2024 Vol. 15 №3

The imago image of ‘flowers of evil’: from Charles Baudelaire to Joris-Karl Huysmans

DOI

10.5922/2225-5346-2024-3-3

Pages

39-54

Abstract

This article examines the image of 'flowers of evil' as an imago image — an imaginary image of a real object. The term 'imago' was first used in this sense by Carl Jung in 1912. The work proposes a novel approach to investigating the image of 'flowers of evil'. The com­pa­rative historical, analytical and psychoanalytic methods of text examination revealed that, in his novel À rebours, Huysmans espouses Baudelaire's celebrated image, representing it pri­marily as a notion of something bizarre, extraordinary, transmuted and dangerous. This is achieved through the reception of the image of 'flowers of evil' embodied by Huysmans in a series of vegetative appearances, such as the collection of exotic plants, the lotus in the hands of Salome and the nidularium seen in a dream. It is concluded that Huysmans uses phy­to­nymic images to demonstrate his belief that his decadent contemporaries, personified in the cha­racter of Jean Desessent, perceive Baudelaire's work superficially, inaccurately and too lite­rally, making them accomplices in the 'burial' of everything associated with 'old' values. Therefore, as a poetic image, Baudelaire's 'flowers of evil' align with the explored 'imago' methodology as they generate multiple interpretive chains representing independent acts of creativity.

Reference

Anisova, A. A. and Zhuk, M. I., 2006. The Archetype of the Shadow in G. Hesse’s novel “Steppenwolf” from the point of view of the theory of analytical psychology by C. G. Jung. In: Kul'turno-yazykovye kontakty [Cultural and linguistic contacts], 9. Vladivostok, pp. 300—312 (in Russ.).

Auerbach, E., 1976. Mimesis [Mimesis]. Moscow (in Russ.).

Barness, Ed. and Bernard, D., 2000. Psikhoanaliticheskie terminy i ponyatiya: slovar' [Psychoanalytic terms and concepts: Dictionary]. Moscow (in Russ.).

Baudelaire, Ch., 1868. Salon de 1859. In: Œuvres complètes de Charles Baudelaire [The collected works by Charles Baudelaire]. Paris, Vol. 2, pp. 245—358.

Baudelaire, Ch., 1972. Les Fleurs du Mal. Рaris.

Benjamin, W., 2019. Baudelaire, or Parisian streets. In: Devyat' rabot [Nine works]. Moscow, pp. 122—126 (in Russ.).

Bozovic, M., 2004. The Man Behind His Own Retina. In: S. Zizek, ed. To, chto vy vsegda khoteli znat' o Lakane (no boyalis' sprosit' u Khichkoka) [What you Always Wan­ted to Know about Lacan (but were afraid to ask Hitchcock)]. Moscow, pp. 141—158 (in Russ.).

Brunel, P., 1998. Les fleurs du mal. Entre «fleurir» et «défleurir». Paris.

Campmas, Au., 2008. La monstruosité cachée: Huysmans et les hybrides artifi­ciels. Séminaire «Signe, déchiffrement, et interpretation» In: Les colloques "Signe, déchiffrement, et interprétation". Available at: http://www.fabula.org/colloques/do cument869.php [Accessed 9 January 2023] https://doi.org/10.58282/colloques.869.

Dufour, P., 1988. Les Fleurs du Mal: dictionnaire de mélancolie. Littérature, 72, pp. 30—54.

Eco, U., 1998. Notes on the margins of the “Name of the Rose”. In: Imya rozy [The Name of the Rose]. Moscow, pp. 596—644 (in Russ.).

Gubareva, M. S., 2005. Temy i obrazy dekadansa: Zh.-K. Gyuismans, O. Uail'd, A. Zhid: opyt sopostavitel'nogo analiza [Themes and images of decadence: J.-C. Huysmans, O. Wilde, A. Gide: A Benchmarking Experience]. PhD dissertation. Moscow (in Russ.).

Huysmans, J.-K., 1922. À rebours. Paris.

Huysmans, J.-K., 2005. Naoborot [À rebours]. Мoscow (in Russ.).

Jung, K. G., 1994. Simvoly i metamorfozy. Libido [Symbols and metamorphoses. Li­bido]. Moscow (in Russ.).

Jung, K. G., 2002. Problemy dushi nashego vremeni [The problems of the soul of our time]. St. Petersburg (in Russ.).

Kant, I., 2020. Kritika chistogo razuma [Kritik der reinen Vernunft]. Moscow (in Russ.).

Komarova, E. A., 2003. Roman “Naoborot” v kontekste khudozhestvennogo tvorchestva Zh.-K. Huysmansa [The novel “À rebours” in the context of artistic creativity of J.-K. Huys­mans].PhD dissertation. Ivanovo (in Russ.).

Kugler, P., 2005. Alkhimiya diskursa. Obraz, zvuk i psikhicheskoe [Alchemy of dis­cour­se. Image, sound and mental]. Translated by V. V. Zelenskii, Z. A. Krivulina. Mos­cow (in Russ.).

Kushlina, O. B., 2022. Strastotsvet, ili Peterburgskie podokonniki [Passion flower, or St. Petersburg window sills]. St. Petersburg, 336 p. (in Russ.).

Lacan, J., 2019. The mirror stage and its role in the formation of the Y-function. Psikhoanaliz [Psychoanalysis]. Minsk. Available at: https://psychoanalysis.by/2019/ 03/26/статья-ж-лакан-стадия-зеркала-и-ее-рол/ [Accessed 22 February 2023] (in Russ.).

Levin, Yu., 1988. Mirror as a potential semiotic object. In: Zerkalo. Semiotika zer­kal'nosti: Trudy po znakovym sistemam [Mirror. Semiotics of mirroring: Works on sign systems]. Tartu, pp. 6—24 (in Russ.).

Moreau, G., 2002. Ecrits sur l’art par Gustave Moreau. Vol. 1. Paris.

Pishua, K. and Ziegler, J., 2000. The publication of “Flowers of Evil” and the trial of Baudelaire. Inostrannaya literatura [Foreign Literature], 4, pp. 140—163 (in Russ.).

Sokolova, T. V., ed., 2003. Istoriya zapadnoevropeiskoi literatury. XIX vek [History of Western European literature. Тhe 19th century]. St. Petersburg; Moscow (in Russ.).

Vasiliev, A. V., 2015. Ancestral masks (imagines maiorum) in the public life of the Romans during the Republic and early Empire. In: Trudy Istoricheskogo fakul'teta Sankt-Peterburgskogo universiteta [Proceedings of the Historical Faculty of St. Peters­burg University], 23. St. Petersburg, pp. 73—100 (in Russ.).

Veselovsky, A. N., 1989. From an introduction to historical poetics. In: Istori­ches­kaya poetika [Historical poetics]. Moscow, pp. 42—59 (in Russ.).