Christa Giles

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that there should be an observer and observed within one
being–which accounts in part for the dandy’s interest in
acting and role playing as well as his ironic stance. Dorian
watches the portrait revealing to him another self even as,
in Là-bas, Gilles de Rais becomes a reflection of Durtal’s
inner refractoriness. The dandy as dispassionate cerebral
observer comments on his own affective life thereby
through his dissective powers generating a consciousness
of his internal division. The supernatural in Huysmans’
work often becomes a means of concretizing the inner
divisiveness of man. This is suggested in Huysmans’ article
˝Les Monstres˝ in which he looks at the history of the beast,
focussing in particular on Goya’s paintings. This interest in
the bestial or dark side of man is a tremendous source of
creative energy, as Wilde indicates:
People thought it dreadful of me to have
entertained at dinner the evil things of life,
and to have found pleasure in their company.
But they, from the point of view through
which I, as an artist in life, approached them,
were delightfully suggestive and stimulating
… Their poison was part of their perfection. 173
The dandy manages to suggest a subversion of social
mores (in part through paradox) as well as a transgression