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'Ecriture feminine' as autobiography in Walter Pater. Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Rajan, Gita. Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 04/10/2021 02:25:59 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/185119 INFORMATION TO USERS The most advanced technology has been used to photograph and reproduce this manuscript from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissert:~tion.copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand corner and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. V·M·I University Microfilms International A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, M148106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Order Number 9100048 Ecriture flminine as autobiography in WaIter Pater Rajan, Gita, Ph.D. The University of Arizona, 1990 Copyright (£)1990 by Rajnn, Gitn. All rights reserved. U·M·I 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Arbor, MI 48106 1 ECRITURE FEMININE AS AUTOBIOGRAPHY IN WALTER PATER by Gita Rajan Copyright co Gita Rajan 1990 A Dissertation Submitted To The Faculty Of The DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH In Partial Fulfillment Of The Requirements For The Degree Of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In The Graduate College UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 1 990 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Final Examination Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Gita Rajan .- entitled ECRITURE FEMININE as Autobiography in Walter Pater and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of ____D_o~c_t_o_r __ o_f __ P_h_i_l_o_s_o~p_h~y __________________________________ _ Date Dr.~ld Monsman 2 ~ e.-~~ Dr. Ro ert Con Davis £0 Date Dr. Suresh Raval Date t3~f±I3~ Dr. Barbara Babcock Date Date Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate's submission of the final copy of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. ~-- Disser at~on D~rector Date I Dr. Gerald Monsman 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under the rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgement of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED: --4G, ~ 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I wish to thank Srimad Andavan for His blessings throughout this endeavor and want to dedicate this work to Him. I want to thank Professor Ian Fletcher, a great teacher, for introducing me to Walter Pater and instilling in me the integrity necessary for critical inquiry. I am very grateful to Dr. Robert Con Davis for being my mentor and friend, and guiding me during the most difficult times while writing this dissertation. I offer my gratitude to Dean Annette Kolodny for her faith in my work. I must express my thanks to Dr. Barbara Babcock for her support and valuable insights into my work. I want to thank to Dr. Gerald Monsman, my dissertation director, and Dr. Suresh Raval. I also want to thank Mr. Lee Sorensen from the University of Arizona library for his invaluable assistance in locating precise art history and criticism texts to compliment my Pater scholarship. I want to thank Dr. Christopher Johnson and Joey Lorrey of the Language Research Center for their untiring patience and cooperation in completing this work. Finally, and most importantly, I want to thank my son and companion, Rohin Rajan for standing by me during this long and arduous task. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract 6 I. Introduction 7 II. "Diaphaneite" to Gaston de Latour: Pater's Arc Of Anxiety 29 III. Imaginary Portraits: Voices From The Margins 65 a) A Prince Of Court Painters 105 b) Denys L'Auxerrois 141 c) Sebastian Von Storck 171 d) Duke Carl Of Rosenmold 215 IV. Pater's Letters: Representation Under Erasure 237 V. Conclusion 266 VI. A Select Bihlography 271 6 ABSTRACT This is the first study that examines the concept of autobiography in Walter Pater's works using ecriture feminine. Ecriture feminine serves as a critical model that interrogates the semiotics behind Pater's strategy in the composition of his oeuvre. The study goes beyond the scope of traditional scholarship by reading Pater's texts not only as thematic expressions of his artistic ability, but also by uncovering his hidden political agenda by examining the language of the texts against the grain of his cultural milieu. By positing a speaking subject at the intersection of language and text, this study reveals how Pater uses intertextuality to portray his marginalization from the intellectual and cultural community of his time. This study focuses mainly upon "Diaphaneite," Gaston de Latour, ImaEinm:y Portraits, and his letters. The validity of the study clearly lies in its systematic inquiry of the concept of a gendered speaking subject in Pater's texts, particularly one that is structured both rhetorically and semiotocally through the typical Victorian metaphor of crisis yet enunciates a radical response to Victorian ideology. 7 Ecriture Feminine As Autobiography In Walter Pater Autobiography in the traditional sense, claims to position the narrator's self within "life" and the referentiality of language. The authenticity of these texts derives from the narrator and is maintained through a temporal sequence--birth/struggle/doubt played out via the narrator's recounting of life that leads to faith/resolution/transcendence. Such a theory of narrativity assumes a transparency of language while inscribing the life of the narrator. Moreover, the life thus described self-consciously imitates the great writers of autobiography from Augustine onwards. However, contemporary critical theorists argue against such authenticity in autobiography and have consequently displaced the presuppositions behind the narrating "I." It may be, following Freud, that the human subject is no longer viewed as a self­ created identity but one who is fashioned into an acknowledged "I" by its unconscious mirroring of another's view of itself, primarily its father/mother. l The self in attempting to consolidate this fictional identity responds as if provoked to speak. Lacan in rewriting Freud, takes this hypothesis further by arguing that any expression of the self, by now definitely fictional, is possible only through linguistic structuring. The text, thus, functions as a narrative artifice signaling an identity or a presence of a speaking subject that cannot 8 exist outside language. Hence, the text attempts to suggest fact through artifact as enunciated'by the speaking subject--creating an important shift from the earlier notion of autobiographical texts--a shift from the narrator's "I" to the reader's encounter with a text. Further, autobiographical texts presuppose a fixity or completion of the self, underscoring the notion of teleology and epistemic origin.2 Consequently, a literary or spiritual autobiography is allowed three kinds of closures to "make meaning" of life. The text can indicate closure by showing the end of the spiritual struggle and the eventual transcendence of the self. Or it can merely attempt closure, signifying a struggle with issues of doubt and faith, perhaps signaling toward an intermittent moment of transcendence. Or it can apologize for non closure, indicating unresolved doubt, forcing the reader to interpret closure and transcendence into the text by tracing a pattern of hope within the text itself. Thus, what the narrating "I" does not make explicit, the reader infers. Interestingly, this tripartite structure has prevailed primarily because of the unstated presuppositions behind creating an identity. Both Freud and Lacan have unveiled the patriarchal bias of language, showing how the subject of discourse appropriates the desires of the male/father in mirroring the self. In literature, this effect is evidenced by claims to authority of "truth," where the text provides the epistemological ground for "seeing" such truth. Numerous scholars, Julia Kristeva among them, have pointed out that the presupposition in Western culture is a legacy 9 of the fundamental belief in the authority of the first "Word" as handed down by the Father/Son in the Bible. Each successive text thereafter points to the one before it as already having presented the "truth"--thereby strengthening the construction of order, history, and a meaningful world.

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