'Rapport and Subversion: Mesmer's Treatment of Paradis and Its Influence
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Jane Madell 'Rapport and Subversion: Mesmer's Treatment of Paradis and Its Influence On the Fiction of E.T.A. Hoffmann' and The Cost of Light (a novel) PhD in Creative and Critical Writing School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing University of East Anglia October 2015 "This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that use of any information derived therefrom must be in accordance with current UK Copyright Law. In addition, any quotation or extract must include full attribution." 1 Abstract This is a thesis in two parts, a novel and a critical project. Both are about Maria- Theresa von Paradis, a blind and possibly 'hysterical' pianist and composer, and Doctor Franz Anton Mesmer, the founder of Mesmerism, who temporarily managed to cure her with this controversial treatment. In the novel, The Cost of Light, Paradis's confessions to Mesmer allow me to show that her possible hysterical blindness arises from a complex cluster of motives, for example, a refusal to see, and too great a desire to witness, forbidden sights. In this way, the novel demonstrates the malleable nature of eighteenth-century hysteria, which, for Paradis, transforms itself constantly in relation to her psychosocial conditions and familial constraints. Her sudden blindness, her miraculous recovery of sight at Doctor Mesmer's hands and then its subsequent loss could therefore all be considered hysterical symptoms. The related critical project, 'Rapport and Subversion: Mesmer's Treatment of Paradis and Its Influence on the Fiction of E.T.A. Hoffmann' is divided into three chapters. 'Chapter 1: The Blind Musician' explores the nature of Paradis's possibly hysterical blindness and suggests that, for her, blindness may well have had subversive and creative compensations. Her experiences are compared to those of the blind harpist, Charlotta Seuerling, and to those of Beethoven. 'Chapter 2: The Miracle Doctor' argues that the relationship between Mesmer and his famous patient and between other mesmerists and their subjects is one of power and control, reinforcing normative eighteenth-century gender roles. It 2 examines the effectiveness of Mesmerism in treating Paradis's blindness, and argues that her possible hysteria, and other factors, were potent subversive forces in undermining Mesmer's treatment. 'Chapter 3: The Mesmerised Writer' establishes how E.T.A. Hoffmann's characters in 'The Sandman', 'Councillor Krespel' and 'New Year's Eve Adventure' operate as paradigms for the Paradis/Mesmer relationship. This chapter also shows how Hoffmann's awareness of Mesmerism influenced his short stories, 'Automata', 'The Magnetiser' and 'The Golden Pot.' 3 Rapport and Subversion: Mesmer's Treatment of Paradis and Its Influence on the Fiction of E.T.A. Hoffmann Abstract.................................................................................................pp.2-3 List of Contents.....................................................................................pp.4-5 Introduction..........................................................................................pp.6-9 Chapter 1: The Blind Musician........................................................pp.10-50 1.1 Maria-Theresa von Paradis, Patient and Musician............pp. 10-17 1.2 The Origins and Nature of her 'Hysterical' Blindness.......pp.18-33 1.3 Creative Compensations: Paradis, Seuerling, Beethoven...pp.34-50 Chapter 2: The Miracle Doctor........................................................pp.51-81 2.1 Doctor Franz Anton Mesmer, Miracle-Worker................pp.51-56 2.2 The Mesmeric Relationship................................................pp.57-62 2.3 An Interrupted 'Cure' for Blindness?.................................pp.63-81 Chapter 3: The 'Mesmerised' Writer.............................................pp.82-143 3.1 E.T.A. Hoffmann, Under the Influence.............................pp.82-87 3.2 Hoffmann's Mesmeric Couples........................................pp. 88-119 Olympia and Coppelius.........................................................................pp.88- 103 Antonia and Doctor Miracle................................................................pp.104-111 Giulietta and Dapertutto......................................................................pp.112-119 3.3 Mesmerism in 'Automata,' 'The Magnetiser' and 'The Golden Pot’.........................................................................................................pp.120-143 'Automata'............................................................................................pp.120-126 'The Magnetiser'...................................................................................pp.127-135 