George Sand and Rewriting: The Poetics of Intertextuality in George Sand’s “Jacques Cycle” Cathy Leung Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2013 ©2013 Cathy Leung All rights reserved ABSTRACT George Sand and Rewriting: the Poetics of Intertextuality in George Sand’s “Jacques Cycle” Cathy Leung Until now, for George Sand scholars, two main images of the Sand corpus have been dominant, “un grand fleuve d’Amérique” and “une grande œuvre multiforme.” While both images evoke the strength and diversity of styles, approaches and genres in Sand’s literary production, they also suggest a certain vagueness in regards to the contours of this oeuvre. Moreover, when speaking about the author’s novelistic writing, scholars and the larger reading public alike often refer to her work as the “eighty or so” novels and short stories she wrote, giving the impression that her work knew no boundaries. In place of this relative sense of unruliness, I propose the vision of an oeuvre unified by a strong theory of the novel and suggest how this corpus is structured by both intertextuality and polyphony. For this purpose, I borrow from Riffaterrian theories of textuality while proposing my own theory of intertextuality in regards to its function in the Sand corpus. I explain how George Sand hands us an actual key to deciphering her entire literary production and how one can understand the theoretical implications of this literary gesture. This key is what I call the author’s “Jacques cycle,” the series of rewritings of her 1834 novel Jacques that she highlights in her 1866 novel Le Dernier Amour. There, the author speaks about Jacques and its rewritings as key novels that have followed the evolution of her thinking as a writer in addition to her reflections on societal concerns. Viewed from this perspective, Sand places intertextuality, rewriting, and metaliterary reflection at the very heart of her conception of literature on the same plane as her societal preoccupations. My dissertation consists of an Introduction, four chapters and a Conclusion. Chapter One presents George Sand’s concept of intertextuality and literary palimpsest in her “Essai sur le drame fantastique.” This work explains the theoretical basis behind George Sand’s practice of rewriting, as well as her engaged stance vis-à-vis the literary debates behind the concept of originality. After exposing the stakes involved in this theoretical essay, I discuss in the second chapter Sand’s specific practice of rewriting Rousseau’s La Nouvelle Héloïse and Goethe’s Elective Affinities in her novel Jacques. More specifically, Chapter Two explores the importance of Sand’s novel Jacques in her positioning on the literary scene of the 19th century. It underlines how her rewriting of La Nouvelle Héloïse and her choice of the polyphonic epistolary novel enter in dialogue with the “horizons d’attente” associated with women’s writing, while constructing what has been called a “textual masculinity.” Chapter Three then examines the importance of Jacques in Sand’s defense of the autonomy of literature. It demonstrates how she engages in the literary debates of her time in order to form her own aesthetics of the novel, and to assert the author’s right to depict controversial social issues. My analysis focuses on reading Sand’s key work Jacques as a response to realism; it is also based on her 1834 article, entitled “À propos de Lélia et de Valentine” that appeared the same year as Jacques. Finally, my fourth chapter deals with Sand’s “Jacques cycle”: it delineates the theoretical and interpretational implications of introducing a literary matrix within her corpus. Here, I investigate the author’s rewriting of Jacques in her 1861 novel Valvèdre and in her 1866 novel Le Dernier Amour. This last chapter also explains how a matricial conception connecting these two novels to Jacques transforms their interpretation, while giving nuance to Sand’s expression of the autonomy of fiction that she exposed in Jacques. Indeed, contrary to what one may be accustomed to thinking, Sand’s writing is a highly self-conscious act that incorporates much metaliterary reflection and proposes through the preciseness of its execution a personal theory of literature. While many scholars consider George Sand through the lens of idealism in opposition to realism, I suggest looking at her “performance” of literary theory as taking part in a much larger debate on the concept of the autonomy of literature. My dissertation therefore examines Sand’s literary aesthetics through the frame of the 19th century’s reflections on the autonomy of literature, notably in the 1830’s and in the 1860’s in light of the movement of “l’art pour l’art” in addition to her dialogue