17-18th century: writing that combined sex, politics, religion, and philosophy

17-18th century: writing that combined sex, politics, religion, and philosophy • 3 inspiration of this so called politico-pornography : • Humanism • Materialism • Libertinism

Libertine novel = Genre since the beginning of the 18th century • Justine • Depicts unrestrained moral and sexual activities of libertine characters • Attacks conventional morality, religious orthodoxy, and political traditions, through outrageous narrative situations • Explores the implications of taking freedom to an extreme • Sex as a locus to explore acts of freedom and oppression

FranceMonarchyFrench Revolution/Revolutionary Government (1789-1799) Dictatorship [Napoleon, reign from 1799-1814, 1815] • King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette were executed, during the so called Terror: • Covering about 15 months, from March 1793 to July 1794 • Over 3.000 people were killed

Déclaration des droits de l’homme et du citoyen[The Declaration of the Rights of Man of the Citizen] • Presented in August 1789 • Sets forth fundamental rights, for all men without exception • Well, men who are upper or middle class, white and Christian • Nothing was said about women, or slaves, or children (Harrison 9)

Article 11 of the Declaration addresses the freedom of expression: Free communication of thoughts and opinions is one of man’s most precious rights; every citizen can therefore speak, write, and publish freely • In 1767 Sweden had become the first country in the world to declare official freedom of the press • The Declaration is considered to be a precursor to international human rights instruments, e.g., Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 - The advisory declaration of the United Nations - Article 19: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Much politico-pornography directed at dissipating the monarchy’s sacred aura; especially Marie-Antoinette’s supposed immoral nature was a topic must explored • Editions of Justine were also readily available at this time, and sold well (Harrison 24) • But the revolutionary government was proving at least as severe as the old regime in its actions against, for instance, authors, journeymen, news-stand holders associated with popular and subversive texts (e.g., royalist pamphlets)

Napoleon Bonaparte • In 1799 Napoleon Bonaparte got in power, turning France into a dictatorship • Saw the press as a great threat: “If I give the press free rein I won’t last three months in power. .. Freedom of the press? Absolutely not. They can’t have it” (Harrison 25) • Napoleon addressed the level of repression by declaring via his paper Le Moniteur that there was no censorship in France and that “Freedom of thought is this century’s foremost achievement: the emperor wishes it to be upheld” (Harrison 26)

Sade & Napoleon • Sade is said to have sent Napoleon a deluxe copy of Justine et Juliette, but Napoleon is said to have thrown it away or tossed it into the fire • Napoleon has characterized Justine as “the most abominable book ever engendered by the most depraved imagination” • Sade was arrested in December 1793, for being the author of Justine among other reasons, and the book’s printer was executed in January 1794

Pauvert & Sade • In 1957, at the age of 20, Jean-Jacques Pauvert started to publish Sade’s complete works in France • Legal proceedings were launched against Pauvert on the grounds that Sade’s novels constituted an ‘outrage aux bonnes moeurs,’ that is ‘affront of public decency’ • Pauvert was found guilty, but was acquitted the following year in the Court of Appeal

Sade in the 20th Century • Acclaimed by artists, e.g., surrealists • Discussed by thinkers, e.g., De Beauvoir, Barthes, Foucault, Derrida • Still largely neglected in universities: Camille Paglia: “The Marquis de Sade is a great writer and philosopher whose absence from university curricula illustrates the timidity and hypocrisy of the liberal humanities. No education in the western tradition is complete without Sade. He must be confronted, in all his ugliness.” (235) Salvador Dali Allegory: “Cecile’s Chastity” (1969) Man Ray Imaginary Portrait of Marquis de Sade (1938)

Sade“as free a spirit as ever existed” (Apollinaire qtd. Michael xiii) • Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade—Squire of La Coste and Saumane, Cavalry Colonel, Lieutenant General of the provinces of Bresse, Valmorey and Gex (Michael x) • Born in Paris, 1740, June 2nd • Direct descendant of Laure de Sade, the Laura sung by Petrarch • Through his mother he was related to the King and Queen of France • First educated by his uncle, the Abbé de Sade d’Ebreuil, later by the Jesuits when he attended the College Louis-le-Grand

Married Renée-Pélagie Cordier de Launay de Montreuil in 1763 • His wife “was his most fervent admirer and her devotion is quite apparent form their published correspondence” (Michael xi) • Madame de Sade divorced her husband in 1791

Some Real Life Scandals • Testimonies of Sade’s victims (as well as his correspondence with his wife), give some insight into what Sade’s real life desires were, as well as indicate the limits of his actions: • 1763: Jeanne Testard • Blasphemy; death threats • 1768: Rose Keller • Whipping; bondage • 1772: Marseille affair: group of prostitutes • Use of aphrodisiac; homosexual practices; group sex

