Theophile Gautier and the Evolution of Nineteenth Century French Poetry

City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 6-2014 Musical Landscapes: Theophile Gautier and the Evolution of Nineteenth Century French Poetry Dana Milstein Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/257 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] Musical Landscapes: ThÉophile Gautier and the evolution of nineteenth century French poetry By Dana Milstein A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in French in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York. 2014 © 2014 Dana Milstein All Rights Reserved ii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in French in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Royal S. Brown ___________________ ______________________________ Date Chair of examining committee Julia Przybos ___________________ ______________________________ Date Executive Officer Mary Ann Caws ___________________ ______________________________ Date Member of examining committee Francesca CanadÉ Sautman ___________________ ______________________________ Date Member of examining committee The City University of New York iii Abstract Musical Landscapes: Gautier and the evolution of nineteenth century French poetry By Dana Milstein Théophile Gautier’s first edition of Emaux et camées (1852) marks the juncture at which Romantic, Neoclassical, and nascent Symbolist poetic theories converged under the umbrella ideology of “Parnassianism.” Emaux et camées synthesizes the aesthetics promoted by these diverse groups, primarily by 1) using “musical” and “painterly” language, 2) emphasizing correspondences among arts, and 3) paradoxically demanding an attention to form and the artist’s labor while also emphasizing art’s inutility during a century characterized by Progress. Gautier’s Emaux et camées bridges painterly and musical poetics to create a new model for poetry. While the vocabulary of painting captivated many nineteenth century writers, music became increasingly admired by poets because of its freedom from representation, and as an “intention-less language.” “Musical” poets indemnified the mantra “art for art’s sake” and touted the intermingling of art forms, belief systems, and cultural practices during a time when usefulness, authoritarian rule, and homogeny were staunchly reinforced in the political and public spheres. Emaux et camées appeared in 1852, marking a point of departure for poetry. Gautier preserved earlier poetic principles, but also invested a robust work ethic and a devotion to form in his collection. Numerous offshoot poetic groups arose as a result of Gautier, who had reclaimed music’s nuanced, fragmented, performative, and anti-utilitarian nature for poetry and poetics. iv Acknowledgments I am indebted to many people for the completion of this dissertation and to being recently hired as the Academic Technology Analyst – Specialist to the Humanities at Yale University upon deposit of this thesis. First and foremost, to Professor Royal S. Brown, my dissertation advisor, without whom I would not also have published my Master’s thesis in College Literature, pursued scholarship and research in musicology, or obtained the freelance work and fellowships I completed as a doctoral candidate. Second, to Professor Mary Ann Caws, who expanded my knowledge of multi-talented writers including Gautier, who mentored me during several semesters as her graduate assistant, and who graciously acted as reader for my dissertation committee. Third, to Professor Francesca Canadé Sautman, who as a longtime Executive Officer of the French Department was relentlessly supportive and passionate about my candidacy even when I had lost all confidence and interest in my research, and who acted as a reader on my dissertation committee. I am truly privileged and honored to have received their guidance and support the past 14 years. A special thank you to Jann Pasler (UCSD) and Ray Knapp (UCLA), and to Sylvia Kahan (Music), Jane Roos (Art History), and Remy Roussetzski (French) at the Graduate Center—whether in the early phases of my candidacy or for the weightier research, these scholars offered suggestions, critiques, and support out of sheer generosity. I want to thank Seth Paynter, my longtime friend and fellow musician, who invested countless hours analyzing and debating the music theory component of this thesis. v I dedicate this dissertation to my friend, David McRae (1985-2014), whose joy, wit, and exuberance sustained me these 14 years. Fortitudine. vi “Alphabets” From time to time we take our pen in hand And scribble symbols