University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2017 “UNE RÉALITÉ PLUS RÉELLE QUE LE RÉEL”: THE PERSISTENCE OF MYTH IN POSTWAR FRENCH AND ITALIAN FICTION Alison Marie Howard University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, History Commons, and the Other Languages, Societies, and Cultures Commons Recommended Citation Howard, Alison Marie, "“UNE RÉALITÉ PLUS RÉELLE QUE LE RÉEL”: THE PERSISTENCE OF MYTH IN POSTWAR FRENCH AND ITALIAN FICTION" (2017). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 2345. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2345 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2345 For more information, please contact [email protected]. “UNE RÉALITÉ PLUS RÉELLE QUE LE RÉEL”: THE PERSISTENCE OF MYTH IN POSTWAR FRENCH AND ITALIAN FICTION Abstract Interwar Europe was enamored of myth: adaptations of classical tales proliferated, anthropological research into so-called “primitive” mythology thrived, and movements ranging from psychoanalysis to surrealism bore myth’s undeniable imprint. But its reputation took a turn during World War II, and by the end of the war, myth had become synonymous with irrationality, violence, barbarism, and (most damning of all) fascism. At best, myth was dismissed as anachronistic or escapist; at worst, it was cited it as a serious political threat. Thus, most postwar European writers, especially those claiming to be politically “committed,” eschewed myth in order to avoid the threat of contamination. However, there are exceptions to this rule—writers who strived to maintain connections with past traditions, as myth once had, without falling victim to propaganda or neo-romantic universalization. Taking as my starting point myth’s tremendous capacity to facilitate social cohesion, I argue that it played a vital role in postwar French and Italian fiction, providing readers with the tools needed to process the trauma of the war, combat modern alienation and disenchantment, and engage with the sociopolitical exigencies of the day. This dissertation thus re-inscribes myth in a tradition of political commitment, tracing the (non-fascistic) political consequences of mythically inflected novels. This rehabilitation of myth hinges on four authors—Georges Bataille and Claude Simon in France, and Cesare Pavese and Elsa Morante in Italy—who mobilized myth as an alternative to the dominant literary and political models operative in each country. However, I do not merely demonstrate the persistence of mythological archetypes in the postwar cultural landscape; rather, I articulate the precise ways in which such archetypes interpenetrated the specificity of orldW War II and subverted traditional historiography. Far from being a form of escapist fantasy, myth allowed writers and readers alike to appropriate longstanding cultural traditions in order to circumscribe the otherwise uncontrollable and unassimilable experiences of war. Though many intellectuals advocated for myth’s outright demise, the authors considered here sought to recover something from contaminated discourses, recognizing that total rupture from the past would only exacerbate existing feelings of alienation, isolation, and despair. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Comparative Literature and Literary Theory First Advisor Gerald Prince Keywords Cesare Pavese, Claude Simon, Elsa Morante, Georges Bataille, Myth, World War II Subject Categories Comparative Literature | History | Other Languages, Societies, and Cultures This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2345 “UNE RÉALITÉ PLUS RÉELLE QUE LE RÉEL”: THE PERSISTENCE OF MYTH IN POSTWAR FRENCH AND ITALIAN FICTION Alison Howard A DISSERTATION in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2017 Supervisor of Dissertation _______________________________________ Gerald Prince, Professor of Romance Languages Graduate Group Chairperson _______________________________________ Emily Wilson, Professor of Classical Studies Dissertation Committee Andrea Goulet, Professor of Romance Languages Stefania Benini, Professor of Romance Languages “UNE RÉALITÉ PLUS RÉELLE QUE LE RÉEL”: THE PERSISTENCE OF MYTH IN POSTWAR FRENCH AND ITALIAN FICTION COPYRIGHT 2017 Alison Marie Howard This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/ To the old gods and the new. