Figures of Degeneration in Fin-De-Siècle French Literature
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Figures of Degeneration in Fin-de-Siècle French Literature Françoise Belot A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2013 Reading Committee: Gary Handwerk, Chair Marshall Brown Douglas Collins Evelyne Ender Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Comparative Literature Copyright 2013 Françoise Belot University of Washington Abstract Figures of Degeneration in fin-de-siècle French Literature Françoise Belot Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Dr. Gary Handwerk English This dissertation explores how authors used the biological metaphor of degeneration to explain and condemn the decline of France in the first decades of the Third Republic. Degeneration was originally a medical coinage used in studies of specific forms of mental illness, but progressively became a recurrent term connecting biology and cultural criticism, and allowed late-nineteenth-century authors to theorize social decay. Faith in science having been adopted as the more or less official dogma of the Third Republic, and doctors having achieved great prestige as well as political power, the medical concept of degeneration took hold as an explanatory model for countless physical, social and moral afflictions. Fin-de-siècle France offers a remarkably rich ground for observing the diffusion of such a discourse into literature. This dissertation focuses on the fantasies of decline and loss that pervade the literature of the period and draws on scholarship about degeneration in British literature, but seeks to illuminate the “Frenchness” of the corpus. Indeed, surprisingly, no systematic study of the pervasiveness of degenerative tropes in French literature of the period has been undertaken. While the authors of the texts under study (Bourget, Daudet, Zola, Verne, Bertrand, Goncourt) did not constitute a unified literary school, their shared concerns connect their fictions as diagnoses of and correctives to a collective malaise. Coalescing around three figures of degeneration—social climbers, prostitutes, and colonials—these concerns revolved around perceived threats to social order, moral values and organic health in the early Third Republic. Contemporary scientific theories offered a template for the characterization of degenerates, but these authors appropriated and reworked such discourse in their fictions to their own ends of social and political critique. Portrayed as both symptoms and causes of a larger degeneration, the protagonists are in turn censured and pitied, as these sharply individualized figures stand for a pathological and reprehensible milieu. The degenerate protagonists become the diseased norm in the Opportunist Republic, collapsing individual deviance into a collective malaise. Acknowledgements I would like to thank Gary Handwerk, Evelyne Ender, Marshall Brown, Douglas Collins and Stevan Harrell for serving on my dissertation committee. The drafting process was an endeavor several years in the making, and I appreciate my committee’s continued support. Stevan Harrell was very gracious, reading a dissertation on a topic totally unrelated to his own research. Douglas Collins brought a fresh perspective on some aspects of my dissertation, which I look forward to investigating in the future. Early on, a conversation with Marshall Brown helped me redirect my project in the direction I eventually adopted. He also offered help, guidance and writing tips throughout the years. My deepest gratitude goes to Gary Handwerk and Evelyne Ender for their unrelenting commitment to seeing me through the dissertation process. At times when I thought that I would give up, their encouragements provided much-needed emotional and practical support. I can never thank them enough for the many hours they spent reading and commenting on my numerous drafts, for the useful suggestions they gave me, and for their optimism. They have been tremendous mentors and true friends. I would have been lost without their help. The scholars at Phinished.org cheered me on during the last year of writing. Their encouragement and advice eased the final months, and I am thankful that I got to share this journey with them. My real-life fellow dissertation travelers have also helped, by showing that it could be done, by celebrating tiny milestones with me and by providing tips and encouragement along the way. I also have to thank my parents, who, after a few years, stopped asking about my project and its anticipated completion date, but continued to believe in me. Finally, I thank Maia and Elise, my beautiful daughters, who provided a constant reminder that there are very important things outside of the dissertation. Dedication I dedicate this dissertation to my husband, Drew, who has always believed in me and encouraged me. Drew, you are my best friend. You have always been there for me. You picked me up when I was discouraged and cheered me along. Truly, I could never have finished the dissertation without your help. Thank you. Table of Contents Introduction. Degeneration in fin-de-siècle France ....................................................... 1 Chapter One. The Politics of Darwinian Devolution .................................................... 25 Chapter Two. The roman de filles: Diseased Domesticity ............................................ 89 Chapter Three. Going Native: Race and Degeneration in Colonial Literature ............ 148 Works Cited ............................................................................................................. 202 1 Introduction Degeneration in fin-de-siècle France From its early formulation as a medical term concerning specific mental illnesses, degeneration evolved throughout the second half of the nineteenth century into a comprehensive way of theorizing otherness. It was largely prevalent in France at the end of the century, an era most concerned with the various manifestations of the perceived decay of civilization. The authority of degeneration theory in fin-de-siècle France has much to do with the political situation of the 1880s and 1890s, as the historical convulsions that marked the last decades of the century were viewed by some as evidence of the decline of the country and of its citizens. The Third Republic was established in the wake of the 1870 defeat in the Franco-Prussian war, which precipitated the fall of Napoleon III and the end of the Second Empire. The Commune of 1871, which was severely repressed by republican troops, marked the last popular uprising in a turbulent century. Its memory played an important part in determining the course of the new regime, whose leaders sought to divorce the idea of the republic from that of revolution. However, many in the elites continued to fear sudden outbursts of popular enthusiasm or anger.1 François Furet, in his history of the Revolution, writes: “Thus, the last great uprising in the French revolutionary tradition [the Commune] is also that which induced the greatest fear and shed the most blood, as if it were the ultimate exorcism of a violence that had been inseparable from our public life since the end of the eighteenth century. In 2 this Paris in flames, the French Revolution says farewell to history. Yet what the bourgeoisie sees is the opposite: the evidence of a terrifying threat more than ever looming over its destiny and the future of civilization” (489).2 As we shall see, the uses of degeneration theory shifted during the last decades of the century, from medical discourse to cultural and social thought. Degeneration’s hold may also be traced in literature of the period. As Stephen Arata states in Fictions of Loss, his study of degeneration in popular British narratives, “a nation, or any imagined community, is held together in part by the stories it generates about itself.” (1). Indeed, works of fiction from a certain period may be read as particular, “stylized answers,” responses to “questions posed by the situation in which they arose” (Burke 1). Surprisingly, considering the French origin of the medical theory of degeneration and the prevalence of the trope in social and cultural discourse on France, there have been no comprehensive studies of degenerate figures in French literature.3 My focus in this dissertation is on works set and written during the last decades of the nineteenth century in which authors present characters that exhibit degenerative traits. These authors do not constitute a distinct literary school; their aesthetics and politics do not form a cohesive whole. But what interests me is that they deploy the vocabulary and imagery of degeneration in ways that reveal shared concerns for the fate of the nation, its culture, its citizens’ minds and bodies. This is not to say that the fictions studied here are a reflection of a historical reality, but rather that they participate in the elaboration of a discursive paradigm specific to that age, by using and transforming concepts borrowed from other types of discourse. As such, they constitute a form of cultural criticism in themselves, and 3 attending to the historical specificity of the response that they propose to the situation at hand contributes to our understanding of the period. The political and social anxieties brought about by the bruising defeat in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 and subsequent establishment of the republic were manifold: loss of relevance on the international stage, loss of political power to the uncivilized masses, decline of traditional social and religious values, confusion about