Lautréamont : subject to interpretation / Andrea S. Thomas

251 Pages·2015·2.32 MB·English

by  Lautréamont

Lautréamont,
Subject to Interpretation
FAUX TITRE
403
Etudes de langue et littérature françaises
publiées sous la direction de
Keith Busby, †M.J. Freeman,
Sjef Houppermans et Paul Pelckmans
Lautréamont,
Subject to Interpretation
Andrea S. Thomas
AMSTERDAM - NEW YORK, NY 2015
Cover Image: Eric Edelman, Lautréamont’s Children (2012). Digital collage
created & copyright © by Eric Edelman. All rights reserved.
The paper on which this book is printed meets the requirements of
‘ISO 9706: 1994, Information and documentation - Paper for documents -
Requirements for permanence’.
Le papier sur lequel le présent ouvrage est imprimé remplit les prescriptions
de ‘ISO 9706: 1994, Information et documentation - Papier pour documents -
Prescriptions pour la permanence’.
ISBN: 978-90-420-3925-4
E-Book ISBN: 978-94-012-1207-6
© Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam - New York, NY 2015
Printed in The Netherlands
Table of Contents

List of Illustrations 7

Acknowledgments 9

Introduction 11

Lautréamontage:
Imaginary Portraits of Lautréamont 25

I – FIN DE SIÈCLE

Chapter 1: Outsiders at the Fin de Siècle 41

Chapter 2: Perish then Publish: Partial Truth in
the 1890 Edition of Maldoror 73

II – SURREALISM

Chapter 3: Investing in Lautréamont, 1920 105

Chapter 4: The Edition as Exhibition: A Surrealist
Retrospective, 1938 135

III – POST-STRUCTURALISM

Chapter 5: Lautréamont in the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade 169

Chapter 6: Lautréamont Reincarnated 189

Conclusion: John Cage and the Chants de Maldoror:
Pulvérisés par l’assistance même 217

Bibliography 233

Index 245

List of Illustrations

Figure I.1 Felix Vallotton’s Lautréamont 27

Figure I.2 Enrique Ochoa’s Lautréamont 29

Figure I.3 Adolfo Pastor’s Lautréamont 30

Figure I.4 Salvador Dalí’s Lautréamont 31

Figure I.5 Man Ray, L’Énigme d’Isidore Ducasse 33

Figure I.6 Cabu’s Lautréamont 36

Figure 2.1 José Roy, frontispiece 81

Figure 2.2 “facsimile” letter, Genonceaux, 1890 95

Figure 4.1 Salvador Dalí, Canto IV, 2 143

Figure 4.2 Dalí, Canto III, 5 146

Figure 4.3 Dalí, Canto III, 1 150

Figure 4.4 Matta Echaurren, Dieu au bordel… 157

Figure 4.5 Joan Miró, Trois étoiles au lieu d’une
signature et une tache de sang au bas
de la page. 159

Figure 4.6 Max Ernst, C’est un homme ou une
pierre ou un arbre qui va commencer
le quatrième chant. 160

Figure 4.7 André Masson, Je suis sale. Les poux
me rongent. Les pourceaux, quand
ils me regardent, vomissent… 162
8 List of Illustrations
Figure 4.8 René Magritte, Où est-il passé ce premier
chant de Maldoror, depuis que sa bouche,
pleine des feuilles de la belladone… 165

Figure 6.1 Philippe Sollers, graph from
“La Science de Lautréamont” 198

Figure C.1 Jesús Galdón, conference poster 218

Figure C.2 John Cage, Les Chants de Maldoror
pulvérisés par l’assistance même, directions 230

Figure C.3 John Cage, Les Chants de Maldoror
pulvérisés par l’assistance même 231
Acknowledgements

I am indebted to Columbia University and Loyola University
Maryland for the research grants that made this book possible. Thanks
to the guidance of my mentors in the French and Romance Philology
Department at Columbia University, especially Elisabeth Ladenson, as
well as Joanna Stalnaker and Philip Watts, I was able to complete the
PhD thesis out of which the following project developed in a fairly
painless manner. Since then, the scholars behind the Association des
Amis Passés, Présents et Futurs d’Isidore Ducasse (AAPPFID) and
colleagues such as Peter Nesselroth and Michel Pierssens have opened
up exciting dialogues and provided me many opportunities to present
my ideas. Leslie Zarker Morgan, Sharon Nell, and my colleagues at
Loyola University Maryland have been invaluable in reading drafts
and offering moral support. My dear friends Annelle Curulla, Ana
Lazic-Paunovic, Charles Girard, and Priya Wadhera have helped me
enormously at every stage; special thanks go to Kevin Erwin for his
translating expertise. Danielle Whren and Marion Wielgosz from
Loyola University Maryland, as well as Christa Stevens at Rodopi,
Eric Edelman, and Cynthia Gladen have my gratitude for all the
practical aspects of this book. Susan Scott, Richard Thomas, and
Marcel de Fontaine, all unforeseen Lautréamont enthusiasts, inspire
me daily.
Finally, this project is dedicated to my loving and honest
husband, Andre de Fontaine, who is also my most loving and honest
critic.