Niclas Johansson Litteraturvetenskapliga institutionen Uppsala universitet In Memory of Narcissus: Aspects of the Late-Modern Subject in the Narcissus Theme 1890–1930 Licentiatavhandling i litteraturvetenskap Handledare: Prof. Torsten Pettersson och prof. Björn Sundberg Försvaras torsdagen den 3 maj kl. 15:15–18:00 Opponent: Prof. Carin Franzén Lokal: Uppsala universitet, Engelska parken, 6–0031 1 Abbreviations The following works will be referred to through page numbers within brackets: AG André Gide, Le Traité du Narcisse, in the version published by Librairie de L’Art Indépendent in 1892, as it appears in Réjean Robidoux, Le Traité du Narcisse (Théorie du symbole) d’André Gide, Ottawa: Éditions de l’Université d’Ottawa, 1978, p. 101–124. References are to page numbers in Gide’s text. AGE André Gide, “The Tractate of Narcissus (Theory of the Symbol)”, in Andrew Mangravite (ed. and trans.), Masks: An Anthology of French Symbolist & Decadent Writing based upon The Book of Masks by Remy de Gourmont, London: Atlas, 1994, p. 45–50. HH Hermann Hesse, Sämtliche Werke: Bd. I–XX, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2001–2005. References state volume and page numbers. HHE Hermann Hesse, Narcissus and Goldmund, London: Owen, 1993, trans. Leila Vennewitz. SF Sigmund Freud, Gesammelte Werke: Chronologisch Geordnet. Bd. I–XVIII, London: Imago, 1940–1987. References state volume and page numbers. SFE Sigmund Freud, The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works: Vol. I–XXIV, London: Hogarth, 1953–1974, trans. James Strachey. References state volume and page numbers. 2 Contents Abbreviations .......................................................................................................................................... 2 Contents .................................................................................................................................................. 3 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 4 The Context ......................................................................................................................................... 8 The Narcissus Tradition ................................................................................................................... 8 The Narcissus Theme 1890–1930 .................................................................................................. 20 Previous Research ............................................................................................................................. 27 Theoretical Considerations................................................................................................................ 33 Text and Code ................................................................................................................................ 35 Culture and the Semiosphere ........................................................................................................ 37 Cultural Memory and Intertextuality ............................................................................................ 41 Situating the Object ....................................................................................................................... 49 The Problem of Subjectivity .............................................................................................................. 54 2. André Gide, Le Traité du Narcisse ..................................................................................................... 63 The Hierarchy of Codes ..................................................................................................................... 66 Mythic Narcisse ................................................................................................................................. 72 The Theoretical-Allegorical Code ...................................................................................................... 83 The Symbol: Narcissus poeticus ........................................................................................................ 90 Individual Subjectivity in Le Traité ..................................................................................................... 96 3. Psychoanalysis 1898–1916 ................................................................................................................ 99 From Narcissus to Narcissism .......................................................................................................... 102 Sexological Beginnings ................................................................................................................ 104 Introduction into Psychoanalysis ................................................................................................ 110 Rank’s contribution ..................................................................................................................... 116 Metapsychological Formulation .................................................................................................. 118 Confirmation of the Double ........................................................................................................ 123 Narcissism, Narcissus and Subjectivity in the Metapsychological Papers....................................... 125 4. Hermann Hesse, Narziß und Goldmund .......................................................................................... 134 The Narcissus theme ....................................................................................................................... 136 Psychoanalysis ................................................................................................................................. 141 The Protagonists as Instinctual Opposition ..................................................................................... 148 Narziß .............................................................................................................................................. 151 Goldmund ........................................................................................................................................ 157 Narcissistic Composition and the Healing of the Subject ................................................................ 164 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................................... 166 3 1. Introduction The aim of the present study is to analyze adaptations of the Narcissus theme in Western European culture between 1890 and 1930 in texts by a number of authors, reaching from Oscar Wilde and Paul Valéry, over Sigmund Freud and Rainer Maria Rilke to Hermann Hesse and Joachim Gasquet. This is a period which sees a continued elaboration of the equation of Narcissus and artist, which digs deeper into the psychological and existential condition of Narcissus, and which witnesses the groundbreaking transformation of the Narcissus figure into the meta-psychological notion of narcissism. Furthermore, and this will be the main contention of this study, one important way in which the Narcissus theme is put to use during this period is as a figuration of an increasingly problematic understanding of the modern subject. Two series of questions, coupled with two general theses, will guide the investigation. The first series of questions concerns how mythic material is incorporated into alien discourse. What elements of the story are emphasized in its modern reactivations? Which historical periods and individual texts in the Narcissus tradition do the modern adaptations draw on? How do different versions of the story clash with each other? What other stories, ideas, notions and settings is the myth confronted with? How do narrative, pictorial and conceptual renderings of the theme relate to each other? This line of questioning rests on the conviction that in any culture, thinking and writing does not begin from scratch. When we wish to express something new, we nevertheless return to old sources to reactivate meanings and reformulate problems in the novel context. Significant cultural material is recycled in a process where meanings shift, disappear and resurface and signifying structures break down, merge and reappear. The impetus for this side of the investigation is gained from the last decades’ research into the phenomenon of intertexuality, which has highlighted the insight that texts are made from texts, that they produce meaning in their relation to other texts. The primary concern for this part of the investigation is descriptive: it aims at elucidating how structures and elements of the individual texts relate to other structures and elements in the intra- as well as the intertextual context. It will try to lay bare the substructures of the manifest texts and clarify their interrelations as well as the relations to the context of the Narcissus tradition. If the first range of questions confronts the Narcissus theme with a how, the second concerns its what. What meaning is attributed to the theme? What complex of ideas comes into play in its reactivation? What philosophical, aesthetic, moral, existential and psychological questions are raised through the evocation of Narcissus and in what way does 4 the theme aid in answering them? In short, what does Narcissus mean for the authors of the turn of the century? This side of the investigation is interpretive in its practice and hermeneutical