UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Erotic Negativity and Victorian Aestheticism, 1864-1896 a Dissertation Submitted in Partial
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Erotic Negativity and Victorian Aestheticism, 1864-1896 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in English by Dustin Edward Friedman 2012 © Copyright by Dustin Edward Friedman 2012 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Erotic Negativity and Victorian Aestheticism, 1864-1896 by Dustin Edward Friedman Doctor of Philosophy in English University of California, Los Angeles, 2012 Professor Joseph Bristow, Chair What is the relationship between erotic desire and aesthetic contemplation? This question was central to three of British aestheticism’s most notable theorist-practitioners: Walter Pater, Oscar Wilde, and Vernon Lee (Violet Paget). “Erotic Negativity” contends that Pater, Wilde, and Lee exercised Hegel’s concept of “the negative” to describe the relationship between aesthetic experience and erotic response. The aesthete, when he or she gazes upon homoerotic aesthetic representation, undergoes a shock that is at once both intellectual and visceral: this is the revelation of an erotic desire, previously hidden as a determinate absence in the mind, which shatters and radically reconfigures the structure of consciousness itself. This process, which Hegel terms the “encounter with the negative,” elicits not only greater self-knowledge, but also critical insight into the cultural and historical significance of the aesthetic object. “Erotic Negativity” thus demonstrates that the most profound critiques of modernity must ground ii themselves in the reflective freedom that is created by artistically mediated experiences of erotic desire. Chapter one discusses Walter Pater’s early essays, up to and including Studies in the History of the Renaissance, as the Aesthetic Movement’s most elaborate and influential explication of negative homoeroticism. Chapter two examines Pater’s post-Renaissance writings, such as “A Study of Dionysus,” Marius the Epicurean, and Plato and Platonism. In these works, Pater turned to early anthropology to show how erotic violence, rather than undermining the humanist subject, actually enables the creation of that subject through an aesthetically mediated homoerotic encounter with the negative. Chapter three discusses Oscar Wilde’s novella “The Portrait of Mr. W.H.,” which advances a homoerotic reading of Shakespeare’s sonnets to express the insight he gains from the theory of erotic negativity: namely, that language’s limited ability to capture the “truth” of erotic desire need not undermine the fundamental perdurability of individual subjectivity. Finally, chapter four shows how Vernon Lee’s essay “Faustus and Helena: Notes on the Supernatural in Art” and her fantastic tales “Oke of Okehurst” and “Prince Alberic and the Snake Lady” create a feminist revision of masculine homoerotic negativity by presenting women’s supernatural encounters with history as erotically charged experiences that create new forms of feminine sexual subjectivity. iii The dissertation of Dustin Edward Friedman is approved. Johanna Drucker Anne K. Mellor Jonathan H. Grossman Joseph Bristow, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2012 iv This dissertation is dedicated to the memory of my grandparents, Leo and Ann Friedman Frank and Judy Mitchell v Table of Contents Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………………vii Vita………………………………………………………………………………………………...x Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………..1 I. Negation in Walter Pater’s Early Essays……………………………………………………...45 II. Pater, Erotic Violence, and Anthropological Aestheticism…………………………………117 III. Oscar Wilde and the Performance of Lyric Subjectivity…………………………………..178 IV. Vernon Lee’s Supernatural Eroticism……………………………………………………..233 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………284 vi Acknowledgements Although Oscar Wilde may have said, “Art is the most intense form of individualism the world has known,” a dissertation is decidedly not Art. Although mine is the only name appearing on the title page, this project has come into existence through the efforts of many. Words can hardly express the gratitude I have for my advisor, Joe Bristow. The quality of his teaching, the time and effort he spends on his students’ professional and personal wellbeing, and his high scholarly standards make him not only a superlative mentor, but also an inspiring professional role model. Whatever success I may have attained in graduate school is almost as much the result of Joe’s care and advice as it is my own efforts, and for that, I am eternally grateful. Whenever I began to struggle with this project, I could rely on Jonathan Grossman’s seemingly inexhaustible energy and enthusiasm for motivation. Besides giving perhaps the most incisive