Stanisława Przybyszewska on psychoanalyzing Robespierre

[elwen-rhiannon.livejournal.com]

(A letter to half-sister Iwi Bennet, sent from Gdańsk, dated June 23rd-24th [19]28; translation to English, with shortenings marked, based on German to Polish translation provided by Antoni Weiland in third volume of Przybyszewska's letters, edited in Gdańsk in 1985)

I find this passage interesting and slightly relevant to my last entry, as well as Andrzej Wajda's idea of Robespierre and Saint-Just being, ehm, involved...

"Nowadays, when Freud's awful discovery serves as a toy for all kinds of idiots, it has become fashionable to explain everything that is not average as a sexual deviation (...) Revolutionaries are a true Klondike for those prying sexuologists making psychoanalysis a journalistic sensation, never having the slightest idea neither about revolution, nor about sociology. I had to read three treatises where these mediocrities were "psychoanalyzing" Robespierre. These bastards find it ambiguous when a man living only for one unearthly great ideal is forced to work 24 hours a day, coming home exhausted to the point of mental stupor - if such a man, having a strong conviction that he'll not live past the age of 35 years - does not set up home and does not have a cosy family life. Robespierre did what others in his situation used to: he resigned from all human and private relations, satisfying himself, when needed, with street girls. Not everyone has time, will and money for Casanova-like intrigues. And yes, this abstinence is the key to his life wnd work. Some people, who have read something from Michelet or Auluard, and only the passages mentioning his name - explain everything about Robespierre with his impotence (which is just a proof of their ignorance about the memoires of the period). Others, trying to be more noble and insightful - with homosexuality. They don't have to trouble themselves a lot here, with Robespierre's delicacy and elegance, his contralto voice, his almost tragic attachment to a likable blockhead Desmoulins and - basic thing - his attitude towards this wonderful man, St.-Just.
Yes, as you know, I do have a certain faible for homosexuals, if they are masculine and not feminine (I call this pure form of male homosexuality - a Platonic love, to rehabilitate this term). But I am sure - only pretenses here - that there were nothing of sexual kind between R[obespierre] and St.-Just. Yes, with Desmoulins - perhaps, especially from Desmoulins' side - he was a creature after Wilde's fashion - his attachment to a stronger friend from school, political leader later and opponent at the end - shows all signs of passion. But Saint-Just -?
An inconceivable relationship,inconceivable people."

Comments

[josiana.livejournal.com]

Oh, how useful. :D


And poor Camille, once again, he is misrepresented.

[sibylla-oo.livejournal.com]

Extremely interesting. Thank you.
I think Wajda'a major problem doesn't consist in the homosexual undertones per se, but in using them to imply that THEREFORE their government is perverse, unlike Danton's, which is for him a NATURAL one, with all its flaws :-(.

Przybyszewska is very farsighted as for the journalists and popular historiography's (mis)use of psychonanalysis. She would have "loved" Jean Artarit.

[slodkaidiotka.livejournal.com]

it's not like that. Wajda made Robespierre much more straight than Przybyszewska did. I've read The Danton Affair. In her play Maxime is definitely gay. It is completely obvious. He tells Lucille he cares for Camille more than she does. Everyone makes jokes about his 'love for a certain journalist'.
In Przybyszewska's novel 'The last nights of Ventose' Camille confesses his love and so does Robespierre - even though reluctantly.
It wasn't Wajda's idea. Homoerotism in the movie is much more discreet.

[elwen-rhiannon.livejournal.com]

Use it if you want to - if you'd need some bibliographical details or checking something else, let me know.
May I ask what are you writing about?

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

How interesting! I couldn't agree more with her thoughs on psychoanalyzing historians. This part is especially apt:

These bastards find it ambiguous when a man living only for one unearthly great ideal is forced to work 24 hours a day, coming home exhausted to the point of mental stupor - if such a man, having a strong conviction that he'll not live past the age of 35 years - does not set up home and does not have a cosy family life.

A lot of it is certainly speculation, and I don't agree with everything, but she does have some good insights. Thanks for translating!

[sibylla-oo.livejournal.com]

Yes, one wonders if they have really been through the experience of writing a dissertation...