on a blank white sheet. Their meaning is at everyone’s command; It is a game whose rules are nice and neat. But if a savage or a moon-man came And found a page, a furrowed runic field, And curiously studied lines and frame: How strange would be the world that they revealed. A magic gallery of oddities. He would see A and B as man and beast, As moving tongues or arms or legs or eyes, Now slow, now rushing, all constraint released, Like prints of ravens’ feet upon the snow. He’d hop about with them, fly to and fro, And see a thousand worlds of might-have-been Hidden within the black and frozen symbols, Beneath the ornate strokes, the thick and thing. He’d see the way love burns and anguish trembles, He’d wonder, laugh, shake with fear and weep Because beyond his cipher’s cross-barred keep He’d see the world in all its aimless passion, Diminished, dwarfed, and spellbound in the symbols, And rigorously marching prisoner-fashion. He’d think: each sign all others so resembles That love of life and death, or lust and anguish, Are simply twins whom no one can distinguish Until at last the savage with a sound Of mortal terror lights and stirs a fire, Chants and beats his brow against the ground And consecrates the writing to his pyre. Perhaps before his consciousness is drowned In slumber there will come to him some sense Of how this world of magic fraudulence, This horror utterly behind endurance, Has vanished as if it had never been. He’ll sigh, and smile, and feel all right again. Herman Hesse, The Glass Bead Game Trans. Richard and Clara Winston (2002) vii Table of Contents Overture (Preface) 1 Suite (Four Themes): Evolution of a Musical Aesthetic 6 ξ Theme A: Art for Art’s Sake and Disinterested Beauty 6 ξ Theme B: The Impair and Poetry’s Performativity 12 ξ Theme C: How to Make Poetry More Musical 18 ξ Theme D: Impassive, “jeu” and Mythic-Hieroglyphic 21 Partitas (Variations on Four Themes) 27 ξ Variation on Theme A 27 ξ Variation on Theme B 45 ξ Variation on Theme C 65 ξ Variation on Theme D 67 Ritournelle: How to Avoid Rhetoric and Achieve Musicality, or, 71 Early Poetry and Experiments with “Lamento” Intermezzo: Analysis of the Writing and 96 Cultural Milieu that Led to the First Edition (1852) of Émaux et camées Tetrads and Repunits: Fugitive Notes in a Dream, or the Musical 123 Ekphrasis of Émaux et camées ξ “Affinités Secrètes” 130 ξ “Poème de Femme” 152 ξ “Symphonie en Blanc Majeur” 173 Disinvolti: Gautier’s Musical Legacy: Verlaine, Mallarmé 188 and the Parnassians viii Agréments: Extra Materials and Appendices 203 ξ Appendix I: Gautier poems with musical references 204 ξ Appendix II: 19th century references to musicality 209 ξ Appendix III: alchemical portrait 217 ξ Appendix IV: images of woman 218 ξ Notes 222 ξ Personal Reflections 225 ξ Works Cited 226 ix Il n’imita personne, et reste inimitable. “Quand il était écolier,” Alexandre Cosnard Overture Rumor has it that Théophile Gautier possessed a remarkably flawless penmanship. When asked how he avoided deletions in his press copies, Gautier responded with a question: “Why expect corrections in my manuscripts when none existed in my head?” This curious detail comprises an entire paragraph of three devoted to Gautier and his position in a trinity of top literary journalists (with Charles Sainte-Beuve and Prosper Merimée) of the mid-nineteenth century (Avenel 454). Gautier’s insistence that his error-free calligraphy mirrored his cerebral process may be self-aggrandizing, but it also reveals something key: Gautier did not take communication lightly, and intended for readers to unquestionably accept the views he stated as sincere, truthful, and accurate. An unwavering commitment to ideas and ideals, nevertheless, poses difficulty for readers of Gautier’s complete works. Unlike other canonized poets of the period (i.e., Hugo, Verlaine, Rimbaud), Gautier defies categorization. Gautier’s poems contain Neo-Classical, Romantic, Parnassian, Decadent and Symbolist structures, themes, and contexts. We cannot affix Gautier to a literary movement; rather, he is the chief pioneer of an eclectic, musical poetry—a poetry that perfectly blends traditional musical and poetic devices with a new musical aesthetic. In Gautier’s works, one notes an effort to re-bridge what remained linked in music, but had become separated in poetry as a result of the writing and “reading” of rhetorical elements in poetry as musical elements: immediate and essential meaning. 1 Gautier’s poetry (both early and mature) abounds in musical devices, but only his later works reveal a complex musical

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