COLETTE‘S KALEIDOSCOPE: A STUDY OF COLORS, MIRRORS, AND CONTINUTIES IN CHERI AND GIGI By COURTNEY KEADY A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2010 1 © 2010 Courtney Keady 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I thank my committee chair, Dr. Carol Murphy, and my committee member, Dr. Brigitte Weltman-Aron. I thank also my first French teacher, Mrs. Magdalena Nica. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS………………………………………………………………………..3 ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………………5 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………………….7 2 COLORS……………………………………………………………………………….16 3 MIRRORS……………………………………………………………………………...25 4 CONTINUITIES.……………………………………………………………………….32 5 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………...60 WORKS CITED………………………………………………………………………………..62 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH …………………………………………………………………..63 4 Abstract of Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts COLETTE‘S KALEIDOSCOPE: A STUDY OF COLORS, MIRRORS, AND CONTINUTIES IN CHERI AND GIGI By Courtney Keady December 2010 Chair: Carol Murphy Major: French In reading Chéri and Gigi, by French novelist, Colette, one remarks the sensual, stylistic descriptions of characters, settings, and situations. Colette strategically employs color juxtapositions, mirrors, and character similarities, which create a kaleidoscopic world both within and between the two works. The two differing female protagonists and their love stories are thus linked by the way in which they are portrayed. Color combinations as character descriptors are significant due to their effects on surrounding characters and Colette‘s readers. They allow Colette to cleverly express a character‘s emotions without actually referring to them. These color pairings also serve as a link between characters, as such physical resemblances suggest that the two characters are also experiencing similar feelings. Mirrors, which appear in the opening and closing scenes of Chéri, function as framework to the story and give the reader insight into a character‘s actual physical appearance as well as into the character‘s opinion of this appearance. These opinions, whether distorted or truthful, provide explanations for many of the characters‘ actions and show the similarities between characters‘ thought processes. 5 Continuities are finally presented as shared character traits and situations. Characters from the same novel and from the two distinct novels share mannerisms, worldviews, and dialogues. Particular characters have comparable belief systems and fixations while others are merely placed in similar circumstances. Certain characters are further linked, as they are often portrayed using the same objects, sitting in the same way, and reacting with the same zeal. The result of these mutual traits is that, in reading the scene of one character or couple, the reader is reminded of another and forms an automatic link between the two. The purpose of my study is to explore and analyze the origin and the significance of Colette‘s use of these three narrative aids. The scenes created with combined colors, purposefully placed mirrors, and character similarities will be pointed out and studied in order to specify their effects on the reader and their importance as a part of Colette‘s kaleidoscopic literary world. 6 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION A new dawn is always breaking inside a kaleidoscope. There are some who experience a sacred connection as they view the kaleidoscope through the inner mirror of their soul…Whether it is a few moments of clarity or a realization of oneness, they interpret the unfolding mandalas as messages of love and beauty; feeling, more than seeing, the radiance within… each kaleidoscope is a little world unto itself where one can: hear silent music, feel wondrous harmony … reflect on beauty repeating itself over and over again, know that for each ending there is a new beginning ( Baker 7). The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines a kaleidoscope as ―a tube-shaped optical instrument that is rotated to produce a succession of symmetrical designs by means of mirrors reflecting the constantly changing patterns made by bits of colored glass at one end of the tube‖ (―kaleidoscope‖ 2010). While complicated in design, allowing the viewer to gaze at shifting designs and colors, this device is often used by children and sometimes even considered to be a toy. The ease with which one can rotate the tube to create an infinite number of color and shape combinations can overshadow the power and beauty of the symmetrical images as well as the innovation and creativity that go into its original design. The creation of the original image involves choice of color, mirror size, and type of rotation; ―first and foremost it takes the hands and heart of a dedicated artist. Indeed the artist is the very heart of the kaleidoscope‖ (Baker 15). Understanding the scientific and artistic construction of the kaleidoscope and its combinations heighten the senses and the emotions of the audience. In a similar fashion, one such artist, the French writer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (1873-1954), chose to use color, mirrors, and interactions of senses and of characters in order to create shifting yet unbroken patterns in her own, mesmerizing literary world. 7 Author of novels and short stories with female protagonists, Colette was often labeled as classically feminist. Only recently has Colette‘s body of work been recognized for its distinct, sensual descriptions. She has been the subject of several recent biographies and critical works that have produced new readings of her fiction. For Julia Kristeva, Colette ―found a language to express a strange osmosis between her sensations, her desires, her anxieties – those pleasures thoughtlessly called physical – and the infiniteness of the world, the blossoming of flowers, the rippling of beasts, sublime apparitions, contagious monsters‖ (1). In Colette, the third and final volume of Female Genius: Life, Madness, Words – Hannah Arendt, Melanie Klein, Colette. Kristeva explains Colette‘s talent with expressive language as a result of her ability to depict and invoke sensation in her novels and short stories. In my thesis, I argue that the elements of color and mirror-like reflections of characters in each other contribute to Colette‘s distinctive literary style. In her brief yet profound depictions of scenery and characters, Colette uses strategic color combinations and juxtapositions that elicit reactions from her reader. Colette creates a bond between the reader and the characters of her story in a fashion similar to the workings of a kaleidoscope. Like the shifting, yet symmetrical designs of a kaleidoscope, Colette‘s characters, their sensations, and the emotions conveyed to the reader are both delightful and emotionally provocative. The characters that appear in Colette‘s novels are connected to each other by their actions, reactions, and feelings. In addition, the scenes of interaction are linked through the sensual, selective choice of words with which they are described. Thus, the people and worlds present in Colette‘s works constantly invoke each other and amplify the reader‘s experience of each text. This invocation is a result of Colette‘s unique word 8 choices and her tendency to present characters that fit into certain categories, i.e. young, lively women, aging courtesans, weak males, etc. in the same way. In her feminist reading of Colette‘s life and works, Joan Stewart identifies the strong connection between Colette‘s characters as the result of both stylistic and gender- related factors. Stewart concludes that, Colette‘s uniqueness relates on the one hand to the break with traditional genres… on the other to her exploration of gender differences. In Colette‘s writing, ordinary feminine pursuits are beautiful and heroic as well as prosaic; men are sex objects; and maternal and passionate love, heterosexual and homosexual love, the pure and impure drift together (137). Kristeva also emphasizes this connectivity, noting that female characters (and male characters with feminine traits) are often linked to each other by societal codes – defined spheres of feminine domestic honor – and by the ambiguous loving relationships in which they find themselves involved (174). This interrelatedness of characters, settings, and scenes, can be described as kaleidoscopic. In his study of modern artistic vision and the importance of an active observer, Techniques of the Observer, Jonathan Crary highlights the exceptionality of the kaleidoscope. He notes that its ability to create visual multiplicity using new technology allows for greater perception and a new way of seeing. The fluidly changing patterns assure that ―There is never a pure access to a single object; vision is always multiple, adjacent to and overlapping with other objects, desires, and vectors … a world where everything is in circulation‖ (20). The kaleidoscope then functions as a metaphor for Colette‘s artistic vision and has consequences for the reader. Just as the viewer of a kaleidoscope unavoidably, concurrently witnesses several revolving colors, shapes, and 9 patterns through a single eyepiece, an informed Colette reader is faced with perceptions of several different characters, places, and stories while reading a single novel. Colette‘s individual scenes are linked by their characters, events, and the smells, sights,