Men explain Things to her: Misuse and Abuse in Lou Andreas‐Salomé's Novel Ruth (1895)

Abstract

Despite much scholarship on Lou Andreas‐Salomé—her person, her friendships, her philosophical and psychological theories, and her fiction—, her second novel Ruth (1895) has received