DOCSLIB.ORG

Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and Juliette

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and Juliette TOWARDS A THEORY OF LIBERTINE TEMPORALITY: TIME, LEGACY, AND FAILURE IN CLARISSA, LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES, AND JULIETTE A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2017 Thomas G. Froh School of Arts, Languages and Cultures List of Contents Abstract 4 Declaration 5 Copyright Statement 6 Acknowledgements 7 The Author 8 1 Introduction 9 1.1 Methodology 10 1.1.1 Significance 13 1.1.2 Terms 14 1.1.3 The Four Themes 15 2 Libertine Time in the Eighteenth Century 18 2.1 Pressures of the Moment 18 2.2 Legacy 23 2.3 Pressures of Narration 24 2.3.1 The Libertine Novel 27 2.4 Temporal Articulation 32 2.4.1 Rousseau and Monasticism 35 2.5 Failure 39 3 Moment as Breath: Contextualizing the Eighteenth-Century Libertine 44 3.1 A New Focus on the Present 46 3.2 Changes from the Seventeenth Century 50 3.3 Libertine Literature in the Mid-Eighteenth Century 54 3.4 Shifts in Class 58 3.5 The Evolution of Libertine Temporality 61 3.5.1 Poetry 62 3.5.2 Pornography 68 3.5.3 Theatre 72 4 “This charming clock that runs low”: Lovelace and the Arrival of Death 77 4.1 Note on Editions 77 4.2 Context 79 4.3 Dominance and Submission as Temporal Articulation 85 4.4 Plotting, Legacy, and Futurity 94 4.5 Failure 103 5 “Remember that in your position time is precious”: Temporality in Les Liaisons Dangereuses 115 5.1 Valmont & Lovelace: Parallels 121 5.2 Distinctions between Valmont & Lovelace 134 5.3 Marquise de Merteuil 138 6 All Pleasures Fade: Juliette and the Denial of Narrative 149 6.1 Narrative by Numbers 151 6.2 Juliette’s Failure 159 6.3 Non-Reading 169 2 6.4 Juliette and Futurity 172 Conclusion 177 Bibliography 180 Word Count: 83200 3 Abstract This thesis is a series of textual studies which posits that key libertine characters in the latter half of the eighteenth century possess a cohesive and unique attitude towards time. The works I review are Clarissa (1748) by Samuel Richardson, Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1782) by Choderlos de Laclos, and Juliette (1797) by the Marquis de Sade. The shared sense of temporality across the libertine characters of these works manifest in four key thematic parallels. The first theme is a conflict between the libertine character’s role as the creator of a transgressive narrative and libertinism’s emphasis on the hedonistic moment of pleasure. Each demands a different attitude towards time and this creates an underlying tension which the libertine must attempt to resolve. Second is a desire to create a legacy, which manifests as a desire to narrate. This is often seen in their comparison to other libertine figures both immediate and historical, and informs the libertine character’s consideration of past and future. Third, the libertine character attempts to reconcile the tension between narration and moment, and still establish a legacy, through a concept I term ‘articulated time’: the careful moderation of one’s actions in order to establish a degree of control over temporality. Yet the fourth and final theme I identify is failure, as the libertine character is unable to maintain this articulated time, and by extension sees a general failure of his or her respective libertine projects. While the individual aspects of the libertine understanding of time in these works might be seen in other literature, taken as a whole they produce a cohesive sense of libertine temporality unique to fiction from latter half of the eighteenth century. This study sheds new light and meanings on the most significant libertine characters from this period, and reveals the way in which their sense of time, and the history of libertine writing and thinking before them, frames and informs each of their actions. This analysis does not purport to be applicable to all libertine writing, but rather presents a critical insight that reinforces the literary and cultural significance of major works of libertine fiction from the eighteenth century. 4 Declaration No portion of the work referred to in this thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. 5 Copyright Statement The author of this thesis owns certain copyright or related rights in it (the “Copyright”) and he has given The University of Manchester certain right to use such Copyright, including for administrative purposes. