The Mythopoetics of Bodily Representation in the Works of George Sand Illingworth, James
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Living Out Loud: The Mythopoetics of Bodily Representation in the Works of George Sand Illingworth, James Award date: 2019 Awarding institution: Queen's University Belfast Link to publication Terms of use All those accessing thesis content in Queen’s University Belfast Research Portal are subject to the following terms and conditions of use • Copyright is subject to the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988, or as modified by any successor legislation • Copyright and moral rights for thesis content are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners • A copy of a thesis may be downloaded for personal non-commercial research/study without the need for permission or charge • Distribution or reproduction of thesis content in any format is not permitted without the permission of the copyright holder • When citing this work, full bibliographic details should be supplied, including the author, title, awarding institution and date of thesis Take down policy A thesis can be removed from the Research Portal if there has been a breach of copyright, or a similarly robust reason. If you believe this document breaches copyright, or there is sufficient cause to take down, please contact us, citing details. Email: [email protected] Supplementary materials Where possible, we endeavour to provide supplementary materials to theses. This may include video, audio and other types of files. We endeavour to capture all content and upload as part of the Pure record for each thesis. Note, it may not be possible in all instances to convert analogue formats to usable digital formats for some supplementary materials. We exercise best efforts on our behalf and, in such instances, encourage the individual to consult the physical thesis for further information. Download date: 01. Oct. 2021 DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Living Out Loud: The Mythopoetics of Bodily Representation in the Works of George Sand Illingworth, James Award date: 2019 Awarding institution: Queen's University Belfast Link to publication Terms of use All those accessing thesis content in Queen’s University Belfast Research Portal are subject to the following terms and conditions of use • Copyright is subject to the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988, or as modified by any successor legislation • Copyright and moral rights for thesis content are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners • A copy of a thesis may be downloaded for personal non-commercial research/study without the need for permission or charge • Distribution or reproduction of thesis content in any format is not permitted without the permission of the copyright holder • When citing this work, full bibliographic details should be supplied, including the author, title, awarding institution and date of thesis Take down policy A thesis can be removed from the Research Portal if there has been a breach of copyright, or a similarly robust reason. If you believe this document breaches copyright, or there is sufficient cause to take down, please contact us, citing details. Email: [email protected] Supplementary materials Where possible, we endeavour to provide supplementary materials to theses. This may include video, audio and other types of files. We endeavour to capture all content and upload as part of the Pure record for each thesis. Note, it may not be possible in all instances to convert analogue formats to usable digital formats for some supplementary materials. We exercise best efforts on our behalf and, in such instances, encourage the individual to consult the physical thesis for further information. Download date: 17. Oct. 2019 LIVING OUT LOUD: THE MYTHOPOETICS OF BODILY REPRESENTATION IN THE WORKS OF GEORGE SAND A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Arts, English and Languages Queen’s University Belfast By James Richard Illingworth MA, M.St (Oxon) July 2018 Abstract ABSTRACT This thesis examines the representation of the body in the works of George Sand. While the body as a subject of analysis in literary studies is well established, Sand’s novels are generally reduced to a sentimental or idealist mode of writing whose focus is on the inner, emotional life of an individual. Moreover, where studies of the body have looked at Sand’s texts, they have tended to be limited to particular novels, especially those of the 1830s and 1840s, concluding that the body’s absence in Sand’s works is a result of her gender. Through analyses of a range of texts from across Sand’s career (such as Le Secrétaire intime, Flavie, Francia, and the unfinished Albine Fiori), this thesis problematizes the notion of the absent body, proposing instead that we should read Sand’s texts through a mythopoetics, an approach to writing that incorporates a multitude of symbolic elements to encourage an understanding of the body that combines the material and the