THE PORNOGRAPHERS AND THE PROPHET: , ANAk NIN, AND LAWRENCE DZlRRELL READING DOSTOEVSKY

MARIA R. BLOSHTEYN

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies in partial Fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Graduate Programme in English York University Toronto, Ontario

June 1998 National Library Bibliothèque nationale 191 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliogaphic Sewices seMces bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A ON4 ûttawaON K1A ON4 Canada Canada

The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive Licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, Ioan, distribute or sel reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in rnicrofoxm, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/^, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique.

The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. THE PORNOGRAPKERS AND THE PROPHET: HENRY MILLER, ANAXS NIN, AND READING WSTOEVSKY

by MARIA R. BLOSHTEYN

a dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studtes of York University in partial fulfillrnent of the requirements for the degree of I

@ 1998 Permission has been granled Io the LIBRARY OF YORK UNIVERSITY io tend or seIl copies of this dissertation, to the NATIONAL LIBRARY OF CANADA to microfilm this dissertation and to !end or seIl copies of the film. and to UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS to publish an abstract of this dissertation

The author reserves other publication rights. and neither the dissertation nor extensive extracts from it rnay be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's written permission. iv

ABSTRACT

In the 1930s, three expatriate writers, Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, and Lawrence Durrell. met in Paris and formed an alliance. With Miller at the helm, they set out to bnng about a revolution in writing and to create a new kind of prose. Surprisingly, in their quest to create this new prose, they chose none other than the nineteenth century Russian novelist Fedor

Dostoevsky as their guide. Although time would show that each of these three writers had a different conception of what that new prose should be like, their alliance in the 1930s proved a decisive one for each of them. Their wrestling with Dostoevsky during that period was, for each writer, an especially important stage of formulating an individual vision of prose narrative and a key to subsequent achievements.

The dissertation has three focuses. The fkst is an analysis of Miller's dialogue with

Dostoevsky set first within the context of the Amencan reception of the Russian novelist and then within the context of Miller's Parisian experience in the 1930s. The second is an examination of the interrelations of Miller, Nin, and Durrell and the work produced by them in the 1930s, when the three forrned the nucleus of an international group of writers. poets, and artists Iater known as the Villa Seurat Circle. The third is a consideration of how the reading of and the stmggles with Dostoevsky became reflected in the texts of Miller, Nin, and Durrell, during the 1930s. Altogether, the dissertation explores the cornplex dynamics within a case study of cross-cultural reception and appropriation.

The dissertation includes a consideration of how Dostoevsky's style, philosophy, and literary types were received, interpreted, and transformed by the Villa S