Apollo and Dionysus: Bedfellows of Colette's "Vagabond"

Abstract

It might well appear incongruous to bring Nietzsche, one who is often viewed as an archenemy of feminism, to a reading of Colette's Vagabonde, a novel often viewed as one of the most powerful feminist works ever written. But a Nietzschean reading of Vagabonde holds a twofold value. As vitally relevant as issues of feminism happen to be in Vagabonde, those issues can also be considered within a frame of reference which extends beyond the question of a woman's identity and freedom, a frame of reference which brings to mind in striking ways Nietzsche's elaboration of a tragic sense of life. Such a frame accentuates the decidedly modern content and tonality of Colette's portrait of the vagabond Ren6e; it places Vagabonde within the tradition of writers such as Camus and Gide whose perceptions of the modern human predicament were sharpened and enriched by Nietzsche's views. In L'Homme revolt', Camus underscores the Nietzschean affirmation of both joy and pain in the face of a world deprived of unity and immortality. Of all the fictional works by Camus that come to mind as bearing some traces of Nietzsche's position, his short story La Femme adultere is one of the more revealing. In Janine's adulterous fusion with a nocturnal sky over a desert landscape and in her recognition that such a kingdom would never again be hers, there is both tragic awareness and an assent to the totality of human experience. This combination of attitudes suggests Camus's affinities with Nietzsche. And, as I believe will be evident when I discuss Vagabonde, this dimension of the portrait of Janine has much in common with Colette's Ren6e. For Camus, Nietzsche's ultimate message is an exhortation to creation, and this is a central concern of Ren6e: Dire oui au monde, le