Octave Mirbeau's Fictions of the Transcendental (eBook)

Robert Ziegler (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2015
234 Seiten
University of Delaware Press (Verlag)
978-1-61149-562-1 (ISBN)

Infos

Showing how Octave Mirbeau controverts the existence of a Christian god, this study argues that Mirbeau never abandons his exploration of life’s mysteries, apprehensions of the infinite that come from a refinement of his art and an identification with his brothers.

---

Political firebrand, tireless reformer, champion of the avant-garde, Octave Mirbeau embraced his role as disturber of the peace. Inspired by Kropotkin and Dostoyevsky, Mirbeau became the social conscience of the era, speaking in a clear voice to impugn capitalist ideology, to defend the cause of the worker, the child, the pauper, the prostitute, and the soldier sacrificed as cannon fodder.Mirbeau's critiques of society seethe with indictments of indoctrinating agencies: the family, which stifled the child's freedom and expressive creativity, the school, which besotted students with the aridity of its curriculum, the army, which privileged patriotism over the sanctity of life, the church, which sanctified suffering, perverted instinct, and alienated the faithful from nature. Yet Mirbeau shared the admiration of fin-de-siecle zealots for the pariahs, tramps, and beggars rehabilitated in the Scripture. The personal trials of the misbegotten became an insignia of election. Those marginalized by society experienced damnation here below yet had glimpses of the bliss they hoped might await them somewhere higher. Yet it was not just in the less fortunate that Mirbeau sought evidence of the supra-rational. Generally neglected by critics, Mirbeau's interest in the unknown and the inexpressible informed virtually all of his writing and helped shape his views on artistic work and political struggle. For this reason, this study sets out to analyze the spiritual politics of the author. As Mirbeau was becoming involved in the escalating controversy over the Dreyfus case and cementing his alliance with prominent anarchists, he was also undergoing a uniquely personal spiritual evolution. This volume breaks new ground, exploring the author's secular metaphysic, charting his investigation of the spiritually transfiguring experience that redeems man's desolate existence. What begins as Mirbeau's indictment of Catholicism's death-glorifying ethos, his attempt to find refuge from life's pain in the blessedness of Nirvana, becomes a pursuit of mystical diffusion into the community of others. Showing how Mirbeau controverts the existence of a Christian god, this study argues that Mirbeau never abandons his exploration of life's mysteries, apprehensions of the infinite that come from a refinement of his art and an identification with his brothers.

Autor

Robert Ziegler is professor emeritus of liberal studies at Montana Tech of the University of Montana.

Inhalt

AcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter 1: The PardonerLe CalvaireL’Abbé JulesSébastien RochChapter 2: The SeerDans le cielChapter 3: The StrangerLe Jardin des supplicesLe Journal d’une femme de chambreChapter 4: The BrotherLes 21 jours d’un neurasthéniqueLa 628-E8DingoConclusionBibliography

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 21.4.2015
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Essays / Feuilleton
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft
• Schlagworte: Francophone Literature • Literary Studies • Religion • Spirituality
• ISBN-10: 1-61149-562-8 / 1611495628
• ISBN-13: 978-1-61149-562-1 / 9781611495621