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The Felicitous Space of Elizabeth Von Arnim

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The Felicitous Space of Elizabeth Von Arnim The Felicitous Space of Elizabeth von Arnim A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts in English Literature by Jennifer Jane Bollard in the University of Canterbury Christchurch New Zealand 1995 Acknowledgements I am grateful to Associate Professor Livia-Kathe Wittman for introducing me to the writings of Elizabeth von Arnim by lending me her copy of Fraulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther. I would like to express my thanks to the supervisor of this thesis, Dr Denis Walker, for his ongoing encouragement and wisdom which have been much appreciated, as has his confidence in my completing the thesis. I want to thank Graham Burnett, my partner, for his support in many ways. I also want to thank my family and perennial friends for their encouragement during the time it took me to complete the thesis. I would like to acknowledge Dr Denis W a1:J.<er, Dr Bruce Cochrane, and the Academic Board for their understanding of my ill-health during the process of completing the thesis. I wish to pay special tribute to my cat, Julia, whose affectionate and faithful companionship has comforted me, especially on the days when I felt the isolation and frustrations of the process of writing a thesis. She was, so often, either keeping my desk seat warm while I took a break, or sitting on a chair beside me, purring numerous affirmations. I am grateful to the other animals sharing my life who, in their enviable social unconstructedness have, many a time, caused me to laugh and to stop taking myself and this thesis too seriously. I am deeply thankful for the 2 countryside around my dwelling which has so often refreshed me with its beauty, peace, and spaciousness, enabling the writing process to continue more easily. 3 This thesis is dedicated to an older woman who passionately loved and cared for her garden, but recognised her increasing fraility. One day she mentioned to her husband that she would need help in order to keep her garden looking beautiful. The woman went out, and on her return home found every cherished plant and flower uprooted and gone. A desert of bark chips filled the space where a garden once flourished. The woman was found weeping some time later, in an upstairs room. 4 AUNT JENNIFER'S TIGERS Aunt Jennifer's tigers prance across a screen, Bright topaz denizens of a world of green. They do not fear the men beneath the tree; They pace in sleek chivalric certainty. Aunt Jennifer's fingers fluttering through her wool Find even the ivory needle hard to pull. The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand. When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by. The tigers in the panel that she made Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid. -ADRIENNE RICH 5 Chronology Elizabeth and Her German Garden, Macmillan 1898. The Solitary Summer, Macmillan 1899. The Adventures of Elizabeth in Riigen, Macmillan 1904. Fraulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther, Smith and Elder 1907. The Caravaners, Smith and Elder 1909. The Pastor's Wife, Smith and Elder 1914. In the Niountains, Macmillan 1920. Vera, Macmillan 1921. The Enchanted April, Macmillan 1922. All the Dogs of My Life, Heinemann 1936. Abbreviations Elizabeth and Her German Garden (EGG) The Solitary Summer (SS) The Adventures of Elizabeth in Riigen (E in R) In the Mountains (IM) All the Dogs of My Life (D of L) The Enchanted April (EA) Vera (V) Fraulein Schmidt and .i\!Ir Anstruther (S& A) The Pastor's Wife (PW) The Caravaners (C's) 6 Contents Acknowledgements 2 Chronology and Abbreviations 6 Abstract 8 Introduction 10 Chapter 1. Elizabeth: The Interanimated Spaces. 21 Chapter 2. Nassenheide: The German Garden. 30 Chapter 3. San Salvatore: The Italian Garden. 67 Chapter 4. The Willows: The English Garden. 104 Chapter 5. The Galgenberg :~,,fountain Garden. 132 Chapter 6. Tails, Trials, and Tales of Love. 162 Conclusion 184 Select Bibliography 193 Abstract This thesis focuses on an ensemble of the writings of Elizabeth von Arnim which, when examined intratextually as well as intertextually, reveals an interanimation of her life with her text: this includes her life as lived; her life as imagined and her life as written. The thesis shows how these distinctions collapse in her writing. The literary theoretical concept of "the author as dead" is therefore limited, in this case, within the context of the interanimation and the perceived trajectory of self definition that it forms out of Elizabeth von Arnim's writing. The importance of Elizabeth von Arnim as Author will be argued as having significant implications towards her life long quest for felicity and, more specifically, female-centred, felicitous space. The interanimation of the three distinctions involving her life and text is explored within the context of Elizabeth von Arnim's major thematic concern: that of female-centred space. The thesis compares and contrasts the ability of Elizabeth von Arnim, together with her female protagonists, to create, protect, and maintain female-centred space. While Elizabeth von Arnim is popularly known as a romance writer, this thesis explores and reveals her work to be a deliberate and consistent ironic subversion of patriarchal institutions and their ideologies, including the social construction and ideology of romantic love that was central and embedded in Elizabeth von Arnim' s culture and affirmed in the romance genre. 