The Idea of Madness in Dorothy Richardson, Leonora Carrington and Anaïs Nin

The Idea of Madness in Dorothy Richardson, Leonora Carrington and Anaïs Nin Stacey Fox, B.A. (Hons) This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The University of Western Australia School of Social and Cultural Studies English and Cultural Studies 2008 2 Abstract This thesis is concerned with the representation of madness in three texts by modernist women: Dorothy Richardson’ Pilgrimage, Leonora Carrington’s “Down Below,” and Anaïs Nin’s The Diary of Anaïs Nin. I suggest that the contested, overdetermined concept of madness is a productive trope through which to consider these women’s negotiation of the models of subjectivity, creativity and femininity available within modernism; and I am interested in how various forms of modernist madness are taken up, reproduced, appropriated and reformulated in their work. My analysis explores the different ways in which madness functions in these texts: its multiple significations, the self-consciousness with which it is deployed, and the diverse purposes (narrative, ideological, intellectual and personal) it serves. This thesis is not about the figure of the modernist madwoman, it is about the figuration of madness in modernist women’s writing. Richardson, Carrington and Nin are perhaps an unlikely grouping, as they have not all been thought of as especially ‘mad’ or notably modernist. Certainly, they are not the obvious figures one would expect in a study of modernist women and madness. My thesis, however, is less concerned with whether (or to what extent) they can be considered ‘mad’ and it is not my aim to argue for their place in the modernist canon. Rather, my interest is in their engagement with various modernist discourses of madness, and considering these three very different writers together, on the basis of their shared preoccupation with madness, offers a different perspective on modernism. It also permits an exploration of the diverse ways in which modernist ideas and lives were negotiated and narrativised. Situating the madness represented in their texts in relation to modernist discourses of madness helps dislodge readings of these texts which are uncritically autobiographical or unreflexively diagnostic. That is, I argue in this thesis that representations of madness in the life writings of Richardson, Carrington and Nin are not simply mimetic reproductions of their own more or less mad experiences, but reflect their self-conscious and often highly astute engagement with the different discourses of madness at work within modernism and their attempts to grapple with the problematics of writing feminine subjectivity. In attending to the multiple and diverse figurations of madness in these texts, I am also doing something more than simply applying current theorisations 1 of madness. As influential as Foucault, for instance, has been to thinking about madness or psychoanalytic theory to considerations of modernism, Richardson, Carrington and Nin offer their own theories of madness and modernism. As such, my analysis is driven by the complex figurations evident in their own writing rather than by how they might illuminate or be illuminated by contemporary theoretical formulations (while also acknowledging my necessary imbrication in, and indebtedness to, the current ‘post-Foucaultian’ and, more particularly, feminist critical context). In my analysis of Pilgrimage I argue that medical discourse and the urban environment are critical sites in and through which Miriam Henderson, Richardson’s heroine, grapples with the fin de siécle conflation of femininity and madness. Given Carrington’s relationship with Max Ernst and her familiarity with the Parisian Surrealists, “Down Below” has most frequently been read in relation to Surrealist theories of madness. My chapters on Carrington, however, argue for the benefits of considering “Down Below” in relation to frameworks other than Surrealism and I read “Down Below” as a critique of institutional psychiatry and as a form of war literature. Finally, in relation to Nin, I attend to the array of references to madness recurring throughout the Diary, and argue that Nin uses various conceptions of madness in order to carve out a space for her conception of a productive, feminine form of creativity. Approaching these texts through the oblique angle of madness is a surprisingly productive reading strategy, one which reveals unexpected connections between these three writers and opens up new readings of their texts and of modernism. 2 Table of Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................... 1 Table of Contents ...................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgements................................................................................................... 4 Introduction............................................................................................................. 6 Dorothy Richardson Chapter One: Diagnostic Discourse in Pilgrimage................................................... 62 Chapter Two: The Madness of Urban Space ............................................................ 110 Leonora Carrington Chapter Three: Reading Surrealism and Psychiatry in “Down Below” ................... 154 Chapter Four: Leonora Carrington and the Madness of War.................................... 190 Anaïs Nin Chapter Five: Genre, Madness and The Diary of Anaïs Nin..................................... 233 Chapter Six: Negotiating Modernist Madnesses in the Diary .................................. 272 Conclusion................................................................................................................ 306 Bibliography.............................................................................................................. 312 3 Acknowledgments This thesis could not have been started, let alone completed, without the encouragement, support and inspiration offered by others. I am, first and foremost, indebted to my exceptional supervisor, Dr. Tanya Dalziell, whose dedication, clear-sightedness and intellectual rigour have contributed considerably to the merits of this work. Tanya’s commitment to excellence, her insistence upon always pushing ideas further, thinking more, trying out different perspectives and exploring alternative approaches, has taught me a great deal. I could not have asked for a better mentor for this period of apprenticeship, and wish to thank Tanya for her generosity and for all she has taught me about being a scholar and a reader. I would like to thank Jane Long for her advice and for encouraging me to think that a PhD was something that I was capable of undertaking. The staff of the discipline of English and Cultural Studies at the University of Western Australia have provided a supportive environment in which to study and make my first forays into the challenging but immensely rewarding field of university teaching. Alison Bartlett kindly took over supervision for several months, and Linda Cresswell’s cheerful good humour and willingness to help deserves especial recognition. I am also incredibly grateful to the English Department at the Australian Defence Force Academy, to Heather Neilson and Catherine Pratt and, in particular, Peter Looker and Adrian Caesar, who emboldened me to seek a broader horizon. It was in Peter’s Modernism and After unit that I first encountered the writing of modernist women, and I still remember the appropriately epiphanic moment in which I suddenly understood just how extraordinary Mrs Dalloway was – conveniently the morning of the exam. I was led to Carrington, and from there to modernist women and to madness, by Gail Jones’s Black Mirror, and I greatly appreciate the enthusiasm Gail has shown for my project. Susan Aberth and Ellen Friedman generously met with me while I was visiting New York, and Trudi Tate kindly made time to discuss Dorothy Richardson and Australian war literature with a fellow antipodean. I thank them all for the enthusiasm with which they greeted my work and for making me feel part of a scholarly community. My appreciation also goes to the staff of the Scholars Centre at the Library of the University of Western Australia, especially Michelle Coles, and the Department of 4 Special Collections at the Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA, where I was able to view the Anaïs Nin Papers. One of the most rewarding aspects of my period as a postgraduate student has been all of the truly wonderful friends and fellow travellers that I have met along the way. I would especially like to acknowledge those who responded so enthusiastically to my request for volunteers to read chapters of the thesis: Emily Leaver, Adam Nicol, and Zoë Templar. Tama Leaver, David Nel, Tristan Coleshaw, Karen Hall, Sarah Brown, Michael Ondaatje and especially Suzanne Stuart have all been valued friends and colleagues. Thank you also to Kathryn Reale and Kate Tollenaar. To all those that I am unable to name here, I extend my gratitude. Deserving of special mention is of course the incomparable Alison Jaquet, whose hospitality, good humour, culinary skills, technical support, and penchant for the delightful intricacies of the everyday has contributed in innumerable ways to the writing of this thesis. Ali generously offered the read the thesis in its entirety, and has been the sounding board for most of my ideas, difficulties, moments of inspiration and plans for procrastination. Without the many

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