Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Final Phase; van Ostaijen’s Lyrical Prose as a Language of Perception

  • Chapter
Homeopathy of the Absurd

Part of the book series: Bibliotheca Neerlandica Extra Muros ((BNEM,volume 1))

  • 46 Accesses

Abstract

The ten prose pieces which are discussed in this chapter have, with one exception, been treated only in a cursory fashion.1 Scant critical examination of these difficult pieces has usually offered little more illuminating than an abstract adverb. Perhaps one reason for this respectful neglect might be their apparent cryptic and impenetrable quality. The present effort attempts to discuss these pieces within a coherent framework of theoretical correlatives, thereby seeking to give access to, but not explain away, their characteristic enigmatic quality. Theoretical correlations which form the foundation of the discussion are the continental philosophy of phenomenology, Roman Jakobson’s previously mentioned theory of metonymic writing and, with three specific pieces in mind, Kandinsky’s theory of art.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes

  1. The exception is Herman Uyttersprot’s discussion of “The Sirens” in his essay Uit Paul van Ostaijens lyriek (Brussel, 1964), pp. 50–61. Cf. also Uyttersprot’s article “Kanttekeningen bij Van Ostaijen en het Verzameld Werk,” Spiegel der Letteren, HI, Nos. 3–4, 237; Gerrit Borgers’ introduction to the anthology Music-Hall (Den Haag, Antwerpen, 1964), p. 20; and Paul Hadermann’s study Paul van Ostaijen (Antwerpen, 1965), pp. 124–125.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Borgers has a similar interpretation. Cf. his intro. to Music-Hall, p. 20.

    Google Scholar 

  3. See Borgers’ note in volume HI, p. 413.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Hadermann agrees with this bibliographical conjecture on p. 125.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Roman Jakobson and Morris Halle, Fundamentals of language (’s-Gravenhage, 1956), pp. 76–78; Roman Jakobson, “A Closing Statement: Linguistics and Poetics,” in fhomas A. Sebeok, ed. Style in Language (Cambridge, Mass., 1960), p. 370 ff. As in previous sections, the quotations from Jakobson are from his Pasternak essay unless otherwise indicated: Roman Jakobson, “Randbemerkungen zur Prosa des Dichters Pasternak,” Slavische Rundschau,VII (1935), 357–374.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Jakobson, Fundamentals, p. 78.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Ostaijen, Krities proza II, p. 153.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Krities proza II, p. 150.

    Google Scholar 

  9. In the following outline of phenomenology and its main figures, I draw chiefly upon the following works: William Barrett and Henry D. Aiken, Philosophy in the Twentieth Century: An Anthology,III (New York, 1962), pp. 123–302; Pierre Thévenaz, What is Phenomenology?, ed. James M. Edie (Chicago, 1962); I. M. Bochénski, Contemporary European Philosophy (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1966); Herbert Spiegelberg, The Phenomenological Movement. A Historical Introduction, 2 vols. (The Hague 1965).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Monroe C. Beardsley, Aesthetics from Classical Greece to The Present (New York, 1966), pp. 365–366.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Beardsley, Aesthetics, pp. 365–366.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Ostaijen, Krities proza H, pp. 152–153.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Barrett, HI, p. 131.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Barrett, III, p. 134.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Thévenaz, p. 50.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Thévenaz, pp. 46–47.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Ostaijen, Krities proza H, p. 151.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Up to this point, the quotations concerning Heidegger were from Thévenaz, pp. 56–59.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Barrett, III, p. 135.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Martin Heidegger, “The Fundamental Question of Metaphysics,” reprinted in Barrett, III, p. 235.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phénoménologie de la perception (Paris, 1966), p. 516. Hereafter referred to in the text as PP.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Thévenaz, p. 84.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Thévenaz, p. 88.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Thévenaz, p. 88.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Ostaijen, Krities proza II, p. 151.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Gaston Bachelard, La Terre et les Rêveries du Repos (Paris, 1963), p. 53.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Ostaijen, Krities proza II, p. 149.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Gaston Bachelard, La Poétique de L’Espace (Paris, 1964), p. 4.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Bachelard, L’Espace, p. 2.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Bachelard, L’Espace, p. 15.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Bachelard, L’Espace, p. 4.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Bachelard, L’Espace, pp. 79–80.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Bachelard, L’Air et les Songes (Paris, 1965), p. 10.

    Google Scholar 

  34. Ostaijen, Krities proza II, p. 152.

    Google Scholar 

  35. Bachelard, L’Air et les Songes, p. 13.

    Google Scholar 

  36. Bachelard, L’Espace, p. 87.

    Google Scholar 

  37. Cyrena Norman Pondrom, “Kafka and Phenomenology: Josef K’s Search for information,” Wisconsin Studies in Contemporary Literature, VIII, No. 1 (Winter 1967), p. 79. Cf. “Phénoménologie de Kafka” in B. Groethuysen, Mythes et Portraits (Paris, 1947), pp. 145–159.

