ANAIS NIN'S TEXTS OF PLEASURE: A WOMAN'S 'TA EROTIKA'
Abstract
The language of Anais Nin presents difficulties. She is a romantic writer; her theme is women in love. The difficulty is inherent in the task she sets herself: to make life a work of art, and to give words to love. How is love-bliss articulated in text-pleasure? Since bliss signifies negation, texts have to partake of pleasure, not bliss. Nin's solution lies in her use of the principles and processes of psychoanalysis (Jung and Rank), Surrealism, the arts, viz. painting, music, dancing, collage and film-making, and oriental religions like Hinduism, Buddhism and Sufism, as well as Alchemy. Her work has been called hermetic and though the Diary has been well received, the novels have been less appreciated. A conclusion is that the criteria for judging the realistic novel cannot be applied to Anais Nin's work; that she must be judged in the contexts of the other aesthetic or healing arts. Another conclusion is that what has been considered her narcissism is merely authentic utterance; the kind that even when spoken in prose rises to the level of poetry, the kind of utterance that enters the hearer's dream.
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
Modern literature|Literature
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