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts and whether in hard or electronic copy, may be made only in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) and regulations issued under it or, where appropriate, in accordance with licensing agreements which the University has from time to time. This page must form part of any such copies made. The ownership of certain Copyright, patents, designs, trademarks and other intellectual property (the “Intellectual Property”) and any reproductions of copyright works in the thesis, for example graphs and tables (“Reproductions”), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant intellectual property and/or Reproductions. Further information on the conditions under which disclosure, publication and commercialisation of this thesis, the Copyright, and any Intellectual Property and/or described in it may take place is available in the University IP Policy (see http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?DocID=24420), in any relevant Thesis restriction declarations deposited in the University Library, The University Library’s regulations (see http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/about/regulations/) and in The University’s policy on Presentation of Theses. 6 Acknowledgements I am extremely grateful to my supervisors Hal Gladfelder and Jérôme Brillaud, who have been a tremendous help throughout my time in Manchester. I feel privileged to have worked alongside you both. Additional thanks are owed to Naomi Baker, who was a supportive and incisive reader throughout the thesis-writing process. I am also grateful to the University of Manchester for providing the funding that allowed this dissertation to be written. The staff of Carleton University, particularly Julie Murray and Lana Keon, are responsible for my being willing and able to pursue this doctorate. Thank you all. My parents, Michael and Diana, have given me unceasing support and love throughout this process. I will never be able to express how much I owe to you both. My relatives Jackie, Martin, and Vaughan have provided me with a sanctuary in Wales that I will never forget, and becoming closer to them has been the greatest gift I’ve been given during my time in the UK. Thank you to Andrew, Ji, Gwynne, and Nick, for always being willing to hear me out and telling me to shut up and get back to work when I needed it. Finally to Chelsea, thank you for more than everything. 7 The Author Tom Froh is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Manchester. During his time at Manchester, Tom has published a peer-review journal article in Porn Studies, a book review in the Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, and contributed reference entries to the forthcoming The Cambridge Guide to the Eighteenth-Century Novel, 1660-1820. Tom has presented papers at numerous conferences, most notably the 2016 annual meeting of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies in Pittsburgh, the 2017 postgraduate and early-career researcher conference of the British Society for Eighteenth- Century Studies(BSECS) in Swansea, and the 2018 annual BSECS conference at St.Hugh’s College, Oxford. In 2016 he delivered an invited talk to members of the Centre for Eighteenth-Century Studies at the University of York. Tom completed his Master of Arts in English at Carleton University, graduating in 2013. He also completed his undergraduate degree at Carleton in English and History, graduating in 2012. 8 1 Introduction In 1675 John Wilmot, the second Earl of Rochester, destroyed a glass chronometer which stood in the middle of the Westminster Privy Garden. According to the dial’s designer, Father Francis Hall, it was an extremely elaborate construction that showed not only the hours of the day but “many things also belonging to geography, astrology, and astronomy, by the sun’s shadow made visible to the eye” (Hall 19). Before he destroyed it Rochester is reported to have declared: “What… doest thou stand here to fuck time?” (Ellis, ODNB). Rochester’s intentions here are open to interpretation. The dial of the clock might be a phallic pointer, one which penetrates time in the act of quantifying it, with the clock’s decorations mimicking the beautified appearance of a suitor and Rochester playing the role of the jealous lover. Alternatively the act of destroying the clock can be seen as a symbolic attempt to reject the measurement of time, and perhaps even the concept of its passage