposite of presence, namely absence, can also contribute to meaning and thus become an important focus of interpreta- tion. In a similar way in which one may insert a meaningful pause into one‘s oral discourse, music may suddenly stop in general rests, paintings may con- front us with a seemingly empty (or monochrome) canvas, literary texts may sport textual lacunae, and dramatic characters may freeze in a tableau or may suddenly stop talking in a meaningful (indexical or iconic) way, as in the catalectic verse taken from Macbeth’s well-known soliloquy in the fifth act of Shakespeare’s last great tragedy: “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player / [...] / Signifying nothing.” The aim of the present volume is to concentrate on the manifold forms and (historical) functions of such absences predominantly on the level (or in chains) of signifiers rather than on absences on the level of the signified. In other words, in representational media, the main focus is here placed on ab- sences, silences, lacunae etc. in the representation itself rather than on what is represented (although the latter aspect is also dealt with in some contribu- tions). The scope of the media under scrutiny includes language (investigated from a linguistic as well as a literary perspective), film, comics, opera and in- strumental music, architecture and the visual arts and is thus considerably broader than the arts investigated in a parallel volume published in the book series Word and Music Studies (WMS), Silence and Absence in Literature and Music, 2016, in relation to which the present volume may be considered both a complement and an extension. Meaningful absence is here discussed from the following double perspective: from a systematic, media-comparative point of view, as well as from a historical perspective. In both respects the volume, the eleventh in the book series Studies in Inter- mediality (SIM), continues the focus on ‘transmediality’ (media comparison), which has informed several volumes published in the past and which has at the same time been a hallmark of the kind of intermediality research carried on in Graz, in particular at the Centre for Intermediality Studies (CIMIG). Ex- cept for the essay on art, all of the essays presented here are revised versions of contributions to a cycle of lectures held at the University of Graz in the winter term 2015/2016 under the auspices of CIMIG. viii Preface As with former volumes in the series, the editors are well aware of the fact that the publication of an interdisciplinary volume such as the present book would not have been possible without the cooperation of the expertise of scholars from various fields. The editors would therefore like to express their gratitude to the participants of the aforementioned cycle of lectures as well as to the additional contributor of the present volume for their efforts, and in some cases remarkable patience, during the editing process. In addition, we would like to thank all members of staff involved, including Jutta Klobasek- Ladler, Silke Jandl, Juliann Knaus, and Michaela Lang for their much appreci- ated help in the editing process. I am also profoundly thankful to my co-editors, CIMIG director Nassim Balestrini and Walter Bernhart, who helped me to re- alise my original ideas on a transmedial project dedicated to absence and to give them substance in the present volume by their invaluable support in mat- ters of organization and editorial issues as well as of scholarly content. Werner Wolf Graz, autumn 2018 Reference Werner Wolf, Walter Bernhart, eds. (2016). Silence and Absence in Literature and Music. Word and Music Studies 15. Leiden/Boston, MA: Brill/Rodopi. _full_alt_author_running_head (neem stramien B2 voor dit chapter en nul 0 in hierna): 0 _full_alt_articletitle_running_head (oude _articletitle_deel, vul hierna in): Introduction _full_article_language: en indien anders: engelse articletitle: 0 Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Introduction: Meaningful Absence across Media. The Potential Significance of Missing Signifiers1  Werner Wolf schweigen schweigen schweigen schweigen schweigen schweigen schweigen     schweigen schweigen schweigen schweigen schweigen schweigen schweigen Eugen Gomringer ⸪ This introduction clarifies the dominant focus of the present volume: among the manifold possible forms of absence across (artistic) media, most of the contributions concentrate on non-accidental, avoidable, intentional, relatively unconventional and thus potentially significant missing signifiers in medial works and works of art (or on their immediate ‘outside’ or ‘margins’) rather than on missing signifieds. The essay also discusses preconditions for eliciting an awareness of such potentially meaningful absences, including absence markers and what are termed ‘significance triggers’. In addition, some general forms of meaningful absence in missing medial signifiers are outlined (marked vs. unmarked, supplemented vs. non-supplemented, peripheral or framing vs. internal absences), before media specificities in terms of absences are dis- cussed (symbolic, indexical and iconic; moreover visual, aural and kinetic). In conclusion, some perspectives for further research in the field are adumbrated. 1 As so frequently, my thanks are once again due to Jutta Klobasek-Ladler and Cecilia Servatius for their invaluable help with the manuscript. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004394520_002