The Hidden Order of Art

I learned from reading my book on The Hidden Order of Art, by Anton Ehrenzweig, that Marechera's art is certainly not "schizophrenic".

Ehrenzweig recognises that it is a feature of schizophrenic art that its makers can't let go of reference to certain surface quality, or form of aesthetic mannerism. They are afraid of the plunge into a state marked by the melting down of aesthetic and ideological preconceptions -- a "dedifferentiated" state, to use Ehrenweig's term. Since they can't take the necessary plunge into death (or ego suppression) that would produce an artistic awareness of an underlying aesthetic wholeness despite fragmentation (a state approaching the oceanic state -- ie. based on dedifferentiation between the background field and foreground image), their work is only superficially constructed -- fragmented for sure, but without the underlying aesthetic (and, one might add, philosophical) unity of the final piece, which would give it its underlying harmony even in the process of being fragmented (like the success of Stravinsky's music, which Marechera much admired).

So schizophrenics fear compromising the ego in order to produce art (it feels too much like annihilation or death to let go of established forms to the degree that is required of them to make good art), and as a they result struggle to produce art with any meaningful underlying unity. Interesting, then, that his underlying thematic and philosophical unity is exactly what I do find in Marechera's writing, again and again. The themes are interwoven aesthetically -- not fragmented, except on the surface level as is also the case with so much Modern art (as Ehrenzweig points out).

It is the critics, however, according to Ehrenzweig, who often lag behind in the perception of art. They lack the capacity to take in a deep breath and to plunge deeply.