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

The sad thing is, they almost certainly have. Most likely they just had other psychoanalysts for teachers.

[sibylla-oo.livejournal.com]

Well, my comment is probably not suitable for minors ;-)
I actually meant it in the sense: How could someone who's supposed to have been through the dissertation-writing process be unable to understand that "a man...forced to work 24 hours a day, coming home exhausted to the point of mental stupor..." just doesn't feel like f...ing around?

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

I get it now; I'm just a bit slow, I'm afraid. Who knows? Perhaps they didn't work that hard on their dissertations? It would certainly explain a lot of things...

[sibylla-oo.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's what I suspect ;-)

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

Though I think even in Robespierre's case, Przybyszewska exaggerates how hard Robespierre would have been able to work by quite a bit. Nobody could work 24 hours a day for more than a couple of days without at the very least becoming completely incoherent, and, whatever else he may have been, Robespierre was never that.

[sibylla-oo.livejournal.com]

First: Estella, sorry, I am reading what I wrote in the comment,and I see it can be misunderstood. When saying "Well, my comment is probably not suitable for minors", it was a warning for what was coming (the "f--ing around" part), like the classical LJ warnings, it was not not any hint on anyone not understanding what I had implied with the dissertation reference (which was cryptical).
Oh yes, exactly. I think in general, the hardwork is generally overblown, in case of anyone. The brain just stops after a while.

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

It's perfectly all right; I figured it had to be something like that.

And besides, various sources do show him doing other things besides working (and sleeping, for that matter): walking his dog, going to the theatre a few times a year, going out the country for a day or two, reciting from Racine, etc. I mean, it's obvious he spent a great deal of time working, but let's be realistic here.

...None of this, of course, changes the fact that being incredibly busy with other matters and believing, at least from time to time, that one's death is imminent, is not really conducive to settling down and starting a family. Perhaps Przybyszewska felt she had to exaggerate to make that point, but I think it stands even without Robespierre's never getting any sleep.

[sibylla-oo.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, moreover, what I can see behind, is all that protestant: "Either you are working or you are wasting your time." Which is not precisely how the 18th century Europeans (including the Brits, this time) tended to percieve life. Take 18th-century savants, for example: they devoted a lot of time to social life, as it was, by the way, a fundamental part of disseminating their knowledge.
I really hate how in the US series we all watch on the TV, it's more acceptable for the characters to neglect their children by devoting themselves completely to their work, then to "limit", not to say "neglect" work. I think of myself as rather a hardworking person devoted to my profession, but I feel that such unilaterality is morally dubious if it becomes a social doctrine and, above all, it dries up the imagination, after some time, not to speak about its devastating effects either on 1) natality or 2) women's professional equality.

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

I certainly agree that in general making one's life revolve around one's work to the point of neglecting one's other obligations (to oneself, to one's family, friends, etc.) is incredibly destructive and it's terrible that this kind of monomania is so encouraged these days, particularly in the US. At the same time, if you are a political actor in a time of crisis, it's to be expected that you'll have to devote more time to your work. But however much Robespierre (and his colleagues) was actually working, the fact that it was a period of crisis is the key to understanding the amount of overwork he could subject himself to. No one can keep that up forever. And yet, according to the reigning ideologies, everyone is expected to do just that, and for much more trivial reasons.

[sibylla-oo.livejournal.com]

Exactly. The specificity of such a break-through moment should be taken to consideration in the interpretation not only of the revolutionaries' personal life, but in general, in the interpretation of the revolution as such.

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

Very true. This is also any area where I think Przybyszewska got it wrong--not here, but in her plays--Robespierre, like all the other Revolutionaries, rightly considered the Revolution a period of exception. They certainly didn't think it would last hundreds of years!

[trf-chan.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, thank you for this! Very interesting, as others have said.

[missweirdness.livejournal.com]

They all really need to stop psychoanalyzing Robespierre like this; it's not right, sometimes it's just so simple hmm..It does annoy me though. If i worked like 24 hour straight..and i find working full time hard enough without extra hours; I'd be dead =/

oh well. can't have everything i suppose

[lucieandco.livejournal.com]

That is so interesting, especially after your last post! Thanks (once more) for translating.