Literary Paradox: Figures of Displacement and Disguise in Carroll, Kafka, Nietzsche, Blanchot, and Deleuze Open Access

Abstract

Abstract
Literary Paradox:
Figures of Displacement and Disguise
in Carroll, Kafka, Nietzsche, Blanchot, and Deleuze
By Eugene Brently Young
This dissertation elaborates a theory of literary paradox, contending that the
displacement and disguise of literary figures involves the paradoxical expression of ideas.
Such ideas, which express the differences between figures of displacement and disguise,
mark an intersection between literature and philosophy. Displacement and disguise are
defined in terms of given likenesses that express difference and dissociation, in contrast
to theories which presume that given differences or contradictions (in a text or literary
system) can be associated to "paradoxically" express metaphorical likeness or unity.
Gilles Deleuze provides a theoretical foundation for defining the "idea" in terms of
difference that is not abstract but is constituted by the "powers of repetition" within the
imagination.
There are four distinctive figures of displacement and disguise investigated in this
dissertation, which I define in terms of the description of forms or appearances
(perceptual figures), bodily states or dispositions (affective figures), figures of presence
and recurrence, and the absence of the figure. I analyze these figures and the paradoxical
ideas they express in the literature of Lewis Carroll, Franz Kafka, Friedrich Nietzsche,
and Maurice Blanchot. I contend that Blanchot radicalizes literary paradox by evacuating
the figure of its lived (perceptual and affective) qualities as well as its presence. I
conclude by investigating Deleuze's paradoxes of life and habit with regard to Deleuze's
and Blanchot's paradoxes of the immemorial and the eternal return. I argue that while
Blanchot is uncompromising in his depiction of the unlivable and absent, he elides the
qualitative distinctiveness of figures of perception, affect, and presence.

Literary Paradox:
Figures of Displacement and Disguise
in Carroll, Kafka, Nietzsche, Blanchot, and Deleuze
By
Eugene Brently Young
B.A., Syracuse University, 2003
Advisor:
Professor Jill Robbins
Ph.D., Yale University, 1985
A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the
James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies of Emory University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
in Comparative Litearture
2010

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Chapter I

Literary Paradox:
Contradiction, Self-Reference, and Unity; Displacement, Disguise, and Difference
1

Chapter II
The Perceptual Figure in Carroll and Kafka
50

Chapter III
The Affective Figure in Nietzsche and Kafka
105

Chapter IV
The Figuration of Presence in Nietzsche and Kafka
148

Chapter V
Blanchot's Figureless Figure
195

Chapter VI
The Determination of the Idea via Deleuze and Blanchot:
Paradoxes of the Habitual, the Immemorial, and the Eternal Return
241

Abbreviations

273

Bibliography
275

About this Dissertation

Rights statement

• Permission granted by the author to include this thesis or dissertation in this repository. All rights reserved by the author. Please contact the author for information regarding the reproduction and use of this thesis or dissertation.

School	Laney Graduate School
Department	Comparative Literature
Degree	PhD
Submission	Dissertation
Language	English
Research Field	Literature, Comparative Religion, General
Keyword	Literature Carroll Kafka Nietzsche Deleuze Blanchot Paradox
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Robbins, Jill, Emory University
Committee Members	Johnston, John H, Emory University Lambert, Gregg, Syracuse University Bennington, Geoffrey, Emory University

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