Table Of ContentGenetic Criticism and the Creative Process
Copyright © 2009 by the Editors and Contributors
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First published 2009
University of Rochester Press
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and Boydell & Brewer Limited
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ISBN-13: 978-1-58046-317-1
ISBN-10: 1-58046-317-7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Genetic criticism and the creative process : essays from music, literature, and
theater / edited by William Kinderman and Joseph E. Jones.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-58046-317-1 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-58046-317-7
1. Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.) 2. Arts, Modern. I. Kinderman, William.
II. Jones, Joseph E.
NX160.G46 2009
700.1—dc22
2009037102
A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
This publication is printed on acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States of America.
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: Genetic Criticism and the Creative Process 1
William Kinderman
Part One: Texts, Variants, and Variations:
Evolving Contexts in Literature and Theater
1 From Varieties of Genetic Experience to Radical Philology 19
Geert Lernout
2 Variant and Variation: Toward a Freudo-bathmologico-Bakhtino-
Goodmanian Genetic Model? 35
Daniel Ferrer
3 The Genetic Record of a Voice: Variants in Barthes’s
Le Plaisir du texte 51
Armine Kotin Mortimer
4 Can Genetic Criticism Be Applied to the Performing Arts? 68
Jean-Louis Lebrave
5 “The hardy Laurel”: Beckett and Early Film Comedy 83
Robert B. Graves
Part Two: Genetic Processes in Music: From Beethoven to Leroux
6 From Melodic Patterns to Themes: The Sketches for the
Original Version of Beethoven’s “Waldstein” Sonata, Op. 53 95
Alan Gosman
7 From Conceptual Image to Realization: Some Thoughts on
Beethoven’s Sketches 108
Lewis Lockwood
8 The Process within the Product: Exploratory Transitional Passages
in Beethoven’s Late Quartet Sketches 123
Peter McCallum
vi (cid:2) contents
9 “They Only Give Rise to Misunderstandings”:
Mahler’s Sketches in Context 151
James L. Zychowicz
10 A Study of Richard Strauss’s Creative Process: Der Rosenkavalier’s
“Presentation Scene” and “Schlußduett” 170
Joseph E. Jones
11 Genetic Criticism and Cognitive Anthropology: A Reconstruction of
Philippe Leroux’s Compositional Process for Voi(rex) 192
Nicolas Donin
Afterword 217
Philip Gossett
List of Contributors 221
Index 225
Acknowledgments
This book would not have come into existence without the support of many
individuals and several institutions. Most of the chapters began as papers read
at the international symposium “Genetic Criticism in an Interdisciplinary Con-
text: Literature, Visual Arts, Theatre, Music” held at the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in March 2007. The conference in turn grew
out of an ongoing collaboration centered on creative process studies between
the University of Illinois and the Centre national de la recherche scientifi que
(CNRS) in Paris. Crucial support of these activities has been provided by the
UIUC/CNRS Cooperative Research Program, as administered by International
Programs and Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and
by the Division des relations européennes et internationales (DREI) of the
CNRS. Additional generous support for the conference and the related work-
shop of Moisés Kaufman’s play 33 Variations came from the College of Fine
and Applied Arts, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Krannert Cen-
ter for the Performing Arts (KCPA), the School of Music, and the Department
of Theater at UIUC. Many individuals helped facilitate these events. Especially
indispensable support came from Mike Ross (director, KCPA), Karen Quisen-
berry (production, KCPA), Tom Mitchell (interim head, Department of The-
ater), Katherine Syer (School of Music), and Karl Kramer (director, School of
Music). Warmest thanks also to Geoffrey Merritt (Parasol Records), Richard
Powers, Willis Regier, and John Bonadies. Several excellent papers presented
at the conference could not be included in the book because they were pub-
lished elsewhere. The conference participants not represented here include
Almuth Grésillon, Jonathan Fineberg, and David O’Brien. Grateful acknowl-
edgment is due as well to the Alexander von Humbolt Foundation, which has
generously supported my ongoing research on the creative process. A continu-
ation of the collaborative program on genetic criticism between Illinois and
the CNRS resulted in another conference held in Paris on “Genèses Musicales:
Méthodes et Enjeux” in May 2008; a collection of essays based on that sympo-
sium is expected to appear in 2010.
W. K.
Introduction
Genetic Criticism and the Creative Process
William Kinderman
Not only the fi nal outcome but also the process of creative endeavor has long
attracted attention in various artistic disciplines, but only recently has the
potential of such research been seriously explored. The most rigorous basis
for the study of artistic creativity comes not from anecdotal or autobiograph-
ical reports, but from original handwritten sketches and drafts and prelimi-
nary studies, as well as from revised manuscripts and typescripts, corrected
proof sheets, and similar primary sources. Especially since the eighteenth
century, writers, composers, and painters have been much concerned with
originality of style, which has encouraged intense preliminary efforts pre-
ceding and leading toward the production of fi nished artistic works.
The term “genetic criticism” or “critique génétique” relates not to the fi eld of
genetics, but to the genesis of works of art, as studied in a broad and inclusive
context.1 This approach stands in contrast to the so-called “new criticism” of the
mid-twentieth century, with its formalist focus on the text itself and disinclina-
tion to probe issues of creative process, lest these involve entanglement with the
so-called intentional fallacy. More recently, growing recognition of the value of
contextual studies and of the problematic nature of the notion of a single defi ni-
tive text have exerted a welcome infl uence. Especially promising are approaches
that integrate source studies with interpretative analysis, probing the aesthetic
meaning of artworks in a rich contextual fi eld.
The chapters in this volume explore aspects of genetic criticism in an interdis-
ciplinary context. A common through-line of many of these chapters pertains to
the essential continuity between a work and its genesis. Genetic criticism might
appear to destabilize the fi nal text, undermining the work-concept by privileging
genesis over structure. However, such an approach often opens perspectives that
serve as a promising platform for critical interpretation, and analysis remains
vitally important to the evaluation of sketches and drafts, whose content is often
elusive and enigmatic. In practice, the insights offered by genetic criticism can
