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https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ Theses Digitisation: https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/research/enlighten/theses/digitisation/ This is a digitised version of the original print thesis. Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] University of Glasgow French Department February 2004 Death as a Symbol of Loss and Principle of Regeneration in the Works of Villiers de L’Isle-Adam Lesley Anne Rankin Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ProQuest Number: 10753973 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10753973 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 C.OW^ iMsvrt ii^uiKARY; , I 3Zg.C 6of v i Abstract Death imagery in literature and art enjoyed a major revival of interest in late-nineteenth- century France, as it did elsewhere in Europe and America. It is a central theme in the writings of Villiers de LTsle-Adam (1838-89), from his first poetry collection, the Premieres Poesies, to Axel, his final drama. This thesis traces the development of the death theme in Villiers’s work, and demonstrates that while it is very much associated with loss, it can also be viewed in an entirely positive light, and can even be seen as a gateway into new life in his later publications. It is indicative not only of the changing thought of the writer, but is also a gauge of the literary and spiritual climate of the time. By way of introduction to the topic, death is exposed and contextualized as it has been represented in artistic form throughout the ages. I problematize mankind’s understanding of the phenomenon of death, before examining its place in literature. Villiers’s own writings are also situated in a historical and cultural context, in order to widen the reader’s grasp of the factors affecting the work in its time. The first chapter examines Villiers’s first major publication, the Premieres Poesies, and shows how the theme of death operates in it as a symbol of loss. Three main areas of loss in the mid-to-late nineteenth century are specifically highlighted, and their effects on the poet are noted. The focus of the next chapter shifts to the figure of the bourgeois, mainly with reference to Villiers’s short stories. These much-maligned figures are emblematic of the losses outlined in Chapter 1. Moreover, they are so inculcated with an atmosphere of death that they affect, and infect, those around them. However, not all succumb to the stultifying influence of the bourgeois class, but rather seek to resist it. These literary characters are the objects of scrutiny in Chapter 3 of this thesis, where the two main means of resistance to death are identified as being hedonism and claustration. Chapter 4 investigates the products of this resistance, the fin-de-siecle femme fatale and homme fatal. The principal defining features of these two types in Villiers’s work are outlined, and their often morbid relationship with each other is explored. The final two chapters in this thesis are concerned with Villiers’s two most important works. The elements that make up these pieces of writing are discussed, this time with the theme of regeneration through death in mind. Chapter 5 follows the desire for this in Villiers’s novel L ’Eve future, and notes its ultimate failure, while Chapter 6 examines and questions its success in the drama Axel. This is a field of research not yet widely discussed in Villierian studies. While there have been individual examinations of the theme of death in Villiers’s work, focusing on particular texts, this is the first critical analysis of the topos as it appears throughout his corpus as a whole. This in-depth investigation opens up a fresh understanding of Villiers’s work, both as a solitary corpus and in the context of the fin-de-siecle period. The death theme is a unifying agent, holding the key to important thematic patterns. Whilst allowing for evolution and development within the work, this investigation demonstrates how different strands of Villiers’s literary personality remain constant. This new understanding also plays a crucial role in terms of situating this enigmatic writer in the context and culture of his time. Table of Contents Abstract i Table of Contents ii Acknowledgements iv List of Abbreviations v INTRODUCTION: Towards a Philosophy of Death 1 I. Death 9 II. Literature and Death 14 III. Villiers, Death, and the Nineteenth-Century French Context 19 CHAPTER ONE: Death as a Symbol of Loss: ThePremieres Poesies 25 1.1 The Loss of Religious Belief: The Death of God 32 1.1.1 Impact of the Death of God on the Natural World 34 1.1.2 Impact of the Death of God on Humanity 39 1.2 Lost Love 51 1.3 Death and the Nation 59 1.4 The Symbolism of Death in the Premieres Poesies 64 Conclusion 71 CHAPTER TWO: Death and the Bourgeois: The Theme of Death in Villiers’s Short Stories and the PlayLa Revolte 72 2.1 Villiers and Poe 79 2.2 The Bourgeois 82 2.3 Bourgeois Thoughts on Death 90 2.4 Shocking the Bourgeois with Death: The Macabre 96 2.5 Bourgeois Death 100 2.6 The Bourgeois Causing Death: The Danger of the Bourgeois 106 Conclusion 115 CHAPTER THREE: Resistance 118 3.1 Living Life to the Full: Hedonism as Resistance of Death 123 i. Hermosa 123 ii. Elen 126 iii. Morgane 129 3.2 Chosen Metaphysical Death: Claustration 133 3.2.1 Claustral Failures 136 i. Don Juan 136 ii. Samuel Wissler 138 3.2.2 Regnerative Claustration 141 i. Occult Claustration: Tullia Fabriana 141 ii. Religious Claustration 144 a) Sione de Saintos 146 b) Lysiane d’Aubelleyne 148 Conclusion 151 CHAPTER FOUR: Villiers’s Fatal Men and Women 154 4.1 Femmes fatales 161 4.2 Hommes fatals 178 4.3 The Gender Divide: Sex and Death in Villiers 189 Conclusion 197 CHAPTER FIVE: Death and Loss in L ’Eve future 199 5.1 Contextualizing L ’Eve future 204 5.2 The Construction of a World of Colliding Opposites 211 5.3 Life, Death, and the Supernatural in L ’Eve future 222 Conclusion 229 CHAPTER SIX: The Regenerative Principle in Axel 232 6.1 Death in Life: Characterization in Axel 243 6.2 Atmosphere, Milieu, Setting 256 6.3 Victory over Death in Axel 263 Conclusion 275 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS: Death, Loss, and Regeneration in the Works of Villiers de L’Isle-Adam 277 BIBLIOGRAPHY 286 Acknowledgements I would like to thank some of the many people who made possible the completion of this project. Firstly, I would like to acknowledge my debt, financial and otherwise, to my parents, who have supported me wholeheartedly throughout my academic career. Thanks are also due to the Faculty of Arts Higher Degrees Committee at the University of Glasgow, who granted me the William and Margaret Kesson Award, providing me with monetary assistance for the duration of my doctoral research. The staff in the Modem Languages Building have always shown unfailing support and kindness. I would like to thank particularly the French departmental staff, headed in the first year of my Ph.D. by Professor Noel Peacock, and in the following two by Professor Bill Marshall. The wider community of postgraduate students in Modem Languages and beyond has also been a great encouragement. Finally, I would like to thank my supervisors, in the first instance, Professor Charles Forsdick, now of the University of Liverpool, whose advice and direction in the first year and a half of this project was invaluable. Dr Joy Newton, who bravely took over a supervisory role in the middle of the three-year term, has offered strong support, and the sharing of her wider knowledge of the period has been particularly beneficial. Thanks also go to my auxiliary supervisor, Dr Meryl Tyers, whose assistance has been much appreciated. List of Abbreviations OC: Villiers de UIsle-Adam: (Euvres completes, ed. by Alan Raitt and Pierre- Georges Castex, with the collaboration of Jean-Marie Bellefroid, 2 vols (Paris: Gallimard, 1986) CG: Correspondance generale de Villiers de UIsle-Adam et documents inedits, ed. by Joseph Bollery, 2 vols ([Paris]: Mercure de France, 1962) VMS: Alan Raitt, Villiers de L ’Isle-Adam et le mouvement symboliste (Paris: Corti, 1965) Please note: ■ The first time the above texts are referred to in the thesis, a full bibliographical reference is given. Thereafter, the abbreviated form is used.