Neurosis and narrative: the decadent short fiction of Proust, Lorrain, and Rachilde

435 Pages·1992·1.01 MB·English

by  Renée A. Kingcaid

Neurosis and Narrative : The Decadent
title: Short Fiction of Proust, Lorrain, and
Rachilde
author: Kingcaid, Renée A.
publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
isbn10 | asin: 0809317532
print isbn13: 9780809317530
ebook isbn13: 9780585187068
language: English
French fiction--20th century--History and
criticism, French fiction--19th century--
History and criticism, Decadence (Literary
subject movement)--France, Proust, Marcel,--1871-
1922--Knowledge--Psychology, Lorrain,
Jean,--1855-1906--Knowledge--Psychology,
Rachilde,
publication date: 1992
lcc: PQ673.K58 1992eb
ddc: 843/.9109353
French fiction--20th century--History and
criticism, French fiction--19th century--
History and criticism, Decadence (Literary
subject: movement)--France, Proust, Marcel,--1871-
1922--Knowledge--Psychology, Lorrain,
Jean,--1855-1906--Knowledge--Psychology,
Rachilde,
Page iii
Neurosis and Narrative
The Decadent Short Fiction of Proust, Lorrain, and
Rachilde
Renée A. Kingcaid
Southern Illinois University Press
Carbondale and Edwardsville
Page iv
Copyright © 1992 by the Board of Trustees,
Southern Illinois University
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Edited by Dan Gunter
Designed by Christopher Bucci
Production supervised by Natalia Nadraga
95 94 93 92 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kingcaid, Renée A., 1952
Neurosis and narrative: the decadent short fiction of Proust, Lorrain,
and Rachilde/Renée A. Kingcaid.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. French fiction 20th century History and criticism. 2. French
fiction 19th century History and criticism. 3. Decadence
(Literary movement) France. 4. Proust, Marcel, 1871 1922
Knowledge Psychology. 5. Lorrain, Jean, 18551906 Knowledge
Psychology. 6. Rachilde, 18601953 Knowledge Psychology.
7. Psychoanalysis and literature. 8. Semiotics and literature.
9. Neuroses in literature. 10. Narration (Rhetoric) I. Title.
PQ673.K58 1992
843'.9109353 dc20 91-
22156
ISBN 0-8093-1753-
2 CIP
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.

Page v
To Michael
Page vii
Contents
Preface ix
1. Neurosis and Narrative: 1
Principles and Strategies
2. Common Ground: 18
Freud and the Decadence
3. Plotting the Fetish: 35
Proust's Pleasures and Regrets
4. The Return of the Repressed: 75
Lorrain's Masked Figures and Phantoms
5. The Epithalamic Horror: 111
Displacement in Rachilde
6. Neurosis and Nostalgia: 145
"Decadent" Desire?
Notes 155
Bibliography 183
Index 201
Page ix
Preface
To make this study as widely accessible as possible, I have provided
translations of all of my original French sources, both primary and
secondary. Of the primary worksProust's Pleasures and Regrets, Jean
Lorrain's Masked Figures and Phantoms, and Rachilde's Stories and
Demon of the Absurdonly the Proust, to my knowledge, is available in
English translation. That translation, done by Louise Varese and
published by Ecco Press in 1949, offers only selected parts of the
original Les plaisirs et les jours: the four major short stories of the
workthe four I will be looking at herethe preface by Anatole France,
two minor short stories, the society portraits known as the "Fragments
of Italian Comedy," and the prose poems "Regrets, Reveries,
Changing Skies." The translation does not include Proust's own
preface to the work, that is, the extended dedication to Willie Heath in
which Proust develops the theme of illness as poetic inspiration, the
theme that opens the work on a distinct note of Decadence.
I have used Varese's translation for my citations from the major short
stories of Pleasures and Regrets: "The Death of Baldassare Silvande,"
"The Melancholy Summer of Madame de Breyves," "A Young Girl's
Confession," and "The End of Jealousy." Page references to these
stories in the text refer directly, therefore, to Varese's text. The
translations from Proust's own preface, however, are my own, as are
all of the translations from Lorrain and Rachilde; my page references
to these works are therefore to the French editions cited in the
bibliography. In each instance of my own translation of a primary
source, I have additionally supplied the French original in the notes.
Readers of French will undoubtedly wish to evaluate both my
translations and my literary analyses on the basis of the original texts
from which I worked. In all translations, I have attempted to retain
both the literal meaning and the suggestive nuance of the
Page x
original passages. This exercise in translation has been no less
instructive to me than was the initial work of analysis: there is nothing
like rendering lurid prose into one's native language to make one fully
aware of just how lurid it is!
Similarly, I have done my own translations of all citations from my
secondary sources in French. However, in the dual interests of space
and textual flow, I have not appended the original French; readers
wishing to consult these sources will find them listed in the
bibliography. In the few cases in which I have substituted my own
translation for a previously published one, I have made this
substitution clear in the text.
As this book makes its way to press, I would like to publicly
acknowledge the support that my home institution, Saint Mary's
College at Notre Dame, Indiana, has given to this project since its
inception. In the long course of my research and writing, from 1985 to
1989, the college has twice awarded me faculty research grants,
supporting such critical needs as interlibrary loan, library work space,
manuscript production costs, and day care. The Cushwa-Leighton
Library at Saint Mary's College has also been most generous in its
acquisitions relating to my work; I owe a particular debt of gratitude
to Lola Mae Philippsen, Director of Interlibrary Loan and
Acquisitions, for her unfailing courtesy and efficiency.
A grant to the Department of Modern Languages at Saint Mary's
College by the Charles P. Culpeper Foundation provided valuable
travel funds that enabled me to consult original editions of Rachilde's
novels at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris during the summer of
1989. Without this support, I would have remained without the benefit
of Rachilde's preface to her novel Madame Adonis, an important
reflection on the state of the female novelist that is not often reprinted
in modern editions of the novel.