as a whole. The libertine champions the hedonistic moment, and wishes to exist in time without the rigid structure of days, minutes, and seconds that demarcate its passage. Rochester’s actions highlights the way in which libertinism transgresses temporal boundaries in the same manner as it does sexual ones. Under this reading his destruction of the chronometer is a purposeful disordering or derangement of time which expresses the libertine desire to live more fully within the unstructured moment. Yet only three quarters of a century after Rochester’s actions, the libertine novels of the eighteenth century demonstrate a profoundly different attitude towards time than a straightforward attempt to live within the present.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Yun Mi Hwang Phd Thesis
    SOUTH KOREAN HISTORICAL DRAMA: GENDER, NATION AND THE HERITAGE INDUSTRY Yun Mi Hwang A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of St Andrews 2011 Full metadata for this item is available in St Andrews Research Repository at: http://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/ Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/1924 This item is protected by original copyright This item is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence SOUTH KOREAN HISTORICAL DRAMA: GENDER, NATION AND THE HERITAGE INDUSTRY YUN MI HWANG Thesis Submitted to the University of St Andrews for the Degree of PhD in Film Studies 2011 DECLARATIONS I, Yun Mi Hwang, hereby certify that this thesis, which is approximately 80,000 words in length, has been written by me, that it is the record of work carried out by me and that it has not been submitted in any previous application for a higher degree. I was admitted as a research student and as a candidate for the degree of PhD in September 2006; the higher study for which this is a record was carried out in the University of St Andrews between 2006 and 2010. I, Yun Mi Hwang, received assistance in the writing of this thesis in respect of language and grammar, which was provided by R.A.M Wright. Date …17 May 2011.… signature of candidate ……………… I hereby certify that the candidate has fulfilled the conditions of the Resolution and Regulations appropriate for the degree of PhD in the University of St Andrews and that the candidate is qualified to submit this thesis in application for that degree.
    [Show full text]
  • Dangerous Women: Roxane and the Marquise De Merteuil in Montesquieu’S Les Lettres Persanes and Laclos’ Les Liaisons Dangereuses
    DANGEROUS WOMEN: ROXANE AND THE MARQUISE DE MERTEUIL IN MONTESQUIEU’S LES LETTRES PERSANES AND LACLOS’ LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES Kathleen Gehring A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fu lfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in the Department of Romance Languages (French). Chapel Hill 2007 Approved by: Dr. Philippe Barr Dr. Martine Antle Dr. Hassan Melehy Abstract DANGEROUS WOMEN: ROXANE AND THE MARQUISE DE MERTEUIL IN MONTESQUIEU’S LES LETTRES PERSANES AND LACLOS’ LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES (Under the Direction of Philippe Barr) In eighteenth century France, both Montesquieu and Choderlos de Laclos tackled the question of women’s place in society and the notion of female liberation in their epistolary novels, Les Lettres Persanes and Les Liaisons Dangereuses . In creating two strong female protagonists who launch personal attacks on the men who surround them, both authors demonstrate the potential t hreat that women posed to the male hierarchy if females were to recognize their power and unleash it. Though neither heroine fully succeeds in launching her battle against the society that enslaved them, each makes a case for female freedom and embo dies their author’s views on the French regime of absolute monarchy, as is the case with Montesquieu, and the state of women in general, as is the case with Laclos. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………1 . Chapter I. Les Lettres Persanes ………………………………………………….. 4 II. Les Liaisons Dangereuses …………………………………………… 24 CONCLUSION.…………………………………………………………………..49 WORKS CITED …………………………………………………………………54 iii INTRODUCTION In eighteen th century France, the principles of absolutism that had dominated and formed French government and society for centuries saw opposition, as liberal thinkers began to question the monarchy and the ideology this form of government represents.