In Prison • Sade was incarcerated in various prisons and an insane asylum for about 32 years of his life • In February 1777, Sade began a 13-year-long period of imprisonment, initially at Vincennes, then in the Bastille, to which he was transferred in 1784 • He was released in 1790, a blanket amnesty was granted by the new revolutionary government to all prisoners of the old regime • Having been systematically hunted down as the author of the notorious Justine, Sade was finally arrested again on March 6th of 1801, and imprisoned without trial until his death in 1814

In 1803, after intervention by his family, Sade was declared insane, and transferred to Charenton, an insane asylum, where he was to remain a prisoner until the end of his life • Under the enlightened management of the director of the institution, abbe Francois de Coulmier, Sade was allowed to stage several of his plays, with the inmates as actors, to be viewed by the Parisian public • In 1809 new police orders put Sade into solitary confinement • In 1813 the government ordered Coulmier to suspend all theatrical performances • In 1810, Sade had began a sexual affair with 13-year-old Madeleine Leclerc, an employee at Charenton • This affair lasted some 4 years, until Sade's death in 1814, at the age of 74

Justine, or Good Conduct Well Chastised (1791) • Sade finished the first version of Justine in 1787, while imprisoned in the Bastille • In 1788, Sade developed it from a tale into a book • In 1791, Sade wrote about Justine to a lawyer-friend: “At the moment a novel of mine is being printed, but is a work too immoral to be sent to so pious and so decent a man as yourself. I needed money, my publisher said that he wanted it well spiced, and I gave it to him fit to plague the devil himself. It is called Justine or Good Conduct Well Chastised. Burn it and do not read it, if perchance it falls into your hands. I am disclaiming the authorship…” (449)

During the decade following its publication, Justine went through six printings

Intro: (Parodying) Genres • Justine as a(n) • Erotic/pornographic novel • Satire: = The use of irony, exaggeration, sarcasm, ridicule, parody, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or mocking vice and folly • Irony: saying one thing, meaning something else, often the opposite • Ridicules and questions every Enlightenment principle: truth, equality, fraternity, liberty, reason • Truth: “out of love for truth” (458); the expression of the desire to pursue truth is typical of 18th century moral literature • Ratio: “the stronger is always the better reason” (487) • Philosophical accounts of libertines: explain and justify their misconduct • Scandalizing all traditions and professions: e.g., monks, priests, government officials, surgeons, bankers

Intro: (Parodying) Genres II • Parody of various 18th century genres: • Conte philosophique • Didactic genre, often follows the 3 phases of the quest: • A. Breaking out of the regular pattern • B. Traveling through a series of (exceptional) events • C. Return to original status quo, ending up in a new situation • (Travel) romance = Genre of prose fiction going back to late antiquity, featuring amazing adventures, disguises, enslavements, escapes, shipwrecks, and world-wanderings, and often winding up with miraculous reunions under the most unlikely circumstances (Longman) • Surprise encounters: e.g., Madame de Lorsagne turning out to be Juliette (738) • Miraculous happenings: clearing Justine of all accusations: “Monsieur de Corville had put all of France in action” (740) • Coming-of-age story = Story in which the protagonist is initiated into adulthood, and comes to realize one’s identity and role in life through living a variety of experience, and/or gaining knowledge. Includes the psychological, moral, and social shaping of the protagonist’s personality, and entails letting go of illusions, or the loss of innocence in some way

Marquis de SadeJustine, or Good Conduct Well ChastisedFrance, 1791 PLOT[NOTE: bold text = excerpt material] • Justine, who calls herself Thérèse, tells her story--a series of misfortunes--to the libertine Madame la Comtesse de Lorsagne. That Madame is Juliette, Justine’s her long lost sister is only revealed at the very end of the book • Juliette and Justine are orphaned at an early age, left penniless, and expelled from the convent school which sheltered them (459) • Juliette--“perverted was what she desired to be” (463)--uses her charms and vicious skills to become wealthy and successful: • She works as a prostitute; • Ruins numerous men financially; • Marries a rich man, becomes Madame (and Countess) de Lorsagne, kills her husband; • Has three or four abortions (462-66)

At age 30, Juliette has been together with Monsieur de Lorsagne, age 50, for four years (466) • Initially, before they go their own ways, Juliette tries to instruct Justine that “true wisdom consists infinitely more in doubling the sum of one’s pleasures than in increasing the sum of one’s pains” (460) • Justine is horrified by Juliette’s ideas; the sisters split ways (460)