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS They say it takes a village to raise a child. This is doubly true for a mewling dissertation babe. My project wouldn’t have been possible without a vast kinship network that has supported both my scholarship and (even more importantly) the oft-neglected non- scholarly facets of life. First, to my fellow graduate students (both former and current): George MacLeod, Mike Edwards, Adam Geroni-Cutchin, Tom Tearney, Gabriel Sessions, Clara Wagner, Allan Madin, Maya Vinokour, Kate Aid, Samuel Martin, Bronwyn Wallace, Pavel Khazanov, Julia Dasbach, Lucy Swanson, Romain Delaville, Sarah Suther-Bee, Alex Moshkin, and Arabella Hobbs. You pored over drafts, shared beers, tears, and conference hotel rooms, patiently listened to rambling, half-formed ideas, offered unflagging encouragement, and made me the person I am today. Brooke Owens, Jack Grauer, Ian Thake, and Ralph Geroni-Cutchin: you helped keep me grounded and reminded me that there’s a big, beautiful world beyond academia. Matt Johnson, Ian Petrie, and Lillyrose Veneziano Broccia: thank you for being incredible mentors and for teaching me how satisfying teaching can be. To my mother, who, even when she had no idea what I was talking about, always nodded enthusiastically. To my sister, whose incomparable cupcakes sustained me in my darkest hours. To JoAnne Dubil, without whom none of us would have survived year one. And to everyone who passed through my life over the last seven years, however fleeting our encounter: thank you. iv ABSTRACT “UNE RÉALITÉ PLUS RÉELLE QUE LE RÉEL”: THE PERSISTENCE OF MYTH IN POSTWAR FRENCH AND ITALIAN FICTION Alison Howard Gerald Prince Interwar Europe was enamored of myth: adaptations of classical tales proliferated, anthropological research into so-called “primitive” mythology thrived, and movements ranging from psychoanalysis to surrealism bore myth’s undeniable imprint. But its reputation took a turn during World War II, and by the end of the war, myth had become synonymous with irrationality, violence, barbarism, and (most damning of all) fascism. At best, myth was dismissed as anachronistic or escapist; at worst, it was cited it as a serious political threat. Thus, most postwar European writers, especially those claiming to be politically “committed,” eschewed myth in order to avoid the threat of contamination. However, there are exceptions to this rule—writers who strived to maintain connections with past traditions, as myth once had, without falling victim to propaganda or neo- romantic universalization. Taking as my starting point myth’s tremendous capacity to facilitate social cohesion, I argue that it played a vital role in postwar French and Italian fiction, providing readers with the tools needed to process the trauma of the war, combat modern alienation and disenchantment, and engage with the sociopolitical exigencies of the day. This dissertation thus re-inscribes myth in a tradition of political commitment, tracing the (non-fascistic) political consequences of mythically inflected novels. This v rehabilitation of myth hinges on four authors—Georges Bataille and Claude Simon in France, and Cesare Pavese and Elsa Morante in Italy—who mobilized myth as an alternative to the dominant literary and political models operative in each country. However, I do not merely demonstrate the persistence of mythological archetypes in the postwar cultural landscape; rather, I articulate the precise ways in which such archetypes interpenetrated the specificity of World War II and subverted traditional historiography. Far from being a form of escapist fantasy, myth allowed writers and readers alike to appropriate longstanding cultural traditions in order to circumscribe the otherwise uncontrollable and unassimilable experiences of war. Though many intellectuals advocated for myth’s outright demise, the authors considered here sought to recover something from contaminated discourses, recognizing that total rupture from the past would only exacerbate existing feelings of alienation, isolation, and despair. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements . iv Abstract . v Introduction. Whatever Happened to Myth? . 1 Chapter 1. Myth Takes Root: Pavese’s Politics of Place . 31 Chapter 2. Headless, Not Heartless: Bataillean Politics After Acéphale . 87 Chapter 3. No Fantasy, Just Things: Simon’s Politics of Experimentation . 137 Chapter 4. “Once Upon a Time There Was an S.S.”: Politics from Inside the Fairy Tale Chamber . 195 Conclusion. The Death (and Resurrection?) of Myth . 260 Bibliography. 266 vii Introduction Whatever Happened to Myth? Every culture that has lost myth has lost, by the same token, its natural, healthy creativity. Only a horizon ringed about with myths can unify a culture. The