Octave Mirbeau's Fictions of the Transcendental

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references.; Casting Octave Mirbeau as a fierce detractor of army, church, and schools--institutions of regimentation and repression that perverted man's instinct and alienated him from nature--critics and literary historians see his fiction as grounded in the sordid social reality of his time. Yet unlike his reactionary contemporaries who sought escape into the narcissistic bliss of mysticism (J.-K. Huysmans) or admission into the exclusive precincts of occult research (Josephin Peladan), Mirbeau pursued experiences of the transcendental in order to better understand his suffering brothers whose plight he chronicles in his work --; Provided by publisher."Table of Contents: Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1: The Pardoner Le Calvaire L Abbe Jules Sebastien Roch Chapter 2: The Seer Dans le ciel Chapter 3: The Stranger Le Jardin des supplices Le Journal d une femme de chambre Chapter 4: The Brother Les 21 jours d un neurasthenique La 628-E8 Dingo Conclusion Bibliography"Brief Description: "Casting Octave Mirbeau as a fierce detractor of army, church, and schools--institutions of regimentation and repression that perverted man's instinct and alienated him from nature--critics and literary historians see his fiction as grounded in the sordid social reality of his time. Yet unlike his reactionary contemporaries who sought escape into the narcissistic bliss of mysticism (J.-K. Huysmans) or admission into the exclusive precincts of occult research (Josephin Peladan), Mirbeau pursued experiences of the transcendental in order to better understand his suffering brothers whose plight he chronicles in his work" --Biographical Note: Robert Ziegler is professor emeritus of liberal studies at Montana Tech of the University of Montana. Publisher Marketing: 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."