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.