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Baudelaire, Wilde and the Spatial Dynamics of Decadence

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Baudelaire, Wilde and the Spatial Dynamics of Decadence Baudelaire, Wilde and the Spatial Dynamics of Decadence Virginie Basset Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of MA (by Research) January 2014 School of Languages and Linguistics The University of Melbourne Abstract This thesis illuminates the spatial dynamics of decadence in the works of Baudelaire and Wilde, writers who have been particularly associated with decadence in France and in England. Baudelaire was portrayed as its forefather by Gautier, Bourget and Huysmans, whereas Wilde was depicted by Symons as its representative in England. This thesis redefines decadence as a matrix which produces, within imagination, a decadent universe which is confining. If decadence etymologically refers to physical, moral and social decline, it is also described by the philosopher Jankélévitch in his article entitled “La décadence” as an ensemble of symptoms experienced by a subjective consciousness which are manifested in its creations. This thesis is founded on the hypothesis that these symptoms are dynamically reflected in the literary space of decadent works which functions as much more than a setting. This hypothesis is in turn grounded on Bakhtin’s theory of the chronotope which posits literary space as dynamic conjunction of time and space. It is also grounded on Bachelard’s theory of space and imagination which describes literary space as reflexive, resonant and moulded by consciousness. In order to bring to light the spatial dynamics of decadence, this project relies on these theories as methodological instruments. Furthermore, according to Foucault’s concept of heterotopias, certain compartmentalised spaces shelter narratives of reality which differ from the norm. Understanding decadence to be forging such a narrative, this project shall also explore the heterotopias appearing in Baudelaire and Wilde’s poetic universes. Its aims are to understand the construction of decadence as a confining universe and to identify whether a way out of this confinement is proposed either in Baudelaire’s or in Wilde’s works. ii This is to certify that: i. the thesis comprises only my original work towards the masters except where indicated in the Preface, ii. due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used, iii. the thesis is less than 50,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps, bibliographies and appendices. Virginie Basset iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisors, Dr Clara Tuite and Dr Bertrand Bourgeois, for sharing their knowledge and giving their time, advice and suggestions, which helped make the writing of this thesis possible. I would also like to thank my sister and my parents for their ongoing support and belief in me. iv Contents Introduction 1 Chapter 1: The Confinement of Decadence in Baudelaire’s Poetry 14 1. The Decadent Representation of the Present 15 A. Decomposition in Nature 15 B. Decomposition in the City 17 C. Decomposition in the House 19 D. The Collapse of the Dwelling 20 2. The Decadent Representation of the Past 22 A. The Romantic Representation 22 B. The Biblical and Ancient Mythological Universes 25 3. The Preservation of the Decadent Consciousness 31 A. Recreating Space and Fixing Time in the Oneiric Universe 31 B. Preserving Consciousness in the House 34 C. Preserving Consciousness in the Greenhouse 35 Chapter 2: The Recovery of Creative Space in Wilde’s Poetry 39 1. The Dissonant Universe of the Ruin 41 A. The Garden in Ruins 41 B. Encasing Ruins 44 C. Sorrow as a Loss of Creative Space-Time 46 2. Creating Harmony with Dissonance 50 A. Dissonance in Nature and in the House 50 B. Expansion and Compression in the Oneiric Universe 52 C. Elevation in the Oneiric Universe 55 3. A Space of Poetic Transformation 58 A. Movement and Petrification 58 B. Anchoring the Daydream 60 C. The Yellow Light of Dawn 63 Chapter 3: Decadence as a Game of Mirrors in Wilde’s Prose 67 1. Decadence as a Narrative of Historical Decline 69 A. The Terrace as a Space of Echoes in Salomé 69 B. The Pavilion as a Political Space in The Birthday of the Infanta 71 C. The Transformation of the Garden in The Birthday of the Infanta 72 2. Decadence as a Narrative of Individual Decline 75 A. A Universe of Doubles in Salomé 75 B. The Denial of Reflection in Salomé 76 C. The Denial of Reflection in The Birthday of the Infanta 78 v 3. Dawn and Dusk in The Picture of Dorian Gray 81 A. The Painting as a Flower of Evil 81 B. Decadence in the City and the House 83 C. Art and Life as Artifice 85 Conclusion 89 Bibliography 95 vi Introduction Baudelaire and Wilde: Decadents or Aesthetes? Decadence has been extensively defined in the history of literary criticism. Etymologically, it derives from the Latin verb cadere which means “to fall”. It was used from 1413 to depict the physical decay of architectural structures (Robert, 1012; Littré). From 1468, it was also used to depict the physical and moral decline of civilisations, and later, of individuals and their creations, the term acquiring an organic quality through comparisons with the decay of nature (Robert, 1012; Littré). In the nineteenth century, it is associated with writers whose works reflect a certain “decadent” aesthetic (Robert, 1012; Littré), such as Théophile Gautier, Charles Baudelaire and Joris-Karl Huysmans. Baudelaire’s reputation as a “decadent” poet was first founded by Gautier, in a foreword which he wrote to the 1868 edition of Les Fleurs du Mal. In this foreword, Gautier introduced Baudelaire to the readers as a poet writing at the forefront of a declining civilisation, in a “decadent style” corresponding to this decline (Gautier, Preface Les Fleurs du Mal “FDM” 20, 22, 24). In 1883, similarly, and inspired by Gautier’s foreword to Les Fleurs du Mal, Paul Bourget depicted the poet as “a man of decadence” (Bourget 24) and as “a theoretician of decadence” (Bourget 24), whose pessimism and negative outlook on progress reflect modern consciousness (Bourget 11-15). In 1884, only a year later, Huysmans’ novel À rebours was published. It would become known as the “Bible of decadence” and its “breviary” (Pearce 176), whose main character, fascinated by the aesthetic of Baudelaire’s poetry, attempts to live by its features as if they were religious principles. However, if Baudelaire can be considered to be a forefather of “decadence” in France in the second half of the nineteenth century, the association of Wilde with decadence is much more problematic. Wilde was first identified as a “disciple of Baudelaire” by the critic Gladys Turquet- Milnes in 1913 (Pittock 23). He was also described as having affinities with his own fictional character Gray and with Huysmans’ character Des Esseintes (Pearce 177). His novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, was namely been influenced by Huysmans’ À rebours (Pearce 177) and coined as the “other Bible of decadence” (Cevasco 78). This influence of Huysmans on Wilde was recognised and explained by critics such as Murray Pittock 1 (Pittock 37), Christopher Nassaar (Nassaar 120) and Christa Satzinger. Satzinger, however, also perceived other French influences on his work: those of Honoré de Balzac and of Gautier, namely with the presence of themes such as artificiality and subversion, as well as the pursuit of sensations at the expense of morality (Satzinger 133, 147, 171). If Satzinger attributed these influences to France, she did not associate them with decadence. In England, the term “decadence” remained strongly attached to Wilde until his imprisonment which seemed to mark its disappearance. “Decadence” was then replaced by Arthur Symons with the less controversial term “symbolism”, in the title of his book The Symbolist Movement in Literature (1899), whose original title was The Decadent Movement in Literature (1893) (Cevasco 25-30). In the year in which Satzinger’s work was published, the critic Michael Gillespie argues in favour of classifying Wilde’s work on the side of aestheticism rather than decadence, citing the work of Walter Pater on aestheticism as its main influence (Gillespie 143). Pittock and Nassaar also mentioned Pater as an influence on Wilde’s novel which was most certainly, according to them, as strong as, if not stronger, than Huysmans’ (Pittock 37; Nassaar 120). In England, aestheticism had emerged following the exposition of Pater’s and John Symonds’s theories on beauty which had redefined art as having to be independent from moralistic and social duties (Evangelista 129). It was, in that way, affiliated with the theory of “art for art’s sake”, initially supported in France by Gautier (Gautier, Mademoiselle de Maupin 39-70), who also associated it with Baudelaire’s work (Gautier, Preface FDM 25). However, according to Pittock, if there was a great similarity between Pater’s and Baudelaire’s aesthetic views, which both supported the independence of art, Pater’s theory of art proclaimed art as being intrinsically amoral (Pittock 24). Pittock attempted to explain the difference between the decadent and the aesthetic approaches to morality by proposing to view them as, on the one hand, a “rebellion against God” through art, and, on the other hand, a “replacement of God” by art (24). Regenia Gagnier, going further than this, argues that aestheticism, unlike decadence, was more socially engaged than it appeared to be, because it questioned the place of art in society and its importance in relation to it. Her reading of Wilde’s works in relation to his various publics situated them within socio-political discourses. She argued that Wilde could not have been a decadent writer for that reason (Gagnier 5). The notion of 2 Wilde’s art as being engaged in a social dialogue appeared not only in Gagnier’s reading of his works, but also in Linda Dowling’s The Vulgarization of Art.
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