Christa Giles

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Huysmans does not attempt any direct translation of
unconscious into conscious terminology after the first dream
episode. Instead, through mere depiction, he moves beyond
the logic, language, and syntax of the ˝rational˝ world and
attempts to convey the ˝irrational˝ dream experience which,
because of mechanisms such as condensation or regression,
bears little relation to Jacques’ accustomed mode of thought.
Because the unconscious language of the mind differs from
normal thought processes, Huysmans is free to conjure up
bizarre images and to balance the logical with the
contradictory, and single with multiple meanings. Indeed,
he introduces the nightmare episode in A rebours for just
such a purpose: the creation of a symbolic network which
provokes interpretation but cannot always be reduced to
simple meaning. This ˝mystère de la psyché devenue
libre,˝ 419 as Huysmans describes the dream, is a mystery
because the psyche temporarily moves beyond the world
and the principles of reality which dominate it. What
Jacques’ conscious mind rejects and fears (ambiguity) the
dream revels in. Thus the dream in the decadent novel
becomes in Huysmans’ view in part an attack on
rationalism, a dispensing with rigid externally imposed
perceptions of reality.