After Juliette’s advice, Justine’s first lessons in life are of the humiliations of poverty: • Justine visits her mother’s dressmaker, who hardly recognizes her and scares her away (461); • She then goes and visits the family priest, who tries to kiss her; she reprimands him and she is driven with blows and abuse from his door (462; • She is berated by her landlady, Madame Desroches, for refusing to sell herself to a rich gentleman, Monsieur Dubourg (469-72); • She then obtains a post as a maid of all the work in the house of Du Harpin, a corrupt businessman • This is Justine’s first experience with wage-labour; • Du Harpin asks her to steal jewels from the neighbour, which Justine refuses to do (477-78); • Du Harpin ends up wrongly accusing her of having committed the theft (478); • Justine is thrown into jail, being sentenced to death (479) • In jail Justine meets Dubois (479)

Dubois’ four confederates set fire to the prison, and Dubois and Justine escape together (480) • Justine is then forced to participated in a sex orgy, with the confederates and Dubois (484-86) • The next day, Justine has a conversation with the leader of the gang, Coeur-de-fer, who asks her to become his mistress (486-87) • Justine convinces the gang to spare a traveller that they want to kill (497) • During the night Justine and the traveller, Saint-Florent, escape (499) • The next day, Saint-Florent beats her unconscious, and rapes her (502)

Other misfortunes of Justine include abuse and exploitation by libertines, e.g.: • The atheist surgeon, Rodin, and Rodin’s daughter, Rosalie, his lover; Rodin proposes to perform a scientific dissection upon his daughter; Justine unlocks the cellar door, but Rosalie and she are caught before they can escape; Roding leaves Justine in the forest; • Monks who kidnap Justine and make her their their sex slave; she is subjected to countless orgies, rapes, and other abuses; • Count de Gernande, who bleeds his wife to death; • Roland, who lashes her and four other naked women to a wheel; Roland subjects them to slave labour • Justine, now 27 of age, is on her way to her execution when she recounts her sad life to Madame de Lorsagne and Monsieur de Corville • Madame de Lorsagne reveals herself as Justine’s long-lost sister, Juliette (738) • Corville is a Councillor to the State; he obtains Justine’s release and arranges that her name is cleared in the courts (740)

She is nursed and none of her tribulations leave her with permanent stains (740) • All goes well for Justine at last (740) • But Justine becomes introverted, silent (741) • Then one stormy summer’s evening, Madame de Lorsagne asks Justine to close the windows; Justine is struck through the heart by a thunderbolt and dies (741-42) • Justine’s death inspires Juliette to joins a Carmelite convent and become the embodiment of piety (743) • Corville embarks on a successful and exemplary career as a government official (743)

Structure • Coming of age • Without getting anywhere • Repetitive exploration of the idea that virtue meets misery & vice meets prosperity in encounters and philosophical lectures of the libertines

Structure II • Framework: • Dedication & introduction • Same voice? • Dedication: “Yes, Constance, it is to thee that I address this work” (455) • Constance was Sade’s companion for the last 25 years of his life • Narrator = omniscient & extradiegetic • Moralistic meta-narratives • To please the censor? • Irony • Narrator tells about Justine and Juliette • Narrator makes meta-narrative comments: e.g., p. 462 • Moralistic intermezzos; e.g., p. 466

Structure III • Framework II: • Justine tells her story to Juliette and Corville (468-738), including libertine’s discussions of their convictions, and a recapitulation of her misery at the end (736-37) • Addresses her audience sometimes explicitly: “You may readily imagine, Madame…” (475) • Narrator recounts what happens after Justine has finished telling her tale (737-43) • Narrator concludes with moralistic statement (743)

Style • Irony • E.g., love for Virtue (456) • Exaggeration • E.g., Du Harpin’s household (476), Justine’s closing statement (737-38), thanking Monsieur de Corville (739), while taking care of Justine; “the two lovers worshiped her” 740, the extent of the luck of the libertines (740) • Metaphors • E.g., “such will be the altar where I burn my incense” (488); “Whatever be the temple at which one sacrifices, immediately she allows incense to be burned there, one can be sure the homage offends her in no wise” (488)

Style II • Lecturing: • No synthesis reached: neither the libertines, nor Justine convince(s) • For the libertines, philosophizing is the first phase in a process of discharge; first philosophical discussion than putting philosophy in physical practice (e.g., first discussion with Dubois, then orgy: 480-86) • Ratio is foundation for cruelty: implicit criticism of traditions supposed motivated by reasonable arguments • Questions as means to ascertain, above all (e.g., 492-93) • Sophistries • E.g., Coeur-de-fer , p. 489-90

