Humboldt-Univ., Diss--Berlin, 2004.

My dissertation is an interdisciplinary work dealing with the intersection of the work of the Cuban poet, essayist, novelist, editor and cultural promoter José Lezama Lima (La Habana, Cuba, 1910-1976) with some of the main Western scientific developments and discoveries of the first half of the twentieth century. Even when a considerable number of canonical studies have mapped Lezama's place in the cartographies of modern and postmodern thought, what I do is completely new in this field. In my work I combine methods and insights from Cuban intellectual history and cultural studies, about the impact of new development in physics and mathematics on the discourse of the humanities and the literary and popular imagination, to do a new type of close reading of Lezama's texts, one that reveals the important role that key elements that he "appropriated" from Riemann geometry, relativity theory, quantum physics, and thermodynamics play in the fashioning of his ambitious "poetic system of the world." Although this type of analysis has successfully been applied to other authors such as James Joyce and Jorge Luis Borges, no attempt has been made to study Lezama Lima’s work from this perspective. I argue that examining the structural and organic relationships of Lezama with the work of scientists such as Albert Einstein provides a unique and effective framework for understanding the "chaos-like" and "fractal-like" theoretical and temporal complexities displayed by the Cuban author in his work. / text

Estudio de la teoría de la cultura en la novela Paradiso (1966) del escritor José Lezama Lima en relación a las menciones a obras de pintura, escultura, arte-objeto, arquitectura y música, así como a los aspectos claves que la constituyen. La metodología utilizada se basa en la teoría del pliegue desarrollada en los postulados culturales y estético-filosóficos de Gilles Deleuze. La tesis consta de los siguientes capítulos: Introducción: El peso de lo irreal: Imagen, cultura, poética. I, Paradiso: La maison baroque. II, Galería de coral: Estudio libre de pintura y escultura. III, Arquitectura de la Imagen. IV, Sinfonía de la Imagen: con la música por dentro. El último capítulo realiza la interpretación y conclusión general, centrándose en las tres nociones que sustentan la teoría cultural del escritor: lo barroco como expresión cultural del ser americano, la imagen como clave cultural y el mito como espacio de la cultura. / Thesis (Master, Spanish) -- Queen's University, 2010-12-07 14:27:25.79

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Stony Brook University, 2008. / This official electronic copy is part of the DSpace Stony Brook theses & dissertations collection maintained by the University Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives on behalf of the Stony Brook Graduate School. It is stored in the SUNY Digital Institutional Repository and can be accessed through the website. Presented to the Stony Brook University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Hispanic Languages and Literature; as recommended and accepted by the candidate's degree sponsor, the Dept. of Hispanic Languages and Literature. Includes bibliographical references (p. 225-230).

Texte remanié de: Th. doct.--University of Illinois, 1974. / Bibliogr. p. 177-181.

En un estudio sobre uno de los poemas en prosa de José LezamaLima, James Irby señala que para mejor estudiar la obra del poetacubano haría falta el aparato crítico que se ha hecho imprescindiblepara la lectura de Blake, Rimbaud o Mallarmé. "Lezama es de suestirpe", escribe Irby, "P,ero en un Mundo Nuevo" 1• En efecto, lanovedad de Lezama depende de una deliberada ubicación en el trópicoinsular2 • Se trata no sólo de la participación en una geografía parti-cular sino también de una postura frente al lenguaje y frente a unatradición literaria asumida y transformada en un idioma propio. Dostextos fundamentales de dicha tradición que juegan un papel cen-tral en la obra de Lezama son la poesía de Góngora y la de San Juande la Cruz, los dos luminosos polos de la poesía española entre loscuales define el poeta cubano la peculiar potencia de su palabra.

A tese propõe comparar a idealização romântica de um ethos americano, versões que figuram o contrário dessa unicidade, em textos de ficção e poesia. A equiparaçao entre metáfora ficcional e conceito é utilizada heuristicamente para ler os movimentos retóricos dos textos analisados. A articulação desse movimento supõe uma análise e uma produçao textual. / La tesis propone contrastar a la idealizacion romántica de un ethos americano, versiones que metaforizan lo contrario de esa unicidad en textos de ficción y poesia. La equiparación entre metáfora ficcional y concepto es utilizada heuristicamente para leer los movimientos retóricos de los textos analizados. La articulación de ese movimiento supone un análisis y una producción textual

