56 This book consists of nine chapters devoted to representations of Literary and melancholia in 19th-century art and literature. A noteworthy feature Cultural Theory of the book is its use of concepts from later works by Sigmund Freud, Jean Clair, Jean Starobinski, Julia Kristeva and others. Those concepts elucidate further contexts of the notion of melancholia, which are presented not in isolation but juxtaposed with the philosophical background of the concept (starting from Hippocrates and Aristotle). Thus, the book not only provides a survey of images and modes of behaviour of 19th-century individuals, but also discusses the meanings Piotr S´niedziewski of melancholia as they appeared in European culture over time. The Melancholic Gaze The Melancholic Gaze Melancholic The · Piotr S´niedziewski is Assistant Professor in the Department of Romanti- cism of the Polish Studies Institute at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan´. He has authored Mallarmé – Norwid. Le silence et la modernité poétique en France et en Pologne, published in Poland (2008) and France niedziewski (2009), Melancholijne spojrzenie (2011) and Elegijna s´wiadomos´c´ roman- ´ tyków (2015). He is Editor-in-Chief of “Poznan´skie Studia Polonistyczne. Seria Literacka”. S Piotr ISBN 978-3-631-67526-7 www.peterlang.com LCT 56_267526_niedziewski_TL_HCA5 151x214 globalL.indd 1 05.10.18 15:05 56 This book consists of nine chapters devoted to representations of Literary and melancholia in 19th-century art and literature. A noteworthy feature Cultural Theory of the book is its use of concepts from later works by Sigmund Freud, Jean Clair, Jean Starobinski, Julia Kristeva and others. Those concepts elucidate further contexts of the notion of melancholia, which are presented not in isolation but juxtaposed with the philosophical background of the concept (starting from Hippocrates and Aristotle). Thus, the book not only provides a survey of images and modes of behaviour of 19th-century individuals, but also discusses the meanings Piotr S´niedziewski of melancholia as they appeared in European culture over time. The Melancholic Gaze · The Melancholic Gaze Melancholic · The Piotr S´niedziewski is Assistant Professor in the Department of Romanti- cism of the Polish Studies Institute at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan´. He has authored Mallarmé – Norwid. Le silence et la modernité poétique en France et en Pologne, published in Poland (2008) and France niedziewski (2009), Melancholijne spojrzenie (2011) and Elegijna s´wiadomos´c´ roman- ´ tyków (2015). He is Editor-in-Chief of “Poznan´skie Studia Polonistyczne. Seria Literacka”. S Piotr www.peterlang.com LCT 56_267526_niedziewski_TL_HCA5 151x214 globalL.indd 1 05.10.18 15:05 The Melancholic Gaze LITERARY AND CULTURAL THEORY General Editor: Wojciech H. Kalaga VOLUME 56 Piotr niedziewski Ś The Melancholic Gaze Translator: Timothy Dwight Williams Linguistic copyeditor: Robert France Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress The Publication is founded by Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland as a part of the National Programme for the Development of the Humanities. This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Ministry cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. ISSN 1434-0313 ISBN 978-3-631-67526-7 (Print) E-ISBN 978-3-653-06894-8 (E-PDF) E-ISBN 978-3-631-71160-6 (EPUB) E-ISBN 978-3-631-71161-3 (MOBI) DOI 10.3726/978-3-653-06894-8 Open Access: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 unported license. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ © Piotr Śniedziewski, 2018 Peter Lang – Berlin · Bern · Bruxelles · New York · Oxford · Warszawa · Wien This publication has been peer reviewed. www.peterlang.com This book is for Magda Contents Introduction .............................................................................................................1 Part I. The Outward Gaze 1. To Wander and Look (Rousseau, Chateaubriand) .........................11 1.1 Rousseau’s herbarium .................................................................................11 1.2 Chateaubriand’s stone .................................................................................26 2. Gazing and Writing Instead of Living (Senancour) ......................41 2.1 Melancholic solitude ...................................................................................44 2.2 The melancholic landscape .........................................................................49 2.3 Melancholic writing ....................................................................................55 3. Looking Without Seeing (Amiel, Macpherson, Turner, Mallarmé).........................................................................................59 3.1 Sad glances....................................................................................................59 3.2 Sad mist .........................................................................................................64 3.3 Sad world ......................................................................................................68 Part II. The Inward Gaze 4. For Only in Sadness Can Talent Be Perceived (Madame de Staël) ........................................................................................75 5. To See the Nothing Inside (Amiel) ........................................................89 VII 6. Gazing Helplessly Through Life as It Recedes (Delacroix) ..... 105 Part III. The Gaze out of the Window or into the Mirror 7. On the Harmful Effects of Looking Through the Window (Flaubert) ............................................................................ 127 8. To Look in a Tarnished Mirror (Baudelaire) ................................. 151 9. Through the Window and Back (Balzac, Baudelaire, Hasenclever) ...................................................... 171 9.1 Odds and ends, and looking into the void ............................................. 177 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 185 Bibliography ........................................................................................................ 189 Name Index .......................................................................................................... 201 Subject Index ....................................................................................................... 207 VIII Introduction There is no Passion which is not manifested by some particular action of the eyes. This is so obvious in the case of some of them, that even the stupidest servants can tell from their mas- ter’s eyes whether or not he is upset with them. But although these actions of the eyes are easily perceived, and what they mean is known, that does not make it easy to describe them, because each of them is composed of many changes taking place in the movement and shape of the eye, so singular and slight that there is no perceiving each of them separately, even though what results from their conjunction may be quite easy to recognize.1 There are two gazes of Orpheus. The first is well-known, almost to the point of being hackneyed. It is the gaze, full of impatience and therefore untimely, of the lover who managed to descend into the underworld, charm Charon, Cerberus and Hades himself with song, and deliver his beloved wife from eternal darkness and silence. The one condition the singer had to fulfill in order for this miracle, a miracle rivaled only by the story of Persephone, to take place may seem banal, disproportionate to the promise of future happiness. Eurydice would leave the depths of Hades with him and return to life, but during the journey home Orpheus, who had to lead the way, was for- bidden to look behind him; forbidden to gaze upon his beloved. Hermes would walk behind her in order to keep an eye on the singer; to follow his movements and check his impulses, and, should Orpheus once turn around, to pull Eurydice back into the underworld. Remember, you cannot look at her! That was the con- dition set by Hades. It seems little enough to ask in exchange for a new life; for love regained. It seems even less when we consider the imbalance between what must have been a short journey home and the promise of a long and happy life on earth. Indeed, it was not much to ask, except of someone who loved. Anyone who has ever loved knows that the gaze of the beloved can eclipse the whole world. What, then, could Orpheus do? He was no longer saddened by the death of Eury- dice; no longer paralyzed by the fear of life, life which for him would once again soon know the delights of the past. Just then, in the moment that divides van- ished pain from future joy, Orpheus was seized with the desire to see his beloved. Virgil recalls the event in the following passage from the Georgics: 1 René Descartes, The Passions of the Soul, trans. Stephen Voss (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1989), p. 79. 1 And now with homeward footstep he had passed […], Eurydice to realms of upper air Had well-nigh