Justine as a Character • See characterization on p. 459 • Embodiment of virtue and innocence; idealizes virginity and purity • When forced to have sex, she never experiences any enjoyment--with Saint-Florent, for instance, she is unconscious even (502); consequently, she remains pure • With Saint-Florent: “I save his life, restore his fortune to him, he snatches away what is most dear to me” (502) • Never pregnant; recovers quickly from injuries • Constant abuse; little resistance, trying to escape is main deed of resistance • Victim, not in control of her life; a pawn, used for the advantage of other people

Justine as a Character II • Holds on to her principles; doesn’t change; doesn’t learn her lesson • E.g., goes or escapes into the forest & then gets into trouble, always; e.g., p. 501-502: Saint-Florent rapes her • Endless, determined faith in god • When Justine has told her story, when she has said everything there was to say, she dies: Justine = discourse • Suspicious is, however: • How detailed Justine’s memory is of past experiences and conversations, e.g., p. 469 • Justine tells a lie: Saint-Florent and her being related (498-99)--she might not be that flawless after all… = Flat character: • No depth, two dimensional, static, no development; collection of nouns and adjectives

Theme: Moral and Political Convictions • Libertines: • Pleasure oriented • E.g., Juliette, p. 460 • Nature does not a make a distinction between good and bad, is devoid of moral sense: • E.g., Coeur-de-fer, p. 497 • Dubois: “Nature has caused us all to be equals born” (481) • Main law of Nature is equilibrium • E.g., Dubois, p. 482 • “a state of perpetual warfare. Excellent! Is that not the perpetual state of Nature?” (494; Coeur-de-fer) & freedom goes hand in hand with conflict (494; Coeur-de-fer)

Theme: Moral and Political Convictions II • Libertines II: • “the stronger is always the better reason” (487; Coeur-de-fer) • Egotism is central to one’s existence • E.g., Dubois, p. 492; Coeur-de-Fer, p. 493 • Deny existence of God • Coeur-de-fer: “There is no God” (469) • Dubois uses the words ‘God’ and ‘Providence,’ but blends them with the principles of Nature, p. 482 • Laws lead totransgression: • E.g., Dubois, p. 491 • Materialism • E.g., Coeur-de-fer, p. 497

Theme: Moral and Political Convictions II • Justine: • Providence makes that she has to experience atrocities, but she will be rewarded once she is in heaven • E.g., p. 481, 495 • Commitment to virtue • E.g., p. 482 • Cohesion of society is based on goodness • E.g., p. 492

Evaluative Impression • 8 years ago: • Fascinated by the ugliness of its writing, events, morals • More recent: • Still intrigued: De Sade’s writing and narratives are one of a kind • Technicality of narrative scenes: “How does that work exactly?” • Awareness of its transgression: e.g., with regard to repetitiveness of structure and narrative events, evil, genres, comedy and tragedy, ridiculization, cynicism, ugliness of writing (at times) and content (most of the time) • Intrigued by the ethical numbness that the work brings about… What are the implications of that? • Makes me think about the distinction between thinking and living the unethical… the potential to do both… is expressing the unethical extreme in words unethical? • Sade as a remarkable, historical figure, living his philosophy

Questions • Michael argues: “Sade puts a distance between us and his prose so that his contentions are not painful” (xi). How can this ‘distance’ be understood? Do you agree with this statement? • What, if anything, does Sade try to teach his readers by means of the story of Justine? • Who, Justine or the libertines, is/are more convincing in terms of convictions proposed? • Is this text obscene, erotic, pornographic? • Is this a work of literature? Work Cited Michael, Colette V. Sade, His Ethics and Rhetoric. New York: Lang, 1989.

Quills (2000) • Director: Philip Kauffman • Writer: Dough Wright

Bibliography Carter, Angela. The Sadeian Woman: An Exercise in Cultural History. 1979. London: Virago, 1990. Coetzee, J. M. Giving Offense: Essays on Censorship. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1996. Haight, Anne Lyon. Banned Books: Informal Notes on Some Books Banned for Various Reasons at Various Times and in Various Places. 3rd Ed. New York, Bowker: 1970. Haight, Anne Lyon, and Chandler B. Grannis. Banned Books 387 B.C. to 1978 A.D. New York: Bowker, 1978. Harrison, Nicholas. Circles of Censorship: Censorship and its Metaphors in French History, Literature, and Theory. Oxford: Clarendon, 1995. Karolides, Nicholas J., Bald, Margaret, & Dawn B. Sova. 120 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature. New York: Checkmark, 2005. Klossowski, Pierre. “Sade, or the philosopher-villain.”Sade and the Narrative of Transgression. Eds. David B. Allison, Mark S. Roberts, and Allen S. Weiss. Cambridge: UP, 1995. Lynch, Lawrence W. The Marquis de Sade. Boston: Twayne, 1984. Paglia, Camille. Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson. New York: Vintage, 1990.

17-18th century: writing that combined sex, politics, religion, and philosophy