and detailed comments I have ever received on my writing, Jonathan pays his students the highest compliment possible: he takes their ideas seriously. Anne Mellor deserves thanks for helping to get my first article into print, and for her extensive knowledge of the German philosophical tradition, which helped me to sharpen a number of the claims made in this dissertation. Eleanor Kaufman’s mastery of modern French thought provided a decisive intervention at an early stage of this project, and Johanna Drucker kindly stepped in at a later moment to offer her expertise in aesthetic theory. I am also thankful for the help of Chris Chism, Helen Deutsch, Arthur Little, Chris Looby, Chris Mott, Sianne Ngai, Felicity Nussbaum, and Amy Richlin for their guidance throughout my time at UCLA. The writing of this dissertation would not have been possible without ample material support. The English department at UCLA has been incredibly generous with its resources, financial and otherwise, and the efforts of its staff (especially Jeanette Gilkison and Mike vii Lambert) have always ensured that my day-to-day life runs smoothly. A dissertation-year fellowship from the Center for Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Studies sponsored my research into the Wilde archive at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, a task that was helped immensely by the work of Scott Jacobs and Carol Sommer. I would also like to thank the department of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies for extending their support in times of need. I would never have been able to get through this process without the support and encouragement of my friends. Lara-Beye Molina has been a constant presence in my life since our first year of college, and ever since then, I have relied on her keen appreciation of the absurd to help me through the trials of academic life. Betsy Donaldson’s friendship has been vital since our first days in the graduate program, and although she has moved on to bigger and better things, our shared enjoyment of the campy, the outré, and the bizarre have cemented a lifelong bond. Patrick Keilty’s intensity and exuberance have been a bracing intellectual influence, and morsels of our conversations about sexuality, gender, and philosophy are sprinkled throughout these pages. I would also like to thank Noelle Chao, Noah Comet, Vivian Davis, Matt Dubord, Beth Goodhue, Laura Haupt, Neil Hultgren, Val Popp, Sam See, Maureen Shay, Erin Suzuki, Anne Stiles, and Dennis Tyler for their friendship and camaraderie. This dissertation is dedicated to the memory of my grandparents, Leo and Ann Friedman, and Frank and Judy Mitchell. The boundless love they gave me from the very first days of my life has given me the confidence necessary to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. I owe my parents a debt of gratitude that can never properly be repaid. Throughout my life I have drawn inspiration from my mother, Gail Mitchell. Her wit, intellect, and fortitude have been a beneficial influence for as long as I can remember, and her good humor continues to help me viii keep things in proper perspective. My father, Richard Friedman, and my stepmother, Carolyn Johnson, have always been the bedrock of my support. Their constant encouragement and love have seen me through the most difficult moments of this journey. I would also like to express affection for my amusing and endearing siblings: Ken Ansbro, Lindsay Johnson, and Aaron, Joel, and Leah Friedman. Finally, I want to offer my utmost gratitude and thanks to Karim Shah, whose influence shows on every page of this dissertation. The amount of happiness he brings into my life is too much to measure, and his laughter and love fill all of my days with joy. Without him, none of this would have been possible. ix Vita EDUCATION University of California, Los Angeles Ph.D. in English, 2012. Dissertation: “Erotic Negativity and Victorian Aestheticism, 1864-1896.” Committee: Joseph Bristow (chair), Jonathan H. Grossman, Anne K. Mellor, Eleanor Kaufman, Johanna Drucker M.A. in English, 2007. Exam Fields: Romanticism; Victorian literature; twentieth-century British, Irish, and Anglophone writing University of California, Berkeley B.A. in English (Highest Honors), 2004. Highest Distinction in General Scholarship Phi Beta Kappa PUBLICATIONS Peer-Reviewed Articles “Negative Eroticism: Lyric Performativity in Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Portrait of Mr. W.H.’,” ELH (forthcoming, 2013). “Unsettling the Normative: Articulations of Masculinity in Victorian Literature and Culture,” Literature Compass 7.12 (2010), 1077-88. “‘Parents of the Mind’: Mary Wollstonecraft and the Aesthetics of Productive Masculinity,” Studies in Romanticism 48.3 (2009), 423-46; also in Rodolpi Dialogue Series: Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, ed. Enit Steiner (forthcoming,