    [Show full text]
  • Concevoir Un Parcours De Lecture
    Concevoir un parcours de lecture Objet d’étude Lire et suivre un personnage : itinéraires romanesques Patricia BERTONECHE, PLP LHG, lycée de Bezons Présentation de l’œuvre Ressources disponibles Liens avec l’objet d’étude Démarche pour une séquence Choderlos de Laclos Général et écrivain français Pierre Ambroise Choderlos de Laclos, né à Amiens le 18 octobre 1741 et mort à Tarente, le 5 septembre 1803, est un officier de carrière qui a traversé la Révolution française et a beaucoup écrit sur des sujets très divers, mais qui est surtout connu comme l’auteur du roman épistolaire Les Liaisons dangereuses. Œuvres les plus connues : Une Catin , 1776 Ernestine, opéra-comique, 1777 De l'éducation des femmes, 1783. Journal des Sociétés des amis de la Constitution, 1790-1791 De la Guerre et de la Paix, 1795 Les Liaisons dangereuses, sous-titré Lettres recueillies dans une société et publiées pour l’instruction de quelques autres, est un roman épistolaire de 175 lettres. Cette œuvre littéraire majeure du XVIIIe siècle, qui narre le duo pervers de deux nobles manipulateurs, roués et libertins du siècle des Lumières, est considérée comme un chef-d'œuvre de la littérature française, bien qu'il soit tombé dans un quasi-oubli durant la majeure partie du XIXe siècle, avant d'être redécouvert au début du XXe. Roman inscrit dans la tradition du libertinage de mœurs illustrée par Crébillon fils, roman d'analyse psychologique dans la lignée de La Nouvelle Héloïse de Jean-Jacques Rousseau, il porte à un degré de perfection la forme épistolaire : aucun élément n'est gratuit, chaque épistolier a son style et la polyphonie des correspondances croisées construit un drame en quatre étapes au dénouement moralement ambigu, qui continue à fasciner le lecteur et à susciter de nombreuses adaptations.
    [Show full text]
  • Liaisons Dangereuses
    This is a repository copy of The nature of libertine promises in Laclos's Les 'Liaisons Dangereuses. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/741/ Article: McCallam, D. (2003) The nature of libertine promises in Laclos's Les 'Liaisons Dangereuses. Modern Language Review, 98 (4). pp. 857-869. ISSN 0026-7937 Reuse Unless indicated otherwise, fulltext items are protected by copyright with all rights reserved. The copyright exception in section 29 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 allows the making of a single copy solely for the purpose of non-commercial research or private study within the limits of fair dealing. The publisher or other rights-holder may allow further reproduction and re-use of this version - refer to the White Rose Research Online record for this item. Where records identify the publisher as the copyright holder, users can verify any specific terms of use on the publisher’s website. Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing [email protected] including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. [email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ THE NATURE OF LIBERTINE PROMISES IN LACLOS’S LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES Any examination of the libertines in Choderlos de Laclos’s Les Liaisons dan- gereuses (1782) might start from the premiss that the Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil are at once ‘etres^ de projet’ and ‘etres^ de discours’. By ‘etres^ de projet’ I mean that Merteuil and Valmont constitute themselves through a series of discrete projects of seduction and betrayal.
    [Show full text]
  • Janet Gurkin Altman Approaches to a Form
    Janet Gurkin Altman Approaches to a Form EPISTOLARITY Approaches to a Form By Janet Gurkin Altman Though the letter's potential as an artistic form and a narrative vehicle has been recog­ nized by writers of nearly every nationality and period from Ovid, in the Epistulae Heroidum, to Saul Bellow, in Herzog, episto­ lary literature has only recently become the object of close and sustained critical scrutiny as a result of the revival of the letter form in contemporary fiction, and a growing recogni­ tion that the genre was not, in fact, abandoned following the period of its greatest popularity in the eighteenth century. This was the age that produced such classics as Montesquieu's Lettres persanes, Richardson's Pamela and Clarissa, Rousseau's La Nouvelle Héloïse, Smollett's Humphry Clinker, Goethe's Werth­ er, and Laclos's Les Liaisons dangereuses. Such well-known works, Professor Altman suggests, though they represent a wide di­ versity in style, plot, and characterization, re­ veal a surprising number of similar literary structures or intriguingly persistent patterns when read together with other examples of the epistolary genre. And these structures — re­ curring thematic relations, character types, narrative events and organization — can, in turn, be related to properties inherent in the letter itself. For in numerous instances, these basic formal and functional characteristics of the letter, far from being purely ornamental, significantly affect the way in which meaning is constructed, consciously and unconscious­ ly, by both writers and readers. The epistolary novel. Dr. Altman points out, was born in an age when novelists like Diderot and Sterne had moved beyond story­ telling to indulge in playful reflection upon history and fiction, and the means by which historical and fictional events are recounted.