神経文学論（2） －ラシルド『動物女』における「心なき」女と獣なるもの

熊谷 謙介

doi:10.24792/0002000537

This paper focuses on the question of the representation of the “neurotic” in LʼAnimale（Animal Woman）（1897）, a novel written by the French female Decadent author Rachilde （1860―1953）, whose writings provoked scandals because of her introduction of sexual themes in the Fin du siècleʼs literature ; recently, they have been read, notably from a gender studies perspective. 　Laure, the heroine of this text, narrates her childhood and adolescent experiences with sexual experiments and her seduction of a priest and her fatherʼs clerk Lucien. After the revelation of the scandalous suicide of the latter, Laure was thrown out by her parents and escaped to Paris. During her anxious life as a mistress, she met the tomcat “Lion” and lived a love life with “him” regardless of the species difference, until Laure, who had found the ideal “man”（male and human）, is savagely attacked by the jealous cat. 　For a long time, this text has been analyzed as a depiction of sexual deviance because of its treatment of bestiality or zoophilia, but we especially note the relation of the female gender with “animalities”（nature, instinct, care, violence, and so on）, and Rachildeʼs reinterpretation of this stereotype circulated in the contemporary literature, which was dominated by male authors. Though Rachildeʼs response looks, more or less, like their misogynic images, she tries to divert the meanings of these stereotypes（e.g.,“ woman-beasty”）, as she transforms the image of “perversion” into that of “subversion” through anti-humanism and pro-animalism （Chap. 1）. From this point of view on animality, Laureʼs character can be read as an ideal heroine for Rachilde : a “heartless” woman claiming “victory against the men （male and human）” in the war between the sexes and the species （Chap. 2）. Finally, we see the communication between Laure and the tomcat Lion and the tragic end of their love affair from the perspective of animal care and savagery. As Lionʼs partner, Laure metamorphoses into an animal―not only as a creature of desire but also as the bloody “beast” attacked by this tomcat. Therefore, this text of “zoophilia” reveals the gender configuration composed by the neurotic woman and the furious tomcat（Chap. 3）.

神経文学論（2）－ラシルド『動物女』における「心なき」女と獣なるもの

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