8 My soul is a passionate dancer, she dances to hidden music which only I can hear. You may tell me to be calm and demure but my soul does not listen and goes on dancing; if the dance were to stop it would be th~ end of me. - BETIINA VON ARNIM . Estranged from language, women are vtszonanes, dancers who suffer as they speak. - JULIA KRISTEV A [T]here were days last winter when I danced for sheer joy out in my frost-bound garden in spite of my years and children. But I did it behind a bush, having a due regard for the decencies. - ELIZABETH VON ARNIM 9 Introduction Through an analysis of the writings of Elizabeth von Arnim, this thesis will demonstrate the importance of female-centred space for women. Female-centred space can be created when a woman recognises that which has been lost of her own identity while having to exist in male-dominated patriarchal space. Historically, female-centred space has been threatening to patriarchy, since it exists on the boundary of androcentric space and is, therefore, a place of potential independence and empowerment for women. It was the recognition of that which had been lost of her Self1 in patriarchal space, her creation of female-centred space, as well as an ability to protect and maintain the space, that enabled Elizabeth von Arnim to emerge as a writer. In female-centred space, she became conscious of using the writing process as a continuing path for revision of her life's contrasting experiences, and consequently, developed and expanded her sense of who she was, together with a cultivation of knowledge, pleasure, and wisdom. It has been, and still is, difficult for many women to create, protect and maintain female-centred space, yet for some women it is a struggle to begin to consciously acknowledge their need for such a space. Elizabeth von Arnim' s writing contains a critique of the reasons why this has been so. In this thesis, female-centred space will also be described as felicitous space. This is because it is a space where women, as Elizabeth von Arnim demonstrates, can felicitously pursue a quest for the development of a new female-centred identity, while still having to function within the limitations and 1 "Self," in upper case in the thesis, is used deliberately to indicate the significance of the concept of self in Elizabeth von Arnim' s personal and literary career. 10 Introduction oppressions of patriarchal space and time. Mary Daly describes a space generating felicity where it is possible for a woman to experience her Self "without the contortions of mind, will, feeling, and imagination demanded of women by [patriarchy]" (Daly 1985. 156). The movement to this space, she says, is not merely escape but is "the deep confrontation between being and non-being" (Daly 1985, 156). Writing, for Elizabeth von Arnim, made the difference between being and non-being. She was able to experience herself in a way that promoted a deeper understanding of her Self, her thoughts, her actions, her intentions and motivations, as well as the cultivation of a "self affection" (Irigaray 1991, 125), the latter being a term which Luce Irigaray uses within the context of women articulating their pleasure. Gaston Bachelard uses the term "felicitous space" in a way that relates well to the qualities of female-centred space. He states that felicitous space "concentrates being within limits that protect" (Bachelard 1986, xxxii). It is not a hostile space, he says, but rather one which is loved and which "bears the essence of the notion of home" (Bachelard 1986, 5). The garden at Nassenheide "(bore] the essence of the notion of home" for Elizabeth von Arnim, whereas indoors, for her, was a hostile space. It was having access to a garden of her own that enabled Elizabeth von Arnim to identify her need for a place where her soul could feel at home and, as she says, "(her] soul may have time to grow" (SS, 3). Elizabeth von Arnim' s notion of the soul differs from the patriarchal belief in the soul as 11 Introduction separate from the body, or the religious belief in the soul needing salvation through a male god and his son.
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