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Female Sexuality in French Naturalism and Realism, and British New Woman Fiction, 1850 – 1900

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Female Sexuality in French Naturalism and Realism, and British New Woman Fiction, 1850 – 1900 Female Sexuality in French Naturalism and Realism, and British New Woman Fiction, 1850 – 1900 Submitted by Ana Rosso to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English In December 2012 This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. Signature: ………………………………………………………….. 2 3 Abstract The Victorian need to compartmentalise and define women’s sexuality in terms of opposing binaries was paralleled by the vague idea that the period’s French and British literatures were at odds with one another. Elucidating the deep connections between, and common concerns shared by, French Naturalist and Realist and British New Woman authors, this thesis shatters the dichotomies that attempted to structure and define women’s sexuality in the mid- to late- nineteenth century. The thesis focusses on novels and short stories by French authors Émile Zola and Guy de Maupassant, and New Woman authors Sarah Grand, Ménie Muriel Dowie and Vernon Lee. In a time during which the feminist movement was gaining momentum, and female sexuality was placed at the heart of a range of discourses, and scrutinised from a number of different angles – not only in literature, but in medicine, psychology, sexology, criminology – the consideration of the female sexual self and her subjectivity brings together the work of authors whose oeuvres have been largely considered as antithetical. Previous work has indeed shown the centrality of female sexuality to both literatures, yet never compared them. This thesis rediscovers the significance of both literatures’ investment in a discourse revolving around female sexuality by contrasting the French male authors with the British female writers, and uncovering unexpected parallels in their claims about the contemporary situation of women. Simone de Beauvoir’s Le Deuxième Sexe’s feminist philosophy frames the thesis’s comparative analysis, questioning and re-examining these authors’ representations of female sexuality. The ideas of sensuality and rationality, 4 motherhood, reproduction, marriage, and prostitution thus become recurring concerns throughout it. The thesis’s first chapter considers the female as sexual subject and/or object of the male gaze, in a range of New Woman and French literature. The second and third chapters are organised around the themes of marriage and prostitution, and the final chapter considers issues of female sexuality within the fantastic short story. 5 Table of Contents List of Illustrations ....................................................................................... 7 Introduction | Observing the “Other”: Representing Female Sexuality in French and British Fiction ........................................................................... 9 The British New Woman, and French Naturalism and Realism ...................................... 9 The Trouble with France .............................................................................................. 22 Reevaluating the Connections between the New Woman and the French Male Authors .................................................................................................................................... 31 Chapter One | Women as (Reasoning?) Animals: Female Sexuality in the Work of Zola, Maupassant, Grand, and Cross .................................... 49 Sexualising the Female Character ............................................................................... 51 The Male Gaze ............................................................................................................ 59 Reflection versus Sensation ......................................................................................... 75 Desire, Love, and Animalism........................................................................................ 99 Motherhood ................................................................................................................ 106 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 114 Chapter Two | Le Réveil et l’Éveil Sexuel: Representing Female Sexual Awakening in French and British Fiction ................................................. 115 Sexual Awakening ..................................................................................................... 116 Marital Happiness and Satisfaction ............................................................................ 130 The Sexual Subject and the “Other” ........................................................................... 134 Female Sexual Subjectivity and Adultery ................................................................... 141 Prostitution and Marriage ........................................................................................... 145 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 153 Chapter Three | The Desire to Control Female Sexual Autonomy: Representing Prostitution in France and Britain 1848 - 1897 .................. 155 The French Hygienist Movement and the British Contagious Diseases Acts .............. 158 Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s “Jenny” ................................................................................ 161 6 The Emblem of the Desiring Self ................................................................................ 164 The Animal ................................................................................................................. 168 The prostitute as a hyperbole of female eroticism ...................................................... 171 Sexuality and Class ................................................................................................... 173 A Sexual Hierarchy? .................................................................................................. 179 The Actress ................................................................................................................ 185 The Mirror and Self-Love as Sexual Subjectivity ........................................................ 188 Eroticism and Love .................................................................................................... 195 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 198 Chapter Four | “Un Air de Reine Cruelle”: Sex, Power, Anxiety and Subjectivity in Fantastic Fiction | Vernon Lee, Sarah Grand, Guy de Maupassant, and Émile Zola ................................................................... 201 The Short Story and the Fantastic .............................................................................. 203 The Female “Subject of Art” ....................................................................................... 207 Masculine Perceptions ............................................................................................... 216 Fear and Loving in the Fin de Siècle .......................................................................... 223 Non-Reproductive Sexuality and the Destruction of the Masculine ............................ 229 Women and Class ...................................................................................................... 240 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 243 Conclusion | Vague Dichotomies: Female Sexuality in French and British Literature ................................................................................................ 245 Works Cited ............................................................................................ 255 7 List of Illustrations Fig. 1 Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de. Nu Devant Miroir. 1897. Oil on cardboard. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Web. 7 November 2012. Fig. 2 Tissot, James. On the Thames. 1874. Oil on canvas. Private Collection. The Complete Works of James Tissot. Web. 4 June 2012. Fig. 3 Legrand, Louis. Naturalisme. 1890. Drawing. Le Courrier Français (30 March 1890): 5. Wikipedia. Web. 1 April 2012. Fig. 4 Gibson, Charles Dana. The Weaker Sex II. 1903. Collier's Weekly 31 (July 4, 1903): 12-13. Cabinet of American Illustration, Library of Congress. Web. 5 June 2012. Fig. 5 Manet, Édouard. Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe. 1863. Oil on canvas. Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Musée d’Orsay. Web. 10 August 2012. Fig. 6 Tissot, James. The Shop Girl. 1885. Oil on canvas. Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. Art Gallery of Ontario. Web. 10 April 2012. Fig. 7 Sandys, Frederick. Love’s Shadow. 1867. Oil on panel. Private Collection. Mutual Art. Web. 15 October 2011. Fig. 8 Degas, Edgar. Le Client Sérieux. 1879. Monotype on wove paper. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Musée des Beaux-Arts du Canada. Web. 10 January 2012. Fig. 9 Timeline of major events mentioned in Chapter Three. Fig. 10 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. 1894. L’Inspection Médicale. Oil on cardboard on wood. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Wikipedia. Web. 15 October 2012. 8 Fig. 11 Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. Found. 1853 – 9, unfinished. Oil on canvas. Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington.
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