Sexuality and creativity in the 1890s: Economy of self in the social organism

This thesis examines the models of self presented by Oscar Wilde, Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, and Joseph Conrad. In the context of late-nineteenth-century ideas of nature, self, and society, which tended to subordinate the individual to the collectivity, it became necessary to redefine the role of the artist. The above-mentioned authors put forward an "economy of self" (in terms of the self's integrity, boundaries, and energy) that made use of current scientific theories such as evolution and thermodynamics. Given the ways in which these theories were thought to apply to human functioning, a useful focus is the perceived link between sexuality and creativity, both regarded with suspicion because they seemed, in the context of a "social organism" composed of interdependent parts, to entail a reckless squandering of energy.;The introduction delineates late-nineteenth-century pessimism. Chapter One considers the rise and fall of scientific naturalism and the state of knowledge in various branches of science. To the components or self-definition supplied by science are added components defined mainly in terms of "self" and "other," the premise being that, as the bourgeois self was on the defensive for various socio-economic reasons, these positions were rigidly set. The second chapter is devoted to Oscar Wilde and the third to Bernard Shaw; both authors are shown to articulate strategies whereby the artistic self "pilots" evolution by inseminating nature with ideas. As this piloting involves a damaging loss of personal energy and integrity, Wilde and Shaw propose, as an alternative to the "engaged" insemination strategy, a "withdrawn" strategy that exempts the artist from biological necessity. Sexuality is the representative preoccupation: procreation, imputed to the "other," is opposed to the creation and cerebration of artistic endeavour.;Chapter Four deals with Wells and Conrad: the former repudiated the artistic self in favour of a rational and practical self, while the latter, to a greater degree than Wilde and Shaw, elevated art above science. Like Wells, however, Conrad sees the self as essentially determined by the social organism. In contrast to Wells's engaged, active, and aggressive ideal self, which preserves its integrity by completely assimilating its aims to those of nature and society, Conrad's ideal self, as embodied by Marlow, is emptied of desire and organicity in general.