The Entanglement of Sexuality and Æsthetics in Gautier and Mallarmé

A comparison of some basic themes and metaphors in Gautier's contes and in Mallarmé's poems is undertaken. The purpose is not to demonstrate yet once again the sources for some of Mallarmé's literary work, but to analyze typical nineteenth-century obsessions of a literary and sexual nature. The thesis is that artist and muse in nineteenth-century literature are alter egos of the writer's more profound ambivalence's on a sexual sphere. Thus a psycho-analytic approach is used to analyze typical situations and recurrent metaphors. (ESE)