    Google Scholar 

  38. He suggests parallels between Van Ostaijen’s “The Prison in Heaven” and Kafka’s “Der Hungerkünstler,” between Ostaijen’s “The City of Builders” and Kafka’s “Das Stadtwappen” and “Beim Bau der chinesischen Mauer”; cf. H. Uyttersprot, Paul van Ostaijen en zijn proza, p. 20.

    Google Scholar 

  39. Hadermann, Paul van Ostaijen, pp. 124–125 (note 28).

    Google Scholar 

  40. The chronology of the first translations of Kafka should apparently be: Milena Jesenskâ, “Topic,” Kmen (Prague), IV, No. 6 (22 April 1920), pp. 61–72.

    Google Scholar 

  41. Paul van Ostaijen, “Tot overwegen voor hereruiters,” Vlaamsche Arbeid, XV, Nos.

    Google Scholar 

  42. -6 (May/June 1925), pp. 176–178.

    Google Scholar 

  43. Anon., “La metamorfosis I,” Revista de Occidente (Madrid), III, xxiv (June 1925), pp. 273–306.

    Google Scholar 

  44. Anon., “La metamorfosis II,” Revista de Occidente, III, xxv (July 1925), pp. 33–79. Alexandre Vialatte, “La Métamorphose I,” La Nouvelle Revue Française, XV, No.

    Google Scholar 

  45. (January 1928), pp. 66–84.

    Google Scholar 

  46. Alexandre Vialatte, “La Métamorphose II,” La Nouvelle Revue Française XV, No.

    Google Scholar 

  47. (February 1928), pp. 212–231.

    Google Scholar 

  48. Alexandre Vialatte, “La Métamorphose III,” La Nouvelle Revue Française, XV, No.

    Google Scholar 

  49. (March 1928), pp. 350–371.

    Google Scholar 

  50. Giuseppe Menassé, “Un Fratricidio - Un vecchio foglietto - Davanti alla legge - Il nuovo avvocato,” II Convegno. Rivista di Letteratura e di Arte (Milan), IX, No. 8 (25 August 1928), pp. 383–390.

    Google Scholar 

  51. Eugene Jolas, “The Sentence,” transition, No. 11 (February 1928).

    Google Scholar 

  52. Heinz Politzer, Franz Kafka; Parable and Paradox (Ithaca, New York, 1962), p. 76.

    Google Scholar 

  53. Franz Kafka, Parables; In German and English (New York, 1947), pp. 75–77.

    Google Scholar 

  54. Herman Uyttersprot, “Kanttekeningen bij Van Ostaijen en het Verzameld Werk,”. Spiegel der Letteren, III, Nos. 3–4, 237.

    Google Scholar 

  55. Vassily Kandinsky, Über das Geistige in der Kunst (München, 1912), p. 44. Hereafter referred to in the text as UGK.

    Google Scholar 

  56. Bachelard, Terre et Repos, p. 5.

    Google Scholar 

  57. Karl Viëtor, Goethe: The Thinker (Cambridge, Mass., 1950), p. 39.

    Google Scholar 

  58. UGK, p. 28. Kandinsky himself wrote what might be called prose poems, of which some bear resemblance to Van Ostaijen’s work. An example is the following piece entitled “Offen”: Bald im grünen Gras langsam verschwindend.

    Google Scholar 

  59. Bald im grauen Kot steckend.

    Google Scholar 

  60. Bald im weissen Schnee langsam verschwindend.

    Google Scholar 

  61. Bald im grauen Kot steckend.

    Google Scholar 

  62. Lagen lange: dicke lange schwarze Rohre.

    Google Scholar 

  63. Langen Rohre.

    Google Scholar 

  64. Rohre.

    Google Scholar 

  65. Rohre.

    Google Scholar 

  66. Vassily Kandinsky, Klänge (München, 1913), no pagination.

    Google Scholar 

  67. Barrett, IH pp. 156–157.

    Google Scholar 

  68. Jakobson in Style in Language, ed. Thomas A. Sebeok, p. 371.

    Google Scholar 

  69. Jakobson in Style in Language, p. 370.

    Google Scholar 

  70. One must be careful to assign undue significance to this reference. For one thing, Monsieur Nicolas is not a novel but an autobiography - at least for the first 12 of this 16 vols. work. Nicolas was the first name of the author, née Nicolas Edme Retif, better known as Restif de la Bretonne (1734–1806). There is the slight possibility that Van Ostaijen referred to this work because of its subtitle which, in a sense, describes the content of “Nicolas.” The full title of the French work is: Monsieur Nicolas, ou le Coeur-humain dévoilé, first edition published by the author in 16 vols. in Paris from 1794 to 1797.

    Google Scholar 

  71. Thévenaz, p. 58.

    Google Scholar 

  72. Thévenaz, pp. 46–47.

    Google Scholar 

  73. Bachelard, L’Espace, p. 15.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. E. M. Beekman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1970 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Beekman, E.M. (1970). The Final Phase; van Ostaijen’s Lyrical Prose as a Language of Perception. In: Homeopathy of the Absurd. Bibliotheca Neerlandica Extra Muros, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7580-5_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7580-5_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-017-0038-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-015-7580-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation