Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2004 19th and 20th century French exoticism: Pierre Loti, Louis-Ferdinand Céliné , Michel Leiris, and Simone Schwarz-Bart Robin Anita White Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the French and Francophone Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation White, Robin Anita, "19th and 20th century French exoticism: Pierre Loti, Louis-Ferdinand Céĺ ine, Michel Leiris, and Simone Schwarz-Bart" (2004). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 2593. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/2593 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. 19TH CENTURY AND 20TH CENTURY FRENCH EXOTICISM: PIERRE LOTI, LOUIS-FERDINAND CÉLINE, MICHEL LEIRIS, AND SIMONE SCHWARZ-BART A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of French Studies by Robin Anita White B.A. The Evergreen State College, 1991 Master of Arts Louisiana State University, 1999 August 2004 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work is dedicated to my family and friends who lent me encouragement during my studies. They include my parents, Joe and Delsa, my brother and sister-in-law, and many others. I would like to express gratitude for the help I received from the Department of French Studies at LSU, in particular, Dr. Nathaniel Wing who agreed to take on this project at a late date. I am deeply appreciative of the lectures, courses, and culture at LSU’s French Studies and Center for French and Francophone Studies, all of which led me to my topic of exoticism. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the éternelle patience of Melissa Manolas. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………ii ABBREVIATIONS………………………………………………………………..…..….v ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………...………..………..vi CHAPTER I 19TH AND 20TH CENTURY TRADITIONS AND INVENTIONS —A KNOWLEDGE BECOMING……………………………………………………….1 Examining Colonial and Postcolonial Texts……………….……..……………………....1 The Exotic Background……………………….……..…………………..………………..3 Orientalism………………………………………………………………………………..7 Geopolitical Contradictions……………………….……..………………………………13 Nostalgia…………………………....……………………………………………………16 Language Questions……………………………………………………………………...18 The Past in the Exoticism’s Present…………….…..……………………………………19 Colonialism and Historical Background……………………..….…….…………………20 Essentially Colonial Ideologies………………….…..….…….………………………….21 Lié à l’entreprise coloniale……...……………….……..………………………………..30 Bad Tastes……………………….……..……………………………………………..….34 The Embrace of Exoticism ……………………….……..……………………………….43 Le Divers……………………….……..……………………………...…………………..45 La Relation……………………….……..…………………...………...…………………53 CHAPTER II COLONIAL EXOTICISM………………………………………...……..59 Colonial Exoticism……………………………………………………………………....59 L’Exotisme a un nom: celui de Pierre Loti………………………………………………61 Exotic Mirages?……………………………………………………………………….....76 A Colonial Exotic Hybrid—The Story of the Spahi, Assimilating the Exotic…………..81 The Colonial Empire’s New Clothes…………………………………………………….82 Le Roman d’un Spahi—The Archetypal Cadre Exotique………………………………..86 Fatou-gaye—Une petite négresse très comique……………………………...….….…...93 The Exotic Framework within an Exotic Framework…………………………………..107 The Opacity of Exoticism—Les Trois dames de la Kasbah: conte oriental………...…112 Beyond Us-Dogcatchers and Them-Dogs…..………………………………………….123 iii CHAPTER III LE MIRAGE EXOTIQUE EST FINI: EXOTICISM IN THE 1930S…...127 Incomparable Authors…………………………………………………………..………127 Differing Works………………………………………………………………….……..135 Céline’s Nihilism: A Dystopic Vision and Style……………………………………….136 Ex(otic) Nihilo—A Voyage from Nowhere to Nowhere……………………………….140 Modernist Exoticism…………………………………………………………………....145 A Secularist’s Voyage………………………………………………………………..…151 Leiris: African Imagery and Poetic Illusions…………………………………...………154 The Mission: The Sacred of Everyday Exoticism—Phantoms of Africa……………....162 The Secular Céline and The Spiritual Leiris……………………………………………165 Material Exploitation of Natives……………………………………..…………………169 The Exotic Mocked and Colonial Collaboration……………………………………….170 Taking Things from Africans: Mais ça n'en est pas moins moche.………………….…177 Continuities……………………...……………………………………………………...179 CHAPTER IV AUTOEXOTICISM—AN EXOTICISM OF ONE’S OWN….……….182 Introduction—Inconspicuous Exoticism……….………………………………………182 A Conspicuous Literary Impasse……………………………...………………………..187 Miraculous Amalgams………………………………………..………………………...190 Simone Schwarz-Bart—An Exoteric Exoticist……………………………………..…..196 The Soul of Exoticism…………………………………………….……………………199 The Novel as Testimonial……………………………………………..………………..201 The Native Exotic………………………………………………………………………203 Littérature de Sucre et Vanille…………………………...……………………………..206 Metaphorical Pluie et Vent……………………….…………………………………….207 The Languages of Exoticism…………………...………………………………………211 The Comprehensible Language of Autoexoticism………………………………..……214 Beyond Language………………………………………………………………………216 CONCLUSIONS……………………….………………………………………………218 WORKS CONSULTED……………….……………………………………………….226 APPENDIX LES ÉLÉPHANTS…………….…..…...………………………………….239 VITA………...………………………………………………………………………….240 iv ABBREVIATIONS AF L'Afrique fantôme Digression “Digression pédantesque sur la musique et sur une catégorie de gens appelés griots.” Le Roman Le Roman d'un spahi Le Voyage Le Voyage au bout de la nuit Les Trois dames Les Trois dames de la Kasbah Memories Exotic Memories: Literature, Colonialism, and the Fin-de-Siècle Pluie et vent Pluie et vent sur Télumée Miracle v ABSTRACT This study of four 19th and 20th century colonial texts, as well as a later postcolonial novel exposes the cadres exotiques, or exotic frameworks, of literary exoticism. The thesis names and interprets the moods of and reactions to exoticism, including colonial exoticism, antiexoticism, and autoexoticism. Poetic and theoretical interpretations of exoticism, such as Victor Segalen’s Notion du Divers and Edouard Glissant’s Opacité and Poétique de la Relation challenge the prevalent assumptions that the literary practice was only an unfortunate byproduct of colonialism. The first chapter presents literary history and theoretical considerations relating to exoticism: Orientalism, nostalgia, colonial literary history, and a critical literature review. Chapter II explores Le Roman d’un spahi (1881) and Les Trois dames de la Kasbah (1882) by Pierre Loti, two texts dating from France’s high colonial period of the late 19th century. Chapter III studies works and contexts of the 1930s—Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s Voyage au bout de la nuit (1932) and Michel Leiris’s L’Afrique fantôme (1934). These modernist texts appeared with the decline of colonial exoticism’s popularity. I conclude with an analysis of Simone Schwarz-Bart’s Pluie et vent sur Télumée Miracle (1973), a postcolonial novel about the life of a Creole woman in the former French colony of Guadeloupe. vi CHAPTER I 19TH AND 20TH CENTURY TRADITIONS AND INVENTIONS —A KNOWLEDGE BECOMING Introduction: La notion d’exotisme. Le Divers. Avant tout, déblayer le terrain. Jeter par-dessus bord tout ce qui contient de mésusé et de rance ce mot d’exotisme. Le dépouiller de tous ses oripeaux: le palmier et le chameau; casque de colonial; peaux noires et soleil jaune; et du même coup se débarrasser de tous ceux qui les employèrent avec une faconde niaise. Puis, dépouiller ensuite le mot d’exotisme de son acceptation seulement tropicale, seulement géographique. -Victor Segalen L’essai sur l’exotisme (1904-) La pensée dessine l’imaginaire du passé: un savoir en devenir. -Edouard Glissant Poétique de la relation (1990) Examining Colonial and Postcolonial Texts In this dissertation, I will consider the cadres exotiques, or exotic frameworks, of various colonial texts, as well as one postcolonial novel of exoticism. In the introductory chapter, I present the literary history and theoretical considerations relating to exoticism. In Chapter II, I examine Le Roman d’un spahi (1881) and Les Trois dames de la Kasbah (1882) by Pierre Loti, two works of fiction dating from colonial exoticism’s heyday in the late 19th century. In the following chapter, I read two works from the 1930s: Louis- Ferdinand Céline’s Voyage au bout de la nuit (1932) and Michel Leiris’s L’Afrique fantôme (1934) which appeared as colonial exoticism’s popularity declined. These chapters on Pierre Loti (1850-1923), L.F. Céline (1894-1961), and Michel Leiris (1901- 1990) involve story lines reflecting on life in African colonies and the lives of the writers who undertook colonial missions. I conclude with an analysis of Simone Schwarz-Bart’s 1 Pluie et vent sur Télumée Miracle (1973), a postcolonial novel about the former French colony of Guadeloupe.1 Although the exotic literature that I study takes place in France’s ex-colonies, these works do not specifically relate to one French colony or one colonized region. Instead I advance a theory of French exoticism drawn from various places that have been described in those terms. Ultimately, this is an attempt to understand exoticism as a phenomenon that is not only