The figure of the subject: Severed expressive flow and emerging middle voice agency in Argentine literary discourse of the 1920s and 1930s.

摘要

This dissertation is a case study of the system of writing, the written and writers, in Buenos Aires during the 1920s and 1930s, taking a media studies approach to literary production, focusing especially on the materiality of signs. I examine how technological shifts in writing can be related to the figure of the subject of writers.;In the introductory chapter, "Theory," the hypothesis of "metatransitivity" (the little distinguishability of agent and patient of action) and "subjectivity effect" (the subject produced as a discursive effect) are introduced by exploring the concept of the middle voice and agency. Friedrich Kittler's concept of the aufschreibesystem is also incorporated as the organizational principle.;The first chapter, "Writing," describes newspaper advertisements of writing instruments, and illustrates their different modalities vis-a-vis what I call "expressive flow," the continuous relationship between the inner self and the written. The pen and the typewriter are contrasted as "untidy/tidy," "weightless/weighty," "silent/noisy," "male/female," and "immaterial/material." I argue that machine-writing interrupted expressive flow and undermined the grounding of the figure of the writing subject.;In the second chapter, "the Written," I illustrate the new socio-cultural status of books by focusing on the method of book production, sales and display. I examine different views on book publishing activity with the case of Roberto Arlt, Alfonsina Storni, and Julio Noe, together with a detailed analysis of the First National Exhibition of Books. As the materiality of books was foregrounded, the symbolic distance between a book and the inner self of its author grew remarkably greater.;The third chapter "Writers" analyzes the historical process of the foundation of the Sociedad Argentina de Escritores, as an institutional response to the shifts in the status of books. Also I examine the material aspect of Jorge Luis Borges' work at the newspaper Critica and his first book of narrative A Universal History of Infamy . Borges practiced handwriting in block letters and multiple forms of subjectivity through experimentation with pseudonyms and anonymity.;I conclude by assessing the figures of the subject in light of metatransitivity and subjectivity effect.