'The Golden Pot'..................................................................................pp.136-143 4 Conclusion:...................................................................................pp.144-149 List of Illustrations: 1) 'Initiation Ceremony In A Viennese Masonic Lodge During the Reign of Joseph II' by Ignaz Unterberger (1784)................................................................p.10 2) and 3) Wedding Supper of Isabella of Parma and Emperor Joseph II, 'Souper In the Reduite Halls' by Martin van Meytens (1760)..........................pp.16 4) Self-Portrait With A Harp by Rose-Adélaïde Ducreux (1791).......................p.43 Bibliography:................................................................................pp.150-166 Novel: The Cost of Light..............................................................pp.167-400 Author's Note....................................................................................pp.401-2 Appendix 1......................................................................................pp.403-31 Appendix 2....................................................................................pp.432-467 5 Introduction In January 2010, for the first time in my life, I travelled to Vienna. The city was laden with snow and the Christmas markets were closing down with the end of the festive season. I was there on a research trip to discover more about the subject of my novel, The Cost of Light. Its main narrator, Maria-Theresa von Paradis, is a young Viennese girl from the eighteenth century, who apparently suffers from hysterical blindness. She is also the dutiful daughter of the Imperial Secretary to the Empress Maria-Theresa, who becomes her patron, funding music tuition for the young girl. Maria-Theresa herself becomes a celebrated pianist and composer, undertaking her own European tour, although her fame never eclipses that of her childhood friend, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. As I travelled through Vienna, I was to find Mozart everywhere, but signs of Maria-Theresa seemed to have vanished along with the melting snow. Perhaps even more surprisingly, Doctor Franz Anton Mesmer, who briefly treated Maria-Theresa for blindness, is similarly neglected, even in the Landstraße district where his magnificent mansion once stood. In Vienna, he too is chiefly famous for his association with Mozart, since he allowed the twelve-year-old Prodigy to perform the opera Bastien et Bastienne in his garden. In my novel, Mesmer adopts an early version of the Freudian 'talking cure.' As Maria-Theresa's secrets are revealed with her confessions, I show that, for her, hysterical blindness arises from a complex cluster of motives, for example, a refusal to see and too great a desire to witness, forbidden sights. My novel allows me to 6 reflect on the malleable nature of eighteenth-century hysteria, which transforms itself constantly in relation to her psychosocial conditions and familial constraints. Her sudden blindness and equally sudden and miraculous recovery of sight at Doctor Mesmer's hands, and then its subsequent loss, could all be considered hysterical symptoms. German Romantic novelist and short story-writer E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776- 1822) has himself often been heralded as a psychiatric theorist; after all, Freud used Hoffmann's 'The Sandman' as his primary example on which to build his theory of 'The Uncanny' in 1919. However, since Freud writes a century after Hoffmann, and psychoanalysis as such did not exist in Hoffmann's time, one of the main focuses of my critical project is Hoffmann's own contemporary preoccupation with Mesmerism. In my critical project, 'Rapport and Subversion: Mesmer's Treatment of Paradis and Its Influence on the Fiction of E.T.A. Hoffmann', I examine the implications of Paradis's possibly hysterical blindness and her Mesmeric treatment and relationship with Doctor Mesmer, as well as the influence of these upon Hoffmann's fiction. 'Chapter 1: The Blind Musician' explores the nature of Paradis's blindness and suggests that, for her, it may well have had subversive and creative compensations. Her experiences are compared to those of the blind eighteenth-century singer and harpist, Charlotta Seuerling, as well as to those of Beethoven, who also endured the loss of a crucial sense. 'Chapter 2: The Miracle Doctor' argues that the relationship between Mesmer and his famous patient, and between other mesmerists and their subjects, is often one 7 of power and control, reinforcing normative eighteenth-century gender roles. It also examines the effectiveness of Mesmerism in treating Paradis's blindness, and argues that her possible hysteria, and other factors, were subversive forces in undermining Mesmer's attempts at cure. 'Chapter 3: The