Escaping the Mortal Web of Time in Marcel Schwob's `Arachné'

Drawing on Gilbert Durand's study of the creative imagination, Les Structures anthropologiques de l' imaginaire, this essay argues that Marcel Schwob's tale "Arachné" prefigures the author's later view of time elaborated in his masterpiece Le Livre de Monelle and that it is a paradigm of the Decadents' attempts to transcend their mortality. Eternal life is shown as coming from a coincidence with the instant, from an acceptance and acknowledgment of the mutability of forms, and from an acquiescence to a destiny that brings destruction and rebirth. Yet upon completion, the tale risks becoming a textual cadaver, fascinating the narrator and blocking his further transformation: "Ne contemple point . . . ta vie passée," as Monelle will admonish. "Ne collectionne point d'enveloppes vides. Ne porte pas en toi de cimetière." (RZ)