Reading in Detail: Aesthetics and the Feminine

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READING IN DETAIL

. READING IN DETAIL Aesthetics and the Feminine

Naomi Schor Foreword by

Ellen Rooney

~~ ~~~.t~~n~~~up New York London

Figure

I.

llya Schor, Bracelet

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

First published 1987 by Methuen, Inc. This edition published 2007 by Routledge.

Pour mes morts

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© 2007 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 10987654321 International Standard Book Number-10: 0-415-97945-5 (Softcover) International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-415-97945-0 (Softcover) No part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at http://www.taylorandfrancis.com and the Routledge Web site at http://www.routledge-ny.com

Note on Permissions

T

he author wishes to acknowledge the cooperation of the following in granting permissions to reprint articles or to reproduce works of art: New York Literary Forum for "Duane Hanson: Truth in Sculpture" in the issue "Fragments: Incompletion & Discontinuity," vols. 8-9, edited by Lawrence D. Kritzman; Poetics Today for "Details and Realism: La Cure de Tours" in vol. 5, no. 4, 1984; Princeton University Press for "Fiction as Interpretation/Interpretation as Fiction" from The Reader in the Text: Essays on Audience and Interpretation, edited by Susan Suleiman and Inge Crosman, 1980; Union Generale d'Editions for "Le delire d'interpretation: Naturalisme et paranoia" from Le naturalisme: Colloque de Cerisy, 1978; Dada/Surrealism, vol. 6, for "Dali's Freud," 1976; the Metropolitan Museum of Art for Schor, Bracelet, and for Brouwer, The Smokers; the Brera di Milano for Rubens, Last Supper; the Louvre for Veronese, Marriage at Cana, and for Millet, L'Angelus; the Alte Pinakothek, Munich for Murillo, The Melon Eaters; and 0. K. Harris Works of Art for the Duane Hanson figures.

CONTENTS

Note on Permissions vii List of Figures xi Foreword xiii Acknowledgments xxxvii Introduction xli

PART I: ARCHAEOLOGY

r. Gender: In the Academy 3 2.

Sublimation: Hegel's Aesthetics

19

3· Decadence: Wey, Loos, Lukacs 45 4· Displacement: The Case of Sigmund Freud 75 5. Desublimation: Roland Barthes's Aesthetics 9 3

PART 2: READINGS

6. Dali's Freud r2r 7· The Delusion of Interpretation: The Conquest of Plassans 133

8. Fiction as Interpretation/Interpretation as Fiction 147 9· Duane Hanson: Truth in Sculpture r6r

ro. Details and Realism: The Cure de Tours 175 Notes r85 Bibliography 213 Index

225

List of Figures

I.

2.

3· 4· 5.

6. 7·

8. 9· Io. I I. I2.

I3. I4.

llya Schor. Bracelet. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Frontispiece Peter Paul Rubens. Last Supper. Brera, Milan. (Art Resource.) 6 Paolo Veronese. Marriage at Cana, detail. Louvre, Paris. (Art Resource.) 7 Adriaen Brouwer. The Smokers. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 4I Murillo. The Melon Eaters. Alte Pinakothek, Munich. (Art Resource.) 42 Adolf Laos. Advertisement. 59 Giovanni Morelli. Kunstkritische Studien iiber Italienische Malerei, val. I. 78 Studio Harcourt. Martine Carol. Agence France Presse. 97 Greta Garbo as Queen Christina. George Eastman House. 98 Sergei Eisenstein. Potemkin. I I I Sergei Eisenstein. Potemkin. I I 2 Jean-Fran