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 1 the Traffic in Obscenity
    Notes Chapter 1 The traffic in obscenity 1 John Ashcroft, Remarks, Federal Prosecutors’ Symposium on Obscenity, National Advocacy Center, Columbia, SC (6 June 2002); Report from the Joint Select Committee on Lotteries and Indecent Advertisements (London: Vacher & Sons, 1908). 2 Steven Marcus, The Other Victorians: A Study of Sexuality and Pornography in Mid-Nineteenth-Century England (New York: Basic, 1964). 3 The earliest legal term for this print crime in Britain was obscenity, and I therefore prefer it to more recent terminology. 4 Michel Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge, 1969, trans. A. M. Sheridan Smith (London: Routledge, 2001). 5 Society for the Suppression of Vice (London: S. Gosnell, 1825), 29. 6 Robert Darnton, The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France (New York: Norton, 1995); Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin, Remediation: Understanding New Media (Cambridge: MIT, 1999); Lisa Gitelman and Geoffrey B. Pingree eds, New Media, 1740–1914 (Cambridge, MA: MIT 2003); and David Thorburn and Henry Jenkins, eds, Rethinking Media Change: The Aesthetics of Transition (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003). 7 Anthony Giddens, Runaway World: How Globalization is Reshaping Our Lives (New York: Routledge, 2002), 1. 8 Jean Baudrillard, The Ecstasy of Communication, ed. Sylvère Lotringer, trans. Bernard and Caroline Schutze (Paris: Editions Galilée, 1988), 22, 24. 9 Laurence O’Toole, Pornocopia: Porn, Sex, Technology and Desire (London: Serpent’s Tale, 1999), 51. 10 Baudrillard, The Ecstasy, 24. 11 Edward Said, Orientalism (New York: Vintage, 1979), 87. 12 Saree Makdisi, Romantic Imperialism: Universal Empire and the Culture of Modernity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 128. 13 Thomas Pakenham, The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, 1991 (London: Abacus, 2001), 140, 122.
    [Show full text]
  • THE REINVENTED LIBERTINE in the NINETEENTH CENTURY By
    TWICE BORN GODS: THE REINVENTED LIBERTINE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY by Tina Maria Dyer A dissertation submitted to the faculty of The University of Utah in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English The University of Utah May 2015 Copyright © Tina Maria Dyer 2015 All Rights Reserved The University of Utah Graduate School STATEMENT OF DISSERTATION APPROVAL The dissertation of Tina Maria Dyer has been approved by the following supervisory committee members: Matthew Potolsky , Chair 06 March 2015 Date Approved Therese De Raedt , Member 06 March 2015 Date Approved Scott Black , Member 06 March 2015 Date Approved Howard Horwitz , Member 06 March 2015 Date Approved Vincent Pecora , Member 06 March 2015 Date Approved and by Barry Weller , Chair/Dean of the Department/College/School of English and by David B. Kieda, Dean of The Graduate School. ABSTRACT The claim has been made that the nineteenth century’s interest in libertine fiction is merely “archival.” This dissertation seeks to contest that claim by examining the reuse of certain well-known, if not notorious, characters from European seduction narratives of the fifteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries—Valmont, Don Juan, and Tannhäuser—in the work of George Gordon, Lord Byron, Charles Baudelaire, Algernon Swinburne, and Aubrey Beardsley. It finds that these seducers are not static characters deployed for the purpose of allusion or critique, but heroes, reworked and rehabilitated as the central figures of literary seductions intended to entice and control the reader and address the perceived inequities of nineteenth-century morality or politics. By applying a four-phase framework for seduction derived from canonical seduction narratives, the argument demonstrates how the reinvented seducers have been stripped down, personalized, redressed, and recontextualized in narratives that seek to compel through seduction and educate through experience.
