q Worldly Acts And sentient things Worldly Acts and n sentient things The PersisTence of Agency from sTein To DeLiLLo Robert Chodat cornell University Press Ithaca and London P ublication of this book has been aided by a grant from the Boston University humanities Foundation. copyright © 2008 by cornell University All rights reserved. except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the pub- lisher. For information, address cornell University Press, sage house, 512 east state street, ithaca, new york 14850. First published 2008 by cornell University P rinted in the United states of America library of congress cataloging-in-Publication data chodat, robert. Worldly acts and sentient things : the persistence of agency from stein to delillo / robert chodat. p. cm. includes bibliographical references and index. isBn 978-0-8014-4678-8 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. American literature—20th century—history and criticism. 2. Agent (Philosophy) in literature. 3. consciousness in literature. 4. subjectivity in literature. 5. Philosophy, Modern, in literature. i. title Ps288.A49c48 2008 810.9'384—dc22 2008001243 cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. such materials include vegetable-based, low-voc inks and acid-free papers that are recycled, totally chlorine-free, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu. cloth printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 q Contents Acknowledgments vii Abbreviations xi introduction: French cathedrals and other Forms of life 1 Part One: Agents Within chapter 1. sense, science, and slight contacts with other People’s Minds 25 chapter 2. embodiment and the inside 56 chapter 3. the Prose of Persons 89 Part Two: Agents Without chapter 4. selves, sentences, and the styles of holism 123 chapter 5. embodiment and the outside 156 chapter 6. the culture and its loaded Words 196 conclusion: Person and Presence, stories and theories 233 Index 247 q Acknowledgments An argument running throughout this book is that our culture is marked by a widespread uncertainty about what kinds of things should be treated as sentient and sapient, as doers and thinkers, and hence as responsible beings. A version of this uncertainty has been felt throughout my own years of writing. A happy life and a finished book are typically ascribed to only a single agent, though neither could ever be achieved without the words and wisdom of a great many others. nobody’s life and nobody’s book exemplify this more than my own. to begin out west, gratitude should first be expressed to four advisers at stanford University. david halliburton encouraged my early intuitions that there was something to say about the American intellectual tradition, and Arnold rampersad has always been abundantly trusting of my work, even when the original seeds of this book threatened to become an unmanageable thicket. Brett Bourbon’s intellectual adventurousness i shall probably never encounter again, and many of the following pages can be traced to one or another bracing conversation with him. last, richard rorty began to exert an influence on my thinking just before he arrived at stanford, and in the years that i knew him he was remarkably generous both as an adviser and as a teacher. news of his death came just as i was completing the book, and while there are things here with which he may not have wholly agreed, i regret that i was never able to hear him voice objections in person. Warm thanks also to george dekker and Art strum, early mentors, as well as to hilary edwards, whose capacity for spying lazy sentences and ideas i will always cherish. thanks, too, to three great friends from 21st and valencia: Julia Beltsiou, rebecca groves, and van swearingen. Moving eastward, i thank everyone in the english department of Boston University, which has welcomed me graciously over the last few years. spe- cial gratitude should be expressed to James Winn for his guidance and leader- ship, and to John Paul riquelme for his generosity, punning, and professional prodding. Bill carroll, laura Korobkin, Jim siemon, larry Breiner, and Bob levine have been particularly benevolent counsels for a novice professor, vii viii Acknowledgments and without harriet lane and Margaret Johnson i could never navigate the administrative labyrinths. thanks also go to colleagues who have been audi- ences for this or related items: Mo lee, susan Mizruchi, erin Murphy, Anita Patterson, Matt smith, and Andy stauffer. i’m enormously grateful also to the officers and staff at the American Academy of Arts and sciences, which granted me a postdoctoral fellowship in 2003–4. While there i incurred many debts, especially to Jim carroll and my fellow visiting scholars, in particular Ann Mikkelsen, Matthew lindsay, and above all Jona hansen, who with typical insight read the book as it was nearing completion. Among other friends in the Boston area, i thank stephanie Akin, stephanie Birdsall, shawn Boburg, Jim cahill, sarah duggan, Matt Meyer, and husain naqvi. very special thanks as well to Bernie rhie, whose intelligence and conversa- tion are always immeasurably heartening. Finally, i can’t leave the east coast without paying tribute to a few teachers i was deeply fortunate to encounter years ago in Montreal: Peter gibian, david hensley, and last but by no means least, Kerry Mcsweeney, who one day asked a very good question. A final setting for the work that went into this book has been Berlin, and while there i’ve been supported by various individuals and institutions. the deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst awarded me a fellowship in 1999 to begin what eventually became this book, and with artful symmetry a fellowship from the Alexander von humboldt stiftung in 2006–7 gave me time to finish it. i’m very grateful to Winfried Flück at the Freie Universität Berlin and günter Abel at the technische Universität Berlin for sponsor- ing these extended visits. great thanks go as well to friends who over the years have made this frequently gray city into a sunny sanctuary: carsten Beyer, Antonio Arroyo gil, John lambert, Max Meier, stefan seiterle, Alli- son Williams, and especially Anyssa neumann, who scrupulously proofread the manuscript. Peter J. Potter of cornell University Press has been an ideal editor, sup- porting my work and guiding me smoothly through the publication process, and i thank teresa Jesionowski and herman rapaport for their help editing the manuscript. the book has benefited greatly from the input of two read- ers for the press, John gibson and Joseph tabbi, who read the manuscript judiciously and made many thoughtful suggestions. A version of chapter 1 first saw the light of day as “sense, science, and the interpretations of ger- trude stein,” in Modernism/Modernity 12.4 (november 2005): 581–605, and an earlier edition of chapter 3 appeared as “Beyond science and supermen: Bellow and Mind at Mid-century,” in Texas Studies in Literature and Language 45.4 (2003): 391–425. copyright © 2003 by the University of texas Press. Acknowledgments ix i am grateful to the editors and staff of these journals for allowing me to reprint these materials. My final debt goes well beyond geography. nothing attributable to my life or to this book would have been imaginable without my family: my brother Joseph, my mother carolyn, and my father david. r.c.