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Masochism and Decadent Literature: Jean Lorrain and Joséphin Péladan

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Masochism and Decadent Literature: Jean Lorrain and Joséphin Péladan Masochism and Decadent Literature Jean Lorrain and Joséphin Péladan by Kanshi Hiroko Sato A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of French Studies School of Languages, Culture, Art History and Music The University of Birmingham March 2009 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT This study explores the masochistic aspects of Decadent literature, which to date have been relatively neglected, or have received only sporadic attention as merely the passive forms of sadism, or sadomasochism (Mario Praz). As Jennifer Birkett suggests, Decadent sensibility and sexuality have arguably less affinity with Sade than Sacher-Masoch. Following Birkett, and utilising Gilles Deleuze‘s idea of the independence of masochism from sadism and description of the distinctive aesthetic features of masochistic texts, I investigate masochistic formations in French Decadent texts; the work of Jean Lorrain and of Joséphin Péladan. This study also involves a review of relevant writings by Freud and post-Freudian psychoanalysts (Leo Bersani and Kaja Silverman); an engagement with current literary-critical scholarship in Decadence (Emily Apter, Charles Bernheimer, Bram Dijkstra and Rita Felski), and in Sacher-Masoch (Nick Mansfield, John K. Noyes, and Anita Phillips), and his influence on Decadent writers. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to express my deepest gratitude to Professor Jennifer Birkett; without her preceding study of Decadence, generous acceptance of my PhD proposal, strong support and constant and detailed comments and advice at each stage of my writing throughout the development of this project, the completion of this thesis would never have been achieved. I am grateful for the support of the University of Birmingham, which granted me the Neville Chamberlain Postgraduate Scholarship and the School of Humanities Research Scholarship, without which, undoubtedly, it would have been impossible to work on this thesis in Britain. I would also like to mention that the various modules, research skills workshops and seminars regularly provided by the University and the Department of French Studies were particularly helpful for improving the quality of my research and life as a PhD student. Much genuine gratitude must go to the academic staff and my colleagues in the Department of French Studies for their kindness and support—in particular, Professor Ceri Crossley, Dr Kate Ince, Ms Rachel Luckman, and Professor Dennis Wood. I am particularly indebted to Dr Eve Richards, who provided detailed advice on the drafts of the thesis throughout the project. I would like to give particular thanks to Associate Professor Matthew Potolsky of the University of Utah, USA, for his incisive comments and advice on Sacher-Masoch. I would like to thank to the British Library and The Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris). Their rich and valuable collection of reading materials and other archive resources helped and inspired my research. I am grateful to Dr Marion Schmid of the University of Edinburgh for first leading me to this fascinating and dangerous world of Decadence and Sacher-Masoch. I wish to express my sincere thanks to Professor Koshi Odashima and Professor Akira Ohira of Waseda University, Japan, for their unfailing support for my studies for over a decade. Finally, my thanks to the following people are beyond words for their help in getting this thesis completed and their spiritual support through the time it has taken: my family and my friends—in particular, Mr. Mark Buckton, Ms Cath Davis, Mr Jun Fukumoto, Ms Elodie Heu, Dr Saori Kamozawa, Mrs Aki Kotake, Dr Yoriko Moichi, Mrs Monique Planque, Mrs Ariane de Segrais, Mr Sebastien Servais and Ms Vasuki Shanmuganathan. While acknowledging everybody, all the errors of fact and interpretation are the responsibility of the author. The project of studying abroad for a PhD in the UK was initially motivated by my grandfather and my mother, whose dreams of coming to study in the West never came true. This thesis is especially dedicated to their dreams. Table of Contents INTRODUCTION ________________________________________________________________________________1 PART I: Sacher-Masoch, Masochism and Decadence __________________________________________________________13 CHAPTER 1. THE PLACE OF MASOCHISM IN THE CRITICAL HISTORY OF THE FRENCH DECADENCE 13 Ŕ Masochism: The Neglected