Isabelle Eberhardt, Rachilde and Queer Sexualities: Pygmalions Nécromanciens and Mortes amoureuses

Abstract

Summary:The myth of Pygmalion and the motif of the morte amoureuse pervade the Francophone literature of the nineteenth century. From Romantic ghosts to Decadent female corpses, male authors spin tales of necrophilia. Animated by the male lover's thoughts and desires, women are often simply ventriloquized through the male narrator, a sort of Pygmalion nécromancien. Within this patriarchal discourse of silenced females, Isabelle Eberhardt and Rachilde innovate the genre by giving a voice to their female characters, whether as subject (Pygmalion) or object (morte amoureuse). At a time when women were expected to write about marriage and motherhood, these quintessential rebel female figures revisit common masculine tropes through a feminist lens.If Decadence is about disease and decay, the mortes amoureuses of Rachilde and Isabelle Eberhardt are not decomposing bodies, but they are monstrous in other ways for the male character they encounter: they have feelings. Infernalia: Volupté sépulcrale by Isabelle Eberhardt, and Monsieur Vénus and La Tour d'amour by Rachilde, discuss female pleasure, or lack thereof, due to men's impotence (both emotional and physical). They emphasize the unilaterality of masculine desire, and deflate the male's ego by suggesting his inability to elicit pleasure. In their versions of the myth, Pygmalion is a failure as the female body remains immune to his attempt at ventriloquization. This essay aims to study how these two avant-garde women, cross-dressers and boundary breakers, dealt with sex, gender and deathly desire in an effort to subvert the hetero-patriarchal foundations of the Decadents' world-view.