metaphysical. This reading privileges the figure of Corambé, a mythic deity invented by Sand during her childhood and described in her autobiography. Examining Sand’s autobiography for traces of her coming to writing, the first chapter of the thesis places Corambé at the centre of Sand’s mythopoetics, as a being that symbolizes the potential of altruism, empathy, and creativity, but resists any fixed form. The subsequent chapters read Sand’s novels under the sign of Corambé, turning to Sand’s fictional depictions of bodies and her engagement with realism, symbolism, religion, and medicine to argue that Sand’s texts promote an alternative approach to the corporeal that accounts for a variety of different forms of experience. Instead of a fundamental idealism, such a reading instead suggests that Sand’s approach is based on an acceptance of the real qualities of an individual and a rejection of the ideal as a product of the masculine imagination, thereby repositioning Sand as a writer fully engaged in the questions of her age, and interrogating our understanding of her place within what we might call the canon. Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv INTRODUCTION 1 Chapter 1: SAND’S ARS MYTHOPOETICA 27 Chapter 2: THE BODY, REFRAMED 65 Chapter 3: FLIGHTS OF FANCY: THE MYTHOPOETIC BODY AND ITS LIMITS 97 Chapter 4: SCIENCE AND FAITH: SAND’S CONFESSIONAL 136 CONCLUSION 176 BIBLIOGRAPHY 185 i Acknowledgements ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My first and most enduring thanks go to my supervisors, Steven Wilson and Margaret Topping. Were it not for them this thesis would likely never have been finished. The debt I owe them will doubtless never fully be repaid: their unfailing support for and belief in this project has at times eclipsed my own, and their counsel has been integral in both bringing my ideas together and keeping me grounded over the past four years. I am also incredibly thankful to Nigel Harkness for his encouragement to take up this project in the first place, and for his subsequent input and support. I am indebted to the guidance at the beginning of my academic trajectory from Caroline Warman, who supervised my Masters project on Sand, and to Helen Swift, who encouraged my various undergraduate pursuits. Above all I wish to record here my gratefulness to Angelica Goodden, whose early nurturing of my scholarly inclinations and recommendation that I read Sand back in my undergraduate days together set me on the path that would culminate in this thesis. Her continued support and friendship since then have made negotiating that path all the easier. The research that informs this thesis would not have been possible without a studentship from the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Partnership. I would especially like to thank Michael Rossington, who consistently performed his role of Academic Director with boundless munificence and tireless dedication. His advice and encouragement at numerous stages of my research have been invaluable. I am grateful, too, to the Association des études françaises et francophones d’Irlande (Adeffi) for a generous bourse doctorale, and to grants from the AHRC, the Society for French Studies, the University of Oxford, the Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France, and the School of Arts, English and Languages at Queen’s, that enabled me to share my research with colleagues in a broader arena. The scholarly community fostered by the Modern Languages department at Queen’s has proven an exceptionally stimulating and supportive environment in which to undertake this thesis project, and I wish to record particular thanks here to Sarah Bowskill, whose substantial knowledge of feminist theory has been invaluable, and especially to Claire Moran, who effectively cured me of my disinterest in poetry and encouraged the more experimental aspects of this thesis. Additionally, the practical help from, and collective wisdom and general unflappability of, Catherine Pollitt, ii Acknowledgements Maria Meehan, Lynda Mahon, and Mick McAroe, as well as assistance from the staff at the McClay and Taylorian libraries, have been indispensable. I am immensely grateful to the Queen’s postgraduate community past and present for all their help, advice, and general sense of camaraderie. I wish to extend thanks here above all to Yangyang Long, Mike McKenna, Pádraig Mac Congáil, and Caleb Keown, in whose company this thesis was largely written; to Amy Burnside, Jessica Toops, Egle Vasiliauskaite, and Jody Buckley-Coogan, who lived with this thesis almost as much as I did at various points; and to Ashley Scott-Harris, Reuben Steenson, Charlotte Mitchell, Maéva McComb, Poppy Boyd, and Jennifer Maguire for their friendship. Further afield, I have been humbled by the intellectual generosity of so many individuals in French Studies and beyond who have offered time, advice, and engagement with my work in a variety of ways. This thesis inevitably bears traces of our exchanges and is, I hope, all the richer for them.