Theme Ŕ ______________________________________________________ 13 Ŕ The Critical Recuperation of Masochism Ŕ _________________________________________________ 23 CHAPTER 2. SACHER-MASOCH AND THE FIN-DE-SIÈCLE IN FRANCE ______________________________29 Ŕ Sacher-Masoch‟s Literary Reputation in 1870s and 1880s Ŕ ___________________________________ 30 Ŕ A World of Ambiguity: the Real and the Fantastic Ŕ __________________________________________ 39 Ŕ Ambiguity and the Humiliated Father Ŕ ___________________________________________________ 56 Ŕ Ambiguity and the Oral Mother Ŕ ________________________________________________________ 64 CHAPTER 3. DEGENERATION / REGENERATION __________________________________________________80 Ŕ The Birth of the Androgynous Man Ŕ ______________________________________________________ 81 Ŕ Decadent Degeneration is Regeneration Ŕ _________________________________________________ 89 PART II: Ambiguous Male Subjectivity in Decadent Fantasies _________________________________________________________ 106 CHAPTER 4. DECADENT DANDYISM: THE BIRTH OF THE ANDROGYNE ___________________________ 107 Ŕ A Lust for Domination: Becoming an Objet d‟art Ŕ _________________________________________ 108 Ŕ A Game of Domination-Submission Ŕ ____________________________________________________ 117 CHAPTER 5. MASOCHISTIC MASQUERADE: LORRAIN’S OBSESSION WITH MASKS AND BLUE–GREEN OBJECTS _____________________________________________________________________________________ 122 Ŕ Masks and the Ambiguous Self Ŕ ________________________________________________________ 125 Ŕ The Ambiguous Tones of Blue and Green Ŕ ________________________________________________ 131 Ŕ Decomposition of the Self Ŕ ____________________________________________________________ 142 Ŕ Disavowal of the Aggressive Self Ŕ ______________________________________________________ 145 Ŕ The Pleasure and Pain between Men Ŕ ___________________________________________________ 153 Ŕ The Birth of a New Man Ŕ _____________________________________________________________ 171 CHAPTER 6. PÉLADAN’S OCCULT PALINGENESIS: SUFFERING AND THE BIRTH OF THE MAGUS ____ 177 Ŕ Occult Palingenesis: Nature and Sources of Suffering Ŕ _____________________________________ 178 Ŕ Icons of Suffering: Satan-Prometheus Ŕ __________________________________________________ 189 Ŕ The Androgyne and the Gynander Ŕ _____________________________________________________ 197 PART III: The Hysterical Partner ____________________________________________________________________ 208 CHAPTER 7. THE THEATRE OF HYSTERICAL PAIN AND PLEASURE _______________________________ 210 Ŕ The Scenario of Suffering Ŕ ____________________________________________________________ 212 Ŕ The Scenario of Cure Ŕ ________________________________________________________________ 220 CHAPTER 8: HYSTERICAL MONSTERS IN TABLEAU ______________________________________________ 235 Ŕ Motivation: a Sense of Rivalry Ŕ ________________________________________________________ 237 Ŕ Characterisation: Sexually-Charged Monsters Ŕ ___________________________________________ 249 Ŕ Suspense and Dissolution Ŕ ____________________________________________________________ 257 CONCLUSION ________________________________________________________________________________ 271 APPENDIX ___________________________________________________________________________________ 277 BIBLIOGRAPHY ______________________________________________________________________________ 280 1 INTRODUCTION Popular criticism has assumed that Decadent sexuality is sadistic or sadomasochistic ever since Mario Praz‘s early 20th century description of it in The Romantic Agony, when he called the Marquis de Sade ‗the Divine Marquis‘ and emphasized Sade‘s influence on the art of the West in the nineteenth century.1 However, it should be noted that what Sade‘s admirers created one hundred years later was in some respects different from the original eighteenth century fantasy. In The Sins of the Fathers: Decadence in France 1870Ŕ1914 (1986), Jennifer Birkett draws attention to this point and proposes that ‗the complexity of the Sadean tradition is much reduced by the Decadents, in search of vivid images of the pleasure of pain, suffering and self-denial. Sacher-Masoch, at least as much as de Sade, is the representative figure of Decadent sensibility‘.2 Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (1836–1895), from whose name the term ‗masochism‘ derived, was an acclaimed contemporary writer among the French Decadents. Yet he has been comparatively ignored or mentioned only occasionally as the passive partner
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