ORPHEUS IN BROOKLYN: ORPHIC AND RIMBALDIAN IDEALS IN THE WRITINGS OF HENRY MILLER Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Mathieu, Bertrand Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 09/10/2021 17:22:55 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/290378 INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. 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It is customary to begin photoing at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue photoing from left to right in equal sections with a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued again — beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. The majority of users indicate that the textual content is of greatest value, however, a somewhat higher quality reproduction could be made from "photographs" if essential to the understanding of the dissertation. Silver prints of "photographs" may be ordered at additional charge by writing the Order Department, giving the catalog number, title, author and specific pages you wish reproduced. 5. PLEASE NOTE: Some pages may have indistinct print. Filmed as received. Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 75-26,940 MATHIEU, Bertrand Marcel, 1936- ORPHEUS IN BROOKLYN: ORPHIC AND RIMBALDIAN IDEALS IN THE WRITINGS OF HENRY MILLER. The University of Arizona, Ph.D., 1975 Literature, modern Xerox University Microfilms , Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 COPYRIGHTED BY BERTRAND MARCEL MATHIEU 1975 ill THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED. ORPHEUS IN BROOKLYN: ORPHIC AND RIMBALDIAN IDEALS IN THE WRITINGS OF HENRY MILLER by Bertrand Marcel Mathieu A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 19 7 5 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE I hereby recommend that this dissertation prepared under my direction by Bertrand Mathieu entitled Orpheus in Brooklyn: Orphic and Rimbaldian Ideals in the Writings of Henry Miller be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Director Date After inspection of the final copy of the dissertation, the follovzing members of the Final Examination Committee concur in its approval and recommend its acceptance:'-'' 9 nu^J? 0>f& /7 G/Cfl f &/j /7,1• This approval and acceptance is contingent on the candidate's adequate performance and defense of this dissertation at the final oral examination. The inclusion of this sheet bound into the library copy of the dissertation is evidence of satisfactory performance at the final examination. STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or re­ production of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. for Eleni, Rusty, and Rachel— naturally! iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT vi 1. PROLOGOS 1 2. THE LINEAMENTS OF "FATHER ORPHEUS" ............. 10 a. "The Image's Truth" ......... 10 b. Orpheus as Musician: the Spellbinder Motif 24 c. Orpheus as Voyager: the Sense of Quest 40 d. Orpheus as Peace-Maker: Abstention from Murder .... 47 e. Orpheus Descending: the Katabasis Theme . 56 f. Orpheus as Divinity: the Immortality Motif ...... 76 3. THE SYMBOLISTE PARALLELS: AN INTERLUDE 88 a. "Une sorcellerie evocatoire" 88 b. The Rejection of the Quotidian 100 c. The Theory of "Correspondences" ...... 109 d. The Belief in a Universal Language ..... 120 e. The Efficacy of Evocativeness and Musicallty ...... 128 f. The Quest for the Absolute 140 4. THE RIMBAUD FACTOR 162 a. "Une fatalite de bonheur" . e .. 162 b. The Poet as Demon 170 c. The Poet as Angel .............. 185 d. The Poet as Dronomaniac 200 e. The Poet as Alchemist 219 f. The Poet as Voyant 248 5. EPIL0G0S 265 APPENDIX - SOURCES OF SECTION EPIGRAPHS 267 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 269 v ABSTRACT The Colossus of Maroussi may be rightly regarded as the oeuvre mattresse in the Henry Miller canon, the work which best dramatizes Miller's obsession with the Orphic myth of descent-and-rebirth and with the poetic practices of his French Symboliste exemplars. Orphism and Rimbaldian Illuminism are so effectively exemplified in Colossus that this work can be seen to constitute a controlled artistic achievement of a quite distinctive kind. An analysis of Miller's writings in terms of his attempt to re-enact the myth of Orpheus and to adapt the stock-in-trade of the Symbolistes to his own purposes significantly alters our critical perspective on Miller's reputation. The image of Orpheus is the mythopoeic backbone of Miller's works. As in the myth of Orpheus, music is paramount in Miller. Colossus, especially, celebrates the primacy in Miller's universe of people who sing and tell stories, the spellbinders who repeat the be­ witching performance of Orpheus. Like the myth of the Greek voyager/ peace-maker, Miller's books glorify the theme of quest and the de­ sirability of abstaining from deeds of violence. In Colossus, the need to extirpate murder from the human heart is as important as it is in the Orphic cult. Finally, both Orpheus and Miller engage in acts of "descent" which are preludes to man's attainment of the state of "divinity." The many descents described in Miller's books function as does the Orphic descensus ad infernos which must necessarily precede re-birth. vi Vii Miller's major books, like the paradigmatic myth of Orpheus, enunciate the main tenets of the Orphic creed but especially the central one: only by dying to something which is not essential can one hope to achieve man's sublimest goal, "immortality." Miller's writings also have much in common with the primary concerns of the French Symboliste poets, whom he had diligently studied. Like the Symbolistes, Miller evinces a marked dislike for the quotidian. Like them, he espouses the Swedenborgian theory of "correspondences" and shares their belief in a universal language. Similarly, he is conscious of the desirability of imbuing language with evocativeness and musical- ity to convey an aura of strangeness. Finally, he shares with the Symbolistes the characteristic thirst for the Absolute which is such a distinctive feature of their creed. Much of Miller's work, especially Colossus, gives off a quite distinct resonance when viewed from the vantage point of Symboliste doctrine and practice. Arthur Rimbaud was the Symboliste whom Miller held in highest esteem. It is to Rimbaud that he accords his greatest adulation and from him, in all probability, that he derives his most audacious tactics and poses. There are five typically Rimbaldian stances which Miller adopts successfully, both in Colossus and in other books: Demon, Angel, Droraomaniac, Alchemist, and Voyant. The demonic element is perhaps the best-known feature in the writings of Rimbaud and Miller. But the fury of their hatreds and re­ sentments is merely a defense mechanism against a world which has in­ jured them. It is the obverse side of their angelism and their sense of mission to bear witness to the light. Both are insatiable viii dromomaniacs who take a keen delight in movement, which is a means of escaping what threatens to harm or destroy them as well as a means of returning to a paradisaical state from which they feel unjustly ex­ pelled. Both consciously practice what Rimbaud called "l'alchimie du verbe" with a view to transmuting the trivial into treasure. Finally, Rimbaud and Miller are committed to the ideal of the poet as voyant or "seer." Their eidetic natures and image-making gift empower both writers to penetrate behind the veil of appearance to the "light" which it conceals and enable them to transmit this "light" to others. CHAPTER 1 PROLOGOS Writers' ancestries are obscure. The ascertainment of an author's final genealogical position in relation to the many literary forebears who have had a seminal influence on his work is, at best, an inexact science. It often requires decades, even generations, for a writer's lineage to be established with absolute precision. Quite often, the most popular works of a writer during his own lifetime—one could cite Herman Melville's Typee and Omoo and Henry James' "Daisy Miller" and The American as examples—do not prove, with the passage of time, to have been the most enduring or the most artistically important in the canon which will be left for posterity to work out.