Beyond the Erotics of Masochism in Nineteenth-Century German Literature and Philosophy
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POWER PLAY: BEYOND THE EROTICS OF MASOCHISM IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY GERMAN LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY Elizabeth Anne Schreiber-Byers A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures (German) Chapel Hill 2013 Approved by: Jonathan Hess Frauke Berndt E. Jane Burns Eric Downing Richard Langston © 2013 Elizabeth Anne Schreiber-Byers ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii Abstract ELIZABETH ANNE SCHREIBER-BYERS: Power Play: Beyond the Erotics of Masochism in Nineteenth-Century German Literature and Philosophy (Under the direction of Jonathan Hess) Power Play: Beyond the Erotics of Masochism in Nineteenth-Century German Literature and Philosophy investigates the genealogy of masochism avant la lettre. Scholarship on masochism has identified it as symptomatic of a late-century crisis of masculinity, synonymous with the erotic and semi-autobiographical writings of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, the Austrian writer for whom masochism is named. Using a Foucauldian approach to analyzing matrices of power, this project exposes the crucial prehistory of masochism in nineteenth-century German literature and thought, exploring how canonical works of German literature offer alternate genealogies located in discourses on subjectivity, pedagogy, aesthetics, and religion. Calling into question the gender discourses surrounding women in the masochistic dynamic, I compare the submission of Kleist’s titular character in Das Käthchen von Heilbronn with the female dominant in Sacher-Masoch’s Venus im Pelz, showing how both characters subvert social constructions of their identities counter the masculine discourse. The power of self-cultivation found in the German ideology of Bildung and the Bildungsroman genre are explored vis-à-vis the mode of reading and acculturation employed in Goethe’s Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre via counter-readings of Novalis’ Heinrich von Ofterdingen and Adalbert Stifter’s Der Nachsommer. Within discourses on the aesthetic, particularly the trope of the suffering artist and the inspiration he derives from suffering, I iii compare the German artist in Venus im Pelz with artists in Heinrich Wackenroder’s Herzensergiessungen eines kunstliebenden Klosterbruders, and Gottfried Keller’s Der grüne Heinrich, to consider the connection between masochistic suffering and the transcendence of the suprasensual in the sublime. Finally, I engage with two religious discourses in Sacher-Masoch’s text. First, the hagiography, providing inspiration through descriptions of suffering and transcendence, is critiqued through secular texts like Büchner’s Lenz. Second, I look at the confession, identified by Foucault as critical to the nineteenth-century production of knowledge, and how it is critiqued and subverted through anonymous pornographic texts, sepecifically Lina’s aufrichtige Bekenntnisse, Schwester Monika, and Bekenntnisse einer Giftmischerin, which appropriate and oppose the confessional form. At stake is an analysis of power that directs our attention away from a purely erotic understanding of masochism to something that simultaneously participates in and critiques these discourses of power. iv Acknowledgements This dissertation would not have been possible without the guidance and help of of faculty, friends and family who have contributed their insights, time, and assistance to me and my project over the last seven years. First I must thank the scholars who make up my dissertation committee. My advisor Jonathan Hess, who took me and my project on, when I felt I had no place to go, has provided mentoring, feedback, and encouragement helped me bring this project to fruition. I am grateful for his positive, if sarcastic, attitude and his thoughtful insights. Richard Langston has served as a source of personal and academic support during my time at Carolina from my first day on campus. I would not be the teacher and scholar I am were it not for him. Eric Downing’s quiet strength and intellectual guidance have been a calm in the storm and his breadth of knowledge has made this project richer. Jane Burns compelled me to call my assumptions into question, and her early feedback on my thoughts have made this a stronger project. Finally, I am grateful to have been able to spend a year at the University of Tübingen, with the assistance of a grant from the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung where I met Frauke Berndt. Her enthusiasm for my project came at a time when I was unsure of my direction, and reenergized my research and intellectual curiosity. Moreover, her scholarship has provided me with a model for thinking through my research, which has been both productive and humbling. I also extend my thanks to several other scholars who have provided guidance and support, including my MA advisor Alice Kuzniar and Anna Parkinson. Furthermore, my colleague Alex Fulk has proven to be a v great friend and an excellent sounding board. I don’t think I would have made it through graduate school without him. My parents, Fred and Betsy, have never wavered in their support. They have always believed that I could do anything and I am truly grateful for the opportunities that they provided me over the years. I am blessed to have them in my life. My grandmother, Rosa, was a source of inspiration throughout my life, though she will never know how much she contributed to my success. I am proud of the woman she was and will always live in her shadow. The number of other family and friends who have helped me along the way are too numerous to mention, but I am appreciative of every word of encouragement offered. My research has been supported by numerous grants from the Graduate School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, including a Ferdinand Summer Research Grant and a Dissertation Fellowship. This generous support made this project possible. I would like to thank the staff at the Deutsches Literaturarchiv in Marbach and the Bayrische Staatsbibliothek in München for their research assistance and access to their archives and special collections, as well as the Rubenstein Library at Duke University for access to the Jantz Collection. Finally, I would not be here without my husband Andrew. He believed in me, even when I did not believe in myself; pushed be when I didn’t think I that I could go any farther; and picked me up when I faltered. This is for you. vi Table of Contents List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................................ x Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 Theories of Masochism: Literary and Lived ......................................................................... 6 Masochism as Pathology ................................................................................................... 8 Literature, Culture, and Masochism ................................................................................ 11 Lived Experience ............................................................................................................ 13 Crisis of Masculinity ........................................................................................................... 15 Approach ............................................................................................................................. 21 Dissertation Organization ................................................................................................... 27 Chapter 1: The Social Construction of Identity in Kleist’s Das Käthchen von Heilbronn and Sacher-Masoch’s Venus im Pelz .................................. 32 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 32 Critical Devotion in Kleist’s Das Käthchen von Heilbronn ............................................... 42 Constructing Alternate Identities .................................................................................... 51 From Magd to Knecht ..................................................................................................... 55 Performative Ohnmacht .................................................................................................. 61 Upending the Dynamics of Power in Sacher-Masoch’s Venus im Pelz ............................. 69 The Social Construction of Feminine Cruelty ................................................................ 74 Performative Cruelty ....................................................................................................... 77 Dissolving the Hammer and Anvil Roles ....................................................................... 83 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 88 vii Chapter 2: Education through Submission: Bildung and the German Bildungsroman Tradition ..................................................................................................... 91 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 91 Bildung and Masochism .................................................................................................. 94 A Masochistic Genre: Goethe’s Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre as Exemplar ................