Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 10-21-2016 12:00 AM Saturnine Constellations: Melancholy in Literary History and in the Works of Baudelaire and Benjamin Kevin Godbout The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Călin Mihăilescu The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Comparative Literature A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Kevin Godbout 2016 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Art and Architecture Commons, Comparative Literature Commons, English Language and Literature Commons, European Languages and Societies Commons, French and Francophone Literature Commons, German Literature Commons, Modern Art and Architecture Commons, Modern Languages Commons, and the Theory and Criticism Commons Recommended Citation Godbout, Kevin, "Saturnine Constellations: Melancholy in Literary History and in the Works of Baudelaire and Benjamin" (2016). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 4291. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/4291 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract Aristotle famously asked the question: why are extraordinary people so often melan- cholics? “Problem XXX,” written by Aristotle or one of his disciples, speculates that black bile, the humour once believed to cause melancholy, can promote a form of genius, a profound intellectual power. Walter Benjamin and Charles Baudelaire are two writers for whom this theory was true: though they suffered from gloominess and despondency, they also recognized that in the interior of sadness, and even madness, is a kernel of aesthetic, artistic, and philosophical truth. Melencolia illa heroica – whose theory was authoritatively formulated by Ficino, taking after Aristotle’s Problems and Plato’s theory of divine madness – emerged in the Renaissance and established a melancholy, under- stood as a virtue, rather than a vice, such as acedia [sloth]. This virtuous melancholy – which Benjamin referred to as “sublime melancholy,” and others as “heroic(al) melancholy” – is always flanked by its counterpart, the “splenetic melancholia.” This conception of a positive melancholy underwent a variety of transfigurations – by the path set, in part, through Dürer’s “Melencolia I,” Milton’s pastoral poems, and Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy – and turned into the “melancholy malcontent” stereotype prevalent in Hamlet and Le Misanthrope. Later, become the Romantic theory of genius, melancholy enjoyed a significant return via the writings of Blake, Keats and Kierkegaard. With Baudelaire, and the advent of modernity, melancholy is put into correspondance with spleen – classically understood as the site of black bile – with astonishing results. In the first instance, Baudelaire was able to get closer to a vision of melancholy through the relationship between spleen and idéal; in the second, he crafted an interior correspon- dance of spleen with(in) itself. Benjamin, in his early career, influentially reinterprets the Renaissance melancholy tradition, and its impacts on the Baroque Trauerspiel [mourning play]. Later, as his work turns to Baudelaire, Benjamin’s form of melancholy as philo- sophical method reaches its acme. This work holds, as its main conclusion, that the interior, dialectical complementarity of opposites, which melancholy exemplifies all along the line, is a necessary mechanism to the productions of literature and philosophy. Keywords Melancholy, spleen, Charles Baudelaire, Walter Benjamin, Aristotle, Marsilio Ficino, Robert Burton, William Blake, Søren Kierkegaard, John Keats. Acknowledgments My thanks to colleagues and faculty from the department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Western, in particular to Hynek, Karim, Adrian, Jaime, Anda, and Christian – with mention to Leif and Jessica from outside the department. To my supervisor, Călin Mihăilescu, I owe many moments of inspiration and an endless tab of beers and spirits from the grad club. Many thanks to Jan Plug, who shared in some of the ideas of this project’s earlier days. Thank you to the support staff at the department, and I am grateful for the guidance of the department and graduate program chairs, past and present. Many portions of this dissertation were first presented at departmental events and conferences. Many thanks to the Faculty of Arts & Humanities, as well as the DAAD, whose financial support allowed for research trips in support of this dissertation. I have been blessed with friendships during my studies from outside the department, in particular during my time with the Society of Graduate Students and PSAC Local 610. Finally, and most importantly, all my love and gratitude to my parents and family. Chantal: thank you, most of all, for all the days and nights when I despaired or when my enthusiasm was intolerable and loud: none of this would have been possible without you. Note on the Text All citations from Aristotle’s Problems are provided from the Mayhew edition, part of the Loeb Classical Library collection. After an initial reference to the authors of Saturn and Melancholy by their full names (and then as Klibansky et al.) I consistently refer to them with the abbreviation “KSP.” Citations of Burton are provided from the Jackson edition of the Anatomy of Melancholy (hereinafter Anatomy) with the page and partition/section reference; the Oxford edition of his works was consulted. Blake citations are provided from Erdman edition of Blake’s Complete Poetry & Prose (hereinafter E). Citations of the longer prophecies provide the plate number and lines, with the page reference to the Erdman text. The Bentley edition of Blake’s poetry was consulted, as was The William Blake Archive. Kierkegaard citations are from the Hong and Hong editions of his works, including the book’s title. Keats citations are provided from Stillinger’s edition of the Complete Poems (K). For Baudelaire and the accompanying translations: all quotations are from the Œuvres complètes (hereinafter OC); translations of Les Fleurs du mal and Le Spleen de Paris are from Francis Scarfe’s edition The Complete Verse (CV) and Paris Blues (PB); translations of “Le mangeur d’opium” when appropriate are the concurrent passages from De Quincey’s Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (Confessions); all other, unmarked translations of Baudelaire’s prose are my own, with pagination from the OC. While the German edition of his complete works was consulted, all citations from Benjamin are provided in the English translations from the Selected Writings (hereinafter SW), The Arcades Projects (Arcades, including the complete reference) and The Origin of the German Tragic Drama (Origin). It is hoped that a future version of this project will include quotations of the German texts from the Gesammelte Schriften. All translations from the French throughout the dissertation are my own unless otherwise marked. Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................ i Keywords ............................................................................................................................. i Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................... ii Note on the Text ................................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... iv Saturnine Constellations: Melancholy in Literary History and in the Works of Baudelaire and Benjamin ............................................................................................... 1 Introduction: Constellations around Black Bile, Spleen and Thought ............................... 3 Chapter 1 – Spleen and Heroica: Under the Sign of Saturnine Melancholy .................... 21 Aristotle’s paradigm (a view of history) ...................................................................... 23 Ficino, Saturn and Melancholy .................................................................................... 34 Dürer’s angel and Milton’s twin melancholies ............................................................ 43 Burton’s Anatomy of the scholar and love-melancholy ............................................... 54 Hamlet’s tragic, less-than-extraordinary idleness ........................................................ 66 Molière’s reasonably unreasonable malcontent ........................................................... 76 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 85 Chapter 2 – The Dialectics of Sorrow: Views of Melancholy in Blake, Kierkegaard and Keats ...................................................................................................................... 87 Blake’s figures of despair: “The Spectre of Urthona” and Urizen ............................... 89 Blake illustrates Milton’s muse: Mirth and melancholy, sorrow and joy .................. 101 Kierkegaard and the dialectic of Tungsind and Melancholi