    [Show full text]
  • SILVA, Mayara Isis.Pdf
    UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE PERNAMBUCO CENTRO ACADÊMICO DO AGRESTE NÚCLEO DE DESIGN MAYARA ISIS SILVA OS SENTIDOS DO FIGURINO NA CONSTRUÇÃO DOS PERSONAGENS EM LIGAÇÕES PERIGOSAS CARUARU 2016 MAYARA ISIS SILVA OS SENTIDOS DO FIGURINO NA CONSTRUÇÃO DOS PERSONAGENS EM LIGAÇÕES PERIGOSAS Monografia apresentada à banca examinadora da Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, como requisito parcial para a obtenção do título de bacharel em Design. Orientador (a): Daniela Bracchi CARUARU 2016 Catalogação na fonte: Bibliotecária – Marcela Porfírio CRB/4 – 1878 S586s Silva, Mayara Isis. Os sentidos do figurino na construção dos personagens em Ligações Perigosas. / Mayara Isis Silva. – 2016. 101f. : il. ; 30 cm. Orientadora: Daniela Bracchi. Monografia (Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso) – Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Design, 2016. Inclui Referências. 1. Trajes – Filmes. 2. Cinema – Semiótica. 3. Moda – Personagens e características. I. Bracchi, Daniela (Orientadora). II. Título. 740 CDD (23. ed.) UFPE (CAA 2016-326) UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE PERNAMBUCO CENTRO ACADÊMICO DO AGRESTE NÚCLEO DE DESIGN PARECER DE COMISSÃO EXAMINADORA DE DEFESA DE PROJETO DE GRADUAÇÃO EM DESIGN DE MAYARA ISIS SILVA “Os sentidos do figurino na construção dos personagens em Ligações Perigosas” A Comissão examinadora, composta pelos membros abaixo, sob a presidência do Primeiro, considera o(a) aluno(a) MAYARA ISIS SILVA APROVADO(A) Caruaru, 11 de Julho de 2016 ________________________________________________________________________________________ Prof. Nome do(a) professor(a) _________________________________________________________________________________________ Prof. Nome do(a) professor(a) Prof. Nome do(a) professor(a) AGRADECIMENTOS Costumo dizer que tive sorte com essa monografia, pelo tema que amei pesquisar e pela minha disposição incessante para escrever, e mesmo com todos os contratempos consegui finalizar a tempo, o que já é muita coisa.
    [Show full text]
  • Mensonge, Pouvoir Et Quelques Mots Latins / Dangerous Liaisons De Stephen Frears]
    Document generated on 10/02/2021 3:06 a.m. 24 images Mensonge, pouvoir et quelques mots latins Dangerous Liaisons de Stephen Frears Maurice Tourigny Jeune cinéma québécois Number 42, Spring 1989 URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/22829ac See table of contents Publisher(s) 24/30 I/S ISSN 0707-9389 (print) 1923-5097 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this review Tourigny, M. (1989). Review of [Mensonge, pouvoir et quelques mots latins / Dangerous Liaisons de Stephen Frears]. 24 images, (42), 74–74. Tous droits réservés © 24 images inc., 1989 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ DANGEROUSLIAISON S DE STEPHEN FREARS POUVOIR ET QUELQUES MOTS LATINS par Maurice Tourigny La marquised eMerteui l (Glenn Close),l evicomt e de Valmont(Joh nMalkovich ) et lavertueus e madame deTourvel . n 1782,Pierr e Choderlos deLaclos , dide Dangerous Liaisons. chaque affectation de ses personnages un militaire parisien, publiait un Frearss'attaqu e à u ngenr ee nvoi ed e magnifiquement rendus par une Glenn E roman,Le sliaison s dangereuses, disparition (sil'o n exceptequelque socca ­ Close brillante en marquise glaciale,désil ­ collection de lettres que s'échangent la sionnelles extravagances) parce qu'habi­ lusionnée, en quelque sorte déchue, marquise de Merteuil et levicomt e de Val- tuellement trop coûteux: le film d'épo­ réduite à s'amuser de la déchéance des mont, ex-amantsdevenu s complices.
