The Artist as Animal in Nineteenth-Century French Literature

The Artist as Animal in Nineteenth-Century French Literature traces the evolution of the relationship between artists and animals in fiction from the Second Empire to the fin de siècle. This book examines examples of visual literature, inspired by the struggles of artists such as Edouard Manet and Vincent van Gogh. Edmond and Jules de Goncourt's Manette Salomon (1867), Émile Zola's Therèse Raquin (1867), Jules Laforgue's "At the Berlin Aquarium" (1895) and "Impressionism" (1883), Octave Mirbeau's In the Sky (1892-1893) and Rachilde's L'Animale (1893) depict vanguard painters and performers as being like animals, whose unique vision revolted against stifling traditions. Juxtaposing these literary works with contemporary animal theory (McHugh, Deleuze, Guattari and Derrida), zoo studies (Berger, Rothfels and Lippit) and feminism (Donovan, Adams and Haraway), Claire Nettleton explores the extent to which the nineteenth-century dissolution of the human subject contributed to a radical, modern aesthetic. Utilizing these interdisciplinary methodologies, Nettleton argues that while inducing anxiety regarding traditional humanist structures, the "artist-animal," an embodiment of artistic liberation within an urban setting, is, at the same time, a paradigmatic trope of modernity.

Auteur

Claire Nettleton is Visiting Assistant Professor of French at Pomona College, USA, and editor of Viral Culture: How CRISPR Gene Editing and the Microbiome Transform Humanity and the Humanities (2020), based on a colloquium she organized, and writer of multiple articles and essays on the intersection of animal studies, the history of science, visual art and avant-garde fiction.

Texte du rabat
The Artist as Animal in Nineteenth-Century French Literature traces the evolution of the relationship between artists and animals in fiction from the Second Empire to the fin de siècle. This book examines examples of visual literature, inspired by the struggles of artists such as Edouard Manet and Vincent van Gogh. Edmond and Jules de Goncourt's Manette Salomon (1867), Émile Zola's Therèse Raquin (1867), Jules Laforgue's At the Berlin Aquarium (1895) and Impressionism (1883), Octave Mirbeau's In the Sky (1892-1893) and Rachilde's L'Animale (1893) depict vanguard painters and performers as being like animals, whose unique vision revolted against stifling traditions. **Juxtaposing these literary works with contemporary animal theory (McHugh, Deleuze, Guattari and Derrida), zoo studies (Berger, Rothfels and Lippit) and feminism (Donovan, Adams and Haraway), Claire Nettleton explores the extent to which the nineteenth-century dissolution of the human subject contributed to a radical, modern aesthetic. Utilizing these interdisciplinary methodologies, Nettleton argues that while inducing anxiety regarding traditional humanist structures, the artist-animal, an embodiment of artistic liberation within an urban setting, is, at the same time, a paradigmatic trope of modernity.

Contenu
1.Introduction 1.1 The Artist as Anarchist1.2 Historical Framework1.3 Theoretical Framework: The Modern AnimalThe Nineteenth Century Meets Animal Studies?1.4 Chapter Summary
Part I: Behind Bars: Artists and Animals of the Second Empire
2.A Caged Animal: The Avant-garde Artist in Edmond and Jules de Goncourt's Manette Salomon 2.1Contemporary Views of the Visual, Literary Animal2.2The Simian Artist2.3The Jardin des Plantes: The Artistic Gateway2.4Barbizon: The Peasant Artist
3.Buffon Versus the Beast: Taming the Wild Artist in Émile Zola's Thérèse Raquin*3.1The Bourgeois and the Bull3.2Painting with Mud3.3The Naturalist ProjectPart II: The Decadent Animals of the Third Republic4.The Decadent Deep Sea: Jules Laforgue's At the Berlin Aquarium4.1Literary Aquariums4.2Through the Eyes of Crustaceans4.3Visions of the Orient
5.Said the Spider to the Fly: The Triumph of the Minor in Octave Mirbeau's *In the Sky*5.1The Fly-Poet and the Spider-Artist: Writing and Painting as Animalistic Processes5.2Darwin and Decadence: The Splendor of Decay and Horror5.3Enter the Void : The Spontaneous Generation of Art
6.*Féline-Fatale: The New Woman as Catwoman in Rachilde's *L'Animale *6.1 *Animale des Lettres*6.2The Second Species: Felines, Femininity and the Avant-garde6.3Feline Frankenstein: Rachilde's Artificial Artist-Animals6.4From Balconies to Glass Ceilings: Working Women in Modernity6.5Cinematic Cats6.6Author Animal
7.Conclusion: Henri Rousseau and Synthetic Naïveté