with realism. In short, while societal concerns play a large role in George Sand’s writings, I would argue that literary theory is just as central in shaping the author’s corpus. In this respect, George Sand’s literary production is doubly a “littérature engagée,” a writing shaped by her engagement in the societal debates of her time but also its literary preoccupations. Table of Contents Acknowledgments vi Dedication x INTRODUCTION 1 Latest Trends in Sand Research 2 Dissertation Topic and Contributions to the Literary Field 8 Landmark studies on Intertextuality and George Sand 14 Choice of Corpus and Textual Analysis 19 Hypothesis 1: Engaging in the Literary Trends of the 19th Century 20 Hypothesis 2: Image of Coherence 21 Outline of the Dissertation 24 CHAPTER 1. REWRITING AS A LITERARY PHILOSOPHY 27 I. AN AUTHOR CONCERNED WITH LITERARY THEORY 28 Conception of the “Essai sur le Drame Fantastique” 29 A Literary Gamble? 32 Imposing Her Principles on the Publishing World 35 Mastering the Editorial Game 38 II. AN AUTHOR ENGAGED IN THE LITERARY DISPUTES OF HER TIME 41 Engaging the Publisher through Theory 42 Presenting a New Literary Form: “Le Drame Fantastique” 44 Promoting Perfectibility in Literary Tastes 48 Defending Rewriting: Sand’s Responsibility as an Artist 51 Defending Lord Byron 53 Taking on the Question of Intellectual Property 55 i III. AN AUTHOR INVESTED WITH A MISSION FOR HER TIME 57 Building a Theoretical Base and Defense 58 Leading Back a Century “Malade” and Gone Astray 59 Seeing a Continuity in Literature 61 Rethinking the Master’s Clothes 65 Advocating for the Future Evolution of Literature 68 CONCLUSION 72 CHAPTER 2. REWRITING AS POSITIONING: THE CASE OF GEORGE SAND’S JACQUES 75 I. A STRATEGIC POSE IN HER CENTURY: THE POLYPHONIC EPISTOLARY NOVEL 77 Positioning Against the Norm 78 Signaling Her Independence 81 Rewriting the Story of Adultery 84 Strategically Establishing Similarities with La Nouvelle Héloïse 86 Writing Back at Rousseau 88 II. POSITIONING AGAINST THE SENTIMENTAL NOVEL 93 Writing against a Feminine Tradition and Striving for Recognition 93 Purposely Engaging in Complexity 97 Stylistic Expectations about Women Authors 99 Polyphonic Shock: A Woman Writer Mastering a “Masculine” Literary Grammar 101 Creating a Poetic Aesthetics and Drawing Portraits through Language 107 III. THE ART OF THE FUGUE 112 Writing a “Comédie Humaine” 113 Orchestrating Intertextual Abstractions 117 Sounding Goethe’s Elective Affinities and Imagining Other Harmonies 123 ii IV. A WRITER SOCIALLY ENGAGED THROUGH INTERTEXTUALITY 127 Denouncing the Waste of Human Potential 128 Rethinking Marriage and Imagining a New Order 132 Pleading for Women’s Education 137 CONCLUSION 142 CHAPTER 3. REWRITING AS METALITERARY THINKING 147 I. THE JULY MONARCHY, A NEW PERIOD IN LITERATURE 148 The 1830’s, a Moment of Paradigm Shift 148 A Decisive Epoch Shaped by a “Romantisme Frénétique” 152 The Heightened Voice and Authority of the Critic 157 Questioning the Moral Authority of Critics 160 II. AN 1834 STATEMENT TO ASSERT THE AUTONOMY OF LITERATURE 162 Distinguishing between Authorial Voice and Oeuvre 163 Refuting the Question of Morality and Deconstructing Realism 167 Conceptualizing a “Poetic Truth” 171 Establishing a Literary Autonomy through Irony 175 III. JACQUES AS A REFLECTION ON THE ART OF WRITING A NOVEL 177 Signaling a Metaliterary Stance through the Epistolary Novel Form 178 Focusing on Interpretation rather than Narration 180 Metaliterary Dimension of the Reading-Writing Experience 184 Rewriting La Nouvelle Héloïse as a Symbolic Move 190 IV. THE CRITIQUE OF THE NOVEL WITHIN THE NOVEL 194 A Defense of the Novel through La Nouvelle Héloïse 195 The Defense of the Novel through a Literary Palimpsest 199 Demonstrating the Artifice of Literary Representation 205 iii V. INTERTEXTUALITY AND POLYPHONY 209 Intertextuality in Jacques as a Response to Realism 210 Demonstrating the Performativity of Literary Codes 212 Reflecting on Literary Styles 215 CONCLUSION 220 CHAPTER 4. CONFIGURATIVE THINKING 224 I. THE NOTION OF A “JACQUES CYCLE” 225 Deciphering Sand’s Project of Rewriting in Valvèdre 226 Valvèdre as the Story of the Prodigal Son 228 Le Dernier Amour, a Philosophical Reflection rather than a Novel 230 The Notion of “Configuration” and “Configurative” Thinking 231 Implications of a Matricial Dimension 236 II. CONFIGURATIVE REFLECTION THROUGH A LITERARY MATRIX 239 Valvèdre’s Configurative Similarities with Jacques 240 Reflecting on Different Configurational Outcomes 241 The Influence of Societal Factors on Diegetic Outcomes 244 Deriving Meaning from Configurationally Focused Readings 247 Highlighting the Factor of Education 249 III. METALITERARY THINKING IN VALVÈDRE THROUGH