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5. NONNARRATIVE AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF HISTORY
- Wesleyan University Press
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NONNARRATIVEAN DTH E CONSTRUCTIONO FHISTOR Y Poetryis alwaysa dyinglanguage but never adead language. —Robert Smithson Youare afraid of yourfinitude;we areafraidof our infinitude. —ArkadiiDragomoshchenko Thisessa yhasahistory,on ethati sstillintheproces sofbein gmade .Thefirst writteni nthisvolume,i twasoriginallypresentedatasymposium,"Th eNarrative Constructiono fHistory, "a tSouther nExposur eGaller yi nSa nFranciscoi nMarch 1990.I ti ssafetosa ythatth eanxietie sabou tth egenerall yunquestione dfoun dational statu so fnarrativ efo rliterar yan dCulturalStudie sitengage dwer esubstantial ,andthattheseresponseswereinternalized,sequentiallyi fnotnarratively , intheconstructio no ftheessa yitself.Atthetim eth eessa ywasfirstpresented , theepocha lhorizonshifto ftheen do ftheCol dWarhadjustoccurred ;Iwasin theproces sofcollaboratingo nLeningrad,a multiauthoredan dinfactnonnarrative historicalaccoun tofa navant-gardepoeticssymposiuminth eSovie tUnio nasit wascomin gapar ti nAugus t1989 ,an dI wa sals oa twor ko nUnder Erasure, a poemtha ttake su pth eundoin go fhorizona lstructure sthroug htha thistorica l momenti na moreabstractmodeofreckoning .Processe sofhistorica ldevolutio n andlosswereverymuchoneveryone'smind,an dtherewasanimmediatequestion ofho wtothinkthroug hth enarrativ eexperienc eonewasthenhaving .Certainly , atriumphalistaccoun tofth een do fth eCol dWar,alongth eline ssuggeste db y FrancisFukuyama ,wasth elas tthin ga write rconcerne dwithnonnarrativ eaesthetics woul db einterestedin.Thisessayisanattemptt odescrib ehowandwhy onemigh tsee kanalternativet oteleologica lnarratives ,full yequippe dwit hmo tivation an dclosure,througha knowledgegaine dfromthepracticeofnonnarrative poetics.I ndoingso,I wantt ojuxtapos ethre ehistorica lmoments :thepresent writingofa nhistorica laccoun tinwhichth enarrativ estructureoneisi nha snot beenfullydeclared(fro mit soriginalformulatio ni n1990t othepresentrevisionof theessa yin2002) ;th eer aofstagnatio nexperience dbypost-Sovie twritersan d 5ANERAOFSTAGNATION, THEFALLOFSAIGON artistsinthemid-1970s ;andtheFal lofSaigonthatendedtheVietnamWarinMay 1975.Triangulatingthesemoment sofnonnarrativehistory,andthustriangulating thepresen tconstructio no fhistor ywithnonnarrativ eform so fart ,i sthetas kof thisessay. NONNARRATIVEPOETIC S Whati snonnarrative ,asa wa yo fmakin gart ;an dwha ti sth e relationofnonnarrativeformsofarttohistoricalnarratives?Tobeginwith, thisi sareciprocalrelation ,butno ton eo fidentity:thewa yaworko fart representsa nhistorica levent ,i nit sow nfor mo ftempora lorganization , turnsou tt ob ea neven to fanothe rorder .Mimesi sisnotrestricte dt oa reproductiono ftheevent .T ocalla nepi c" apoemcontainin ghistory,"as EzraPoun ddid ,i st oclai mtha tth eepi cmake shistor yi nanothe rway , interveningi nhistor ya smuc ha srepresentingit.Whilenarrativ eiscon ventionally hel dt ob ebot hth eimplici tgoa lan dexplici tnor mo fart...