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Thomas De Quincey's “On Murder Considered As One of the Fine Arts Roxanne Covelo Thomas De Quincey’s “On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts”: Black Humour and the French Decadents Aluna de doutorado: Roxanne Covelo Orientador: Prof. Luiz Fernando Ferreira Sá Tese apresentada ao Programa de Pós-Graduação em Literaturas de língua inglesa, da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, como requisito parcial à obtenção do título de Doutora. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Estudos Literários Literaturas de língua inglesa – Poéticas da modernidade UFMG - Janeiro 2019 0 1 ABSTRACT Thomas De Quincey (1785–1859) has always maintained a minor but steady following in French literary circles, due primarily to his initial reception by the Decadents in the late nineteenth century, when his work was translated, commentated, and imitated by literary tastemakers like Charles Baudelaire and Théophile Gautier. The present doctoral dissertation examines a specific text of De Quincey’s – “On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts,” first published in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine in 1827, with sequels in 1839 and 1854 – in relation to Decadent ideas on aesthetics, nature, and transgression. The dissertation also considers the black humour of De Quincey’s essay, which was selected by André Breton for inclusion in his 1940 study, the Anthologie de l’humour noir, where it appears alongside similar texts from a number of French Decadent authors. What is the nature of black humour, and how does it relate to De Quincey’s ideas on pleasure and violence as explored in the “On Murder” series? Keywords: black humour, aesthetic theory, French Decadent authors RESUMO Thomas De Quincey (1785–1859) sempre manteve uma boa reputação nos círculos literários franceses devido principalmente à sua recepção inicial pelos Decadentistas no final do século XIX, quando seu trabalho foi traduzido, comentado e imitado por autores influentes desta vanguarda, como Charles Baudelaire e Théophile Gautier. O presente estudo examina um texto específico do autor (o ensaio humorístico “Do Assassinato Considerado como uma das Belas Artes,” publicado pela primeira vez na revista literária Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine em 1827, com continuações em 1839 e 1854) em relação a ideias Decadentistas sobre estética, natureza e transgressão. O humor negro também é investigado no ensaio, que foi selecionado por André Breton para inclusão em seu estudo de 1940, a Antologia do Humor Negro, onde ele aparece junto a textos de autores franceses Decadentistas. Como funciona o humor negro e como ele se relaciona às ideias de De Quincey sobre prazer e violência, conforme ilustradas pela série “Do Assassinato”? Palavras-chave: humor negro, estética, autores franceses Decadentistas 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......................................................................................................................................5 A NOTE ON THE TEXT.........................................................................................................................................6 INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................................................................7 CHAPTER ONE: THE ESSAYS 1. Introduction......................................................................................................................................................22 2. “On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts” (1827).............................................................................23 3. “A Second Paper on Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts” (1839)...................................................28 4. “Postscript” (1854)...........................................................................................................................................32 5. Conclusion and sources....................................................................................................................................37 CHAPTER TWO: THE ART OF MURDER AND ARS RHETORICA 1. Introduction......................................................................................................................................................40 2. Satire and Parody.............................................................................................................................................44 3. “On Murder” as mock-encomium...................................................................................................................46 4. An early rhetorical exercise.............................................................................................................................50 5. De Quincey and rhetoric..................................................................................................................................54 6. Conclusion and sources....................................................................................................................................61 CHAPTER THREE: BLACK HUMOUR 1. Introduction......................................................................................................................................................66 2. Freud’s Galgenhumor.......................................................................................................................................68 3. Self-violence and suicide..................................................................................................................................71 4. Breton’s humour noir.......................................................................................................................................73 5. Conclusion and sources....................................................................................................................................79 CHAPTER FOUR: BOREDOM AND VIOLENCE IN THE METROPOLIS 1. Introduction......................................................................................................................................................83 2. De Quincey and the problem of habituation.................................................................................................85 3. Satiety and the city...........................................................................................................................................87 4. De Quincey the early flâneur..........................................................................................................................91 3 5. Ancient cities and circensian violence............................................................................................................93 6. Caligula, Nero, and the art of murder...........................................................................................................99 7. Conclusion and sources.................................................................................................................................103 CHAPTER FIVE: “SCHOLARLIKE BADINAGE” AND DE QUINCEY’S COMIC STRATEGIES 1. Introduction....................................................................................................................................................107 2. The hack-journalist and the gentleman-scholar...........................................................................................110 3. De Quincey, humour, and Jean Paul............................................................................................................115 4. Digression as strategy.....................................................................................................................................118 5. Comic anecdotage...........................................................................................................................................123 6. Comic slang.....................................................................................................................................................125 7. Conclusion and sources..................................................................................................................................128 CHAPTER SIX: CONTRE NATURE – THE DANDY 1. Introduction....................................................................................................................................................133 2. The dandy’s sang-froid..................................................................................................................................135 3. Rejecting the nature-cult...............................................................................................................................137 4. The cult of artificiality...................................................................................................................................138 5. The dandy and early drug culture................................................................................................................141 6. Conclusion and sources.................................................................................................................................144 CHAPTER SEVEN: DE QUINCEY’S ARTIST AS POÈTE MAUDIT 1. Introduction....................................................................................................................................................149 2. Foucault’s artist-criminal..............................................................................................................................151 3. Nordau’s degenerate......................................................................................................................................155
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