Revolutionary Romance: on the Incompatibility of Realism and Socialism in the Nineteenth Century Novel
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Revolutionary Romance: On the Incompatibility of Realism and Socialism in the Nineteenth Century Novel By George Paul Stain M. A., B. A. (Hons.) School of Humanities This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Western Australia. School of Humanities, Discipline of European Studies [December 2009] i Declaration I declare that this thesis is my own account of my research and contains as its main content work that has not previously been submitted for a degree at any university. George Paul Stain. ii Table of Contents Table of Contents ...................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................iii Abstract ............................................................................................................................. iv Introduction: Romance and the Realist Novel ..........................................................................1 Chapter 1. The Foundations of Socialist Romance ................................................................ 24 Chapter 2. George Sand ........................................................................................................41 Chapter 3. Russian Utopian Socialism ................................................................................... 55 Chapter 4. Dostoyevsky ......................................................................................................... 81 Chapter 5. Wagner and Redemption .................................................................................... 108 Chapter 6. Morris, Realism and the Romance ......................................................................124 Chapter 7. Socialist Literature and Political Change ............................................................ 150 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 164 Bibliography .......................................................................................................................... 170 iii Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge the help and encouragement I have received from both my family and supervisor, Dr. Peter Morgan. Without their encouragement this study would not have been completed. I acknowledge and thank my family and friends for their support during the long time it has taken to complete this study. I would especially wish to mention my mother and sister, Lynn, along with my friends Lucy Leigh and Peter Conole. I hope that the work can stand as a testament to their help. iv Abstract The English novelist and socialist George Orwell asked why major realist writers such as Dickens did not support socialism. Indeed, realists and socialists rather than being allies against injustice, as may be expected, remained hostile toward each other. This study looks at the period from the 1848 revolutions until the end of the nineteenth century and seeks to explain the reasons for the animosity between literary realists and socialists. The study concentrates on the socialist adoption of the romance as its literary form of choice as opposed to the realist novel. It is proposed that the romance contains the idea that a moral end can be achieved by immoral means. Radical socialists associated utopian thought, which provided the vision of a better future, with the romance, which stressed the role of the heroic ethic to destroy injustice. The romance generated the doctrine of the redeemed hero by which a revolutionary hero may transgress traditional morality, even to the extent of murder, provided the hero offered themselves up as atonement. This idea established itself in non-democratic socialism and found its expression in writers such as Eugène Sue, Richard Wagner, William Morris and Jack London. In contrast, realist novels defend traditional values and decry the consequences of the utopian intervention in society. Dostoyevsky’s debates with major socialist theorists forms the major realist figure to challenge the assumptions in the socialist romance in this study. He could not accept the morally dubious position put forward by the socialist romance. This moral conflict rendered co-operation between realism and socialism improbable. 1 Introduction: Romance and the Realist Novel Orwell and the realist novel Prior to leaving for the Spanish Civil War the English socialist journalist and novelist George Orwell noted that literary realists did not join the socialist movement. He also drew attention to the low literary standards of most socialist literature. “The real socialist writers, the propagandist writers, have always been dull, empty windbags…” 1 Orwell did not just refer to hack writers but specifically to luminaries such as George Bernard Shaw and Henri Barbusse. He further attacked the utopian stream in socialism, which alienated most people from socialism. These three observations, the antagonism between certain forms of socialism and literary realism, socialist disinterest in literary values and the role of utopian thought, form a major focus of this study. Like Orwell the present work accepts that a profound antagonism existed between literary realism’s method of descriptive prose and the utopian socialist effort to change the world. It will be argued that this difference develops from the literary realists’ acceptance of traditional morality, whereas the effort to create a new secular morality develops from utopian thought and is expressed in the socialist romance. Utopian thought supplied a morality restricted to a minority of the population and which rested not on analysis of contemporary society but on received knowledge. 2 A radical section of the socialist movement assimilated the arguments of the novelist and political theorist Jean-Jacques Rousseau. They remained dubious about people’s self- determination, which might not express the best interests of society but only immediate self-interest. 3 The effort to change the world according to a utopian programme would be achieved by revolutionary heroes and would not result from the evolution of present society. The revolutionary hero possessed the knowledge of how a better world could be constructed. This divided the world into those with the knowledge of how the world should function and the rest who were interested in immediate material gains. Utopian thought divided humanity into two and required a new morality to usher in this new world. Those with the knowledge acted according to a morality that could attain this better world and regarded others as living in ignorance. Rousseau refers to those who direct the new society as a heroes but Orwell presents such actions as dictatorial. 4 Unlike literary realism utopian socialism did not appeal to a universal ethic, but rather attached most importance to the recognition of knowledge inaccessible to most people and the actions of a revolutionary elite. The germ of the heroic ethic already existed in utopian thought and when associated with the romance it developed into the doctrine of the redeemed hero. 1 George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier, London, Left Book Club, 1937, pp. 214-216. 2 Karl Mannheim, Ideology and Utopia, An Introduction To the Sociology of Knowledge, London, Routledge, 1991, p. 36. 3 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, ‘Social Contract’ in Social Contract, Discourse on the Virtue Most Necessary For a Hero, Political Fragments and Geneva Manuscript, Hanover, University Press of New England, 1994, p. 147. 4 Rousseau, ‘Discourse on the Virtue Most Necessary for a Hero’ in Social Contract, p. 2 and Orwell, Road to Wigan Pier, p. 211. 2 Conspiratorial socialism and literature This thesis analyses the relationship of the romance to radical socialism and seeks to explain the antagonism between such socialism and literary realism. The study argues that the link that existed between conspiratorial socialism and the romance relied on utopian thought to provide a universal goal, which the romance tradition lacked. The romance provided a critique of conventional values through the role of the hero but utopian thought provided a goal for humanity. The thesis looks at how the romance is used to change the humanitarian intention of providing for the best of worlds to later support for terrorism. This work recognises that the literary realists provided a potent critique of such radical socialist position, which effectively prevented any co-operation between the two movements. Conspiratorial socialism used the romance to provide a negative critique of present society. However, the romance lacked a universal goal on which to focus human activity. The romance plot described the subjective actions of two people united by love for each other. Utopian thought provided the universal aspect to conspiratorial socialist ideology that the appeal to the romance hero lacked. According to utopian thought social conventions and ignorance of arcane knowledge prevented people from acting in the best interest of humanity. The romance and utopian thought both view contemporary society negatively. 5 They combined the universal rational appeal to a better world from utopian thought with the romance’s ability to transgress social conventions. Utopian thought does not require an analysis of present society in order to represent a better future. It presents any opposition to its schemes as acts of self-interest which ignored the public