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PRIMAL PERCEPTION: THE ARTIST AS ANIMAL
IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY FRANCE
by
Claire Correu Nettleton
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(FRENCH)
December 2010
Copyright 2010 Claire Correu Nettleton
Object Description
| Title | Primal perception: the artist as animal in Nineteenth-Century France |
| Author | Nettleton, Claire Correu |
| Author email | claire.nettleton@gmail.com; nettleto@usc.edu |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | French |
| School | College of Letters, Arts and Sciences |
| Date submitted | 2010 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2010-09-09 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Szabari, Antonia |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Norindr, Panivong Lippit, Akira |
| Abstract | This dissertation examines the narrative found in Edmond and Jules de Goncourt’s Manette Salomon (1867), Jules Laforgue’s "À l’Aquarium de Berlin" (1895) and Octave Mirbeau’s Dans le ciel (1892-1893) that the avant-garde artist has an affinity with animals. This mythology, fueled by Darwinian and Lamarckian evolution and popular science, is an attempt to explain the aesthetic of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings. These authors portray avant-garde artists as naive animals whose work undermines the rigid and outmoded values of the artistic institutions of their day.; These authors argue that the artist-animal feels a sense harmony with the ‘natural world’. This longing for a mythical 'nature' coincides with the Haussmannization and rampant urbanization of Paris at this time. As wildlife became increasingly scarce in modern cities, zoological parks were some of the only places where animals were abundantly present. Similarly, art and literature also began to serve as a means of preserving the memory of animals. Mirbeau argues that nature exists within the mind of the artist instead of as an external reality. The Goncourt brothers and Laforgue idealize and orientalize the urban menagerie and the aquarium as institutions in which the artist can experience a nirvana-like oneness with animals. In contrast, in the Jardin des plantes, animals were mistreated and kept in cages. This institution also reinforced the social disparity between French citizens and "strangers" including Jewish people, peasants, and "exotic" colonial subjects. The myth of the 'artist as animal' may, at times, actually reinforce the negligent, cruel and colonialist structures of the nineteenth-century. Paradoxically, in these texts, the animal also represents creative freedom and a radical aesthetic. This dissertation poses the questions: to what extent is the myth of the 'artist as animal' revolutionary and to what extent does it reinforce the existing structure of its day?; My work will attempt to answer these questions through close readings of the fictional works and nineteenth-century scientific, popular and scholarly texts. In addition, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s notion of 'becoming animal' will be instrumental in understanding the animal as a ‘creative line of escape’ from confining institutions (Kafka 65). In contrast, Walter Benjamin’s conception of the nineteenth-century 'myth of the primal' will help address the ways in which nineteenth-century society attempted to conceal oppressive ideological structures (Arcades Project 4). The ideas set forth by Donna Haraway, as well as other post-modern zoological and ecological critics, will be useful in deconstructing the dichotomies inherent in the narrative of the 'artist as animal'. The dialogue between these theorists and the nineteenth-century texts will help illuminate our current understanding of the relationship between art, literature and animals. |
| Keyword | animal; artist; Laforgue; Mirbeau; Goncourt; Impressionism; Impressionist; Deleuze; Darwin, ecology; Morton; Haraway; art; avant-garde; ecology; perception; vision; Dans le ciel; aquarium; Manette Salomon; Jardin des plantes; "A l'Aquarium de Berlin"; Dans le ciel; zoos; Art Nouveau; Benjamin; evolution; Post-Impressionism; Post-Impressionist |
| Geographic subject (country) | France |
| Coverage era | Nineteenth Century |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m3427 |
| Rights | Nettleton, Claire Correu |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | http://www.usc.edu/isd/libraries/services/ask_a_librarian/email/ |
| Filename | etd-Nettleton-4124 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume29/etd-Nettleton-4124.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| Full text | PRIMAL PERCEPTION: THE ARTIST AS ANIMAL IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY FRANCE by Claire Correu Nettleton A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (FRENCH) December 2010 Copyright 2010 Claire Correu Nettleton |
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