    [Show full text]
  • Durham E-Theses
    Durham E-Theses Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereusus and the development of the French novel Rodmell, Graham How to cite: Rodmell, Graham (1967) Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereusus and the development of the French novel, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/7981/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk HI. LES LIAISONS DAffGEREUSES AND THE DEVELOPMENT OP THE NOVEL IN FRANCE The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. 522 III 1. INTRODUCTION It is not our aim, in the third and final section of this work, to attempt to give a panoramic view of the whole, complicated history of the French novel in the eighteenth century. Rather, we shall try to suggest certain factors discernible in this history and then go on to examine certain of Laclos's predecessors, contemporaries and successors in the domain of prose fiction in the light of Les Liaisons dangereuses.
    [Show full text]
  • Erotic Bonds Among Women in Victorian Literature
    571 11 DEBORAH LUTZ Erotic Bonds Among Women in Victorian Literature Anne Lister, an early- nineteenth- century lesbian, wrote in her diary about using Byron’s poetry to seduce – or fl irt with – pretty women. 1 She planned to give the fi fth canto of “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” (1812) to one young woman, who, when Lister asked her if she liked Byron’s poetry, responded “yes, perhaps too well”; when the girl haunted Lister’s “thoughts like some genius of fairy lore,” she pondered sending her a Cornelian heart with a copy of Byron’s lines on the subject. 2 Women she knew blushed when they “admitted” to having read Don Juan (1819– 1824) and spoke of being “almost afraid” to read Cain (1821). 3 To one of her lovers, Lister read aloud Glenarvon (1816), Lady Caroline Lamb’s melodramatic, fi ctional- ized version of her affair with Byron; they found it a “very dangerous sort of book.” 4 The novel’s heroine cross- dresses, a practice women in Lister’s social circle sometimes used to woo straight women. 5 Lister even played with performing Byronism in her romantic dalliances. 6 Like a bold Byronic hero, she gazed on attractive women with a “penetrating countenance,” and looked “unutterable things” at them, which led them to confess to wishing she “had been a gent.” 7 She tried to “mould” young women “to her purpose,” treating them like toys. 8 But it wasn’t only Byron who pro- vided Lister with ways to act on her own sexual identity. Like many in the nineteenth century who had little access to information about “deviant” types of sexuality, she read classical texts for their descriptions of same- sex desire, especially Juvenal’s Sixth Satire , with its famous lesbian orgy.
    [Show full text]
  • Sade-Omizing Sexuality: Deconstructing the Gender Binary Through the Sadian Sexual Predator
    SADE-OMIZING SEXUALITY: DECONSTRUCTING THE GENDER BINARY THROUGH THE SADIAN SEXUAL PREDATOR by Jennifer Lee Lawrence BA, West Virginia University, 2001 MA, West Virginia University, 2004 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2013 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Jennifer Lee Lawrence It was defended on March 22, 2013 and approved by Giuseppina Mecchia, PhD, Associate Professor, French and Italian Clark Muenzer, PhD, Associate Professor, German Francesca Savoia, PhD, Professor, French and Italian Dissertation Advisor: Todd Reeser, PhD, Professor, French and Italian ii Copyright © by Jennifer Lee Lawrence 2013 iii SADE-OMIZING SEXUALITY: DECONSTRUCTING THE GENDER BINARY THROUGH THE SADIAN SEXUAL PREDATOR Jennifer Lee Lawrence, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2013 The Marquis de Sade became famous, or infamous depending on one’s perspective, for the ferocious depictions of sexual predation which are found throughout his literary works, and consequently, the character of the sexual predator is indispensable to understanding the author’s philosophical standpoint. For Sade, the laws of nature determine the sex of the individual, but they also require him or her to satisfy a set of physical needs which reject the masculine/feminine binary as often as they embrace it. This blurring of the lines between masculinity and femininity is thus characteristic of the Sadian sexual predator who must constantly seek satisfaction for his needs regardless of social and religious constraints on his behavior and on the sex of his victim.
    [Show full text]