A tese propõe comparar a idealização romântica de um ethos americano, versões que figuram o contrário dessa unicidade, em textos de ficção e poesia. A equiparaçao entre metáfora ficcional e conceito é utilizada heuristicamente para ler os movimentos retóricos dos textos analisados. A articulação desse movimento supõe uma análise e uma produçao textual. / La tesis propone contrastar a la idealizacion romántica de un ethos americano, versiones que metaforizan lo contrario de esa unicidad en textos de ficción y poesia. La equiparación entre metáfora ficcional y concepto es utilizada heuristicamente para leer los movimientos retóricos de los textos analizados. La articulación de ese movimiento supone un análisis y una producción textual

In this study Lezama’s Paradiso is “the mysterious labyrinth of the cognitive image,” a metaphor for his search for ultimate enlightenment--knowledge of super nature toward the Highest Good. The Preamble introduces the novel Paradiso as his poetic sum of knowledge generated by the Cognitive Eros like an encyclopedic narrative with revelation at the center. Chapter One presents labyrinth fundamentals and the mythic method to analyze the novel. It identifies a heightened perception or sensation, cognition, and imagination as “new” senses “beyond reason” needed to read this “new other” novel. It also explains how the author’s clues aid comprehension, how the poetic word illuminates a fourfold method for interpretation, and how the double structure of the narrative superimposes a circuitous pathway of multicursal storylines and descriptions of Old World images upon a linear unicursal surface narrative. Chapter Two examines three cognitive images in Lezama’s labyrinth: Confluence analyzes how multiple streams of thought and images flow from chaos into order in the poet’s mind and how the labyrinth’s principle of opposition represents the convergence of contradictory images whose combination will inspire other images. Androgyne or Oneness illustrates the nature of creativity--how symmetrical opposite images unite or copulate to germinate other imagery. Figure and Revelation show Lezama’s use of Scriptural figura to represent the prefigurative sense of his writing. Chapter Three interprets Lezama’s own labyrinthine method and steps for interpreting Paradiso derived from his scrutiny of “the other” analogous novel, Julio Cortázar’s Rayuela. The study concludes that Paradiso delivers Lezama’s Delphic Course, a systematized literary orientation based on the belief that each text transmits wisdom. The protagonist/reader undergoes Anthropophany, is transformed into a learned interpreter and a higher self toward manifestation in the image of the Word/God. With the author-protagonist as mentor Paradiso proclaims Lezama’s ideal program of cultural, intellectual, ethical, and spiritual formation of the individual after the classic Greek Paideia, parallel to the way of purification and redemption achieved through the Paideia of Christ. Finally, the text embodies Lezama’s crusade to restore Cuba as a bridge for cultural exchange and development between the Old World and the New World. / text

The aesthetic placement and period designation of Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) and José Lezama Lima (1910-1976) are complicated issues among critics. Borges is obviously considered a predecessor of the Latin American literary “boom,” but despite that taxonomy his work transcends that definition and provides a foundation for new trends and styles, such as the “neobarroco” cultivated by Severo Sarduy. Lezama is considered part of the second wave of the “boom,” but his work feeds, stylistically, from the Spanish baroque. At the same time, Lezama’s daring treatment of homoeroticism and his revolutionary system of images place him after the “boom” in a narrative style that is postmodern. This study undertakes a thorough revision of external and internal issues, revealing the key linguistic and fictive elements that characterize both writers. Through discourse analysis and close reading, a poetic system is formulated, which incorporate features of the “neobarroco,” “boom” and postmodern narrative styles. This dissertation uses a polar structure to analyze both poetic visions and concludes that they are compatible and symmetrical. From this perspective, Borges and Lezama belong to the “core” of literature that centers its emphasis in the creation of a system versus other modes of writing in which mimetic function prevails. By doing this and by recycling world culture, they create postmodern myth: the new building material for Hispanic American literature. There are only a few studies that explore the works of Borges and Lezama within the context of Baroque aesthetics. For the first time, this dissertation offers a comprehensive analysis that considers their poetic visions at large. Besides the difference in perspective, defined as macro-spatial in Borges and micro-spatial in Lezama, there are many similarities in content and form. Both writers question the cause and effect relationship and the modern use of metaphor. They also share a redefinition of genre as well as a hedonistic approach to literature and culture. This kinship in poetic vision is revealed through the polar method used for this study, which proposes a new form of aesthetic placement and period designation.