Vampirism and Entropy in Nineteenth-Century Literature. Michael James Dennison Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College
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Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1996 Delights of the Night and Pleasures of the Void: Vampirism and Entropy in Nineteenth-Century Literature. Michael James Dennison Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Dennison, Michael James, "Delights of the Night and Pleasures of the Void: Vampirism and Entropy in Nineteenth-Century Literature." (1996). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 6332. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/6332 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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"DELIGHTS OP THE NIGHT AND PLEASURES OP THE VOID": VAMPIRISM AND ENTROPY IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY LITERATURE A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Interdepartmental Program in Comparative Literature by Michael James Dennison B.F.A., University of Nebraska at Omaha, 1988 M.F.A., Louisiana State University, 1991 December, 1996 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 9720346 UMI Microform 9720346 Copyright 1997, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Acknowledgments I am particularly thankful to Sigrid M. King without whom this dissertation could not have been brought to completion. Her patience, insight, and knowledge have been invaluable. Her support, inspiration, and encouragement have been evident in every aspect from its first conception to its final completion. Without her generosity it could not have been completed. I dedicate this dissertation to her. I am also thankful for encouragement, insight, and advice from Jacqueline Parker, Dennis Parker, Delia Poey, Elizabeth Dennison, Eric Pape, Scott Peeples, and David Starkey. Jim Springer Borck deserves special thanks for his support through the editoral assistantship I occupied at The Eighteenth Century: A Current Bibliography in the English Department at Louisiana State University during the first period of my research. I am grateful to the Graduate Program in Comparative Literature for awarding me the Charles Stumberg Fellowship for 1996. The librarians at the Beaver Campus of the University of Penn State have been instrumental in providing me with resources to complete this dissertation. Pat Groeller is owed a special debt of gratitude for her professional assistance in supplying me with many articles and books through the Penn State Library system. Her help was invaluable. ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. John J. Humphries, director of this dissertation, has been mentor, friend, inspirer, and teacher without equal. The day in August, 1988 when I first walked into his office is one of the happiest days of my life. I am very grateful to him for making this dissertation possible. I also want to thank the other members of my dissertation committee, Gale H. Carrithers, Jr., Robert J. Edgeworth, Joseph V. Ricapito, Gregory B. Stone, and Wilson Marston, for their helpful advice and suggestions for revision. iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of Contents Acknowledgments ............................................. ii Abstract .................................................. v Introduction .............................................. 1 Chapter 1 Femmes Damnees and Fantasists: Gautier .... 14 2 Femmes Damnees and Fantasists: P o e ............ 50 3 Baudelaire and His Followers: The Muse Un-Dead ................................ 113 4 Dracula and Entropy: "On Moonlight Rays as Elemental Dust" .... 145 5 Art of Entropy: "This is Indeed Life Itself"..............206 C o n c l u s i o n ..................................................250 Works Cited ..................................................261 V i t a .........................................................268 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Abstract This dissertation explores the figure of the vampire in the nineteenth-century as a metaphor of disorder, especially as interpreted through the root metaphor of the second law of thermodynamics, also known as entropy. The theoretical approach used in the reading of several vampire texts is an entropy theory of literature, a mostly aesthetic approach of relevance to a comparatist study on vampirism and entropy. Chapter One considers the female vampire in one of her earliest nineteenth-century incarnations, the seductive Clarimonde of Theophile Gautier’s La Morte amoureuse. Chapter Two is a study of the vampire women in Edgar Allan Poe's arabesque tales followed by a discussion of his Eureka. Chapter Three is a study of the vampire and disorder in the poetry of Charles Baudelaire and his followers, including Gabriele D'Annunzio, Maurice Rollinat, and Arthur Symons. Chapter Pour is devoted to Bram Stoker's Dracula. focusing on Dracula's women and proposing that Mina Murray is the principal character of the novel. Chapter Five examines several works of fiction concerning art works with vampiric tendencies. After a consideration of short stories by Edgar Allan Poe, Jan Neruda, and M. R. James, the chapter concludes with a study of the vampire aesthetics in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. In the Conclusion there is a brief discussion of the survival of the figure of the vampire as personification of a remnant culture of Decadence in twentieth-century film and popular fiction. vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Introduction The aim of this comparatist study is to explore the figure of the vampire as a metaphor of disorder in the nineteenth century, especially as interpreted through the root metaphor of the second law of thermodynamics, also known as entropy. My main thesis is that the modern vampire (first introduced into literature by Lord Byron in the 1810s) increased in importance through the nineteenth century as a figure in poetry and fiction to become a major literary myth by the Decadent era due to its entropic characteristics. It is my intention to show that vampirism in nineteenth century literature is a highly flexible and dramatic metaphor for entropy, degeneration, and decadence. Appropriately, the theoretical approach I use in the readings of vampire literature throughout the following five chapters is an entropy theory of literature, a mostly aesthetic approach of particular relevance to a comparatist study on vampirism and entropy. For this study I will use the definition of a vampire that Brian J. Frost offers in The Monster With a Thousand Faces: Guises of the Vampire in Myth and Literature: A vampire is fundamentally a parasitic force or being, malevolent and self- seeking by nature, whose paramount desire is to absorb the life force or ingest the vital fluids of a living organism in order to sate its perverse hunger and perpetuate its unnatural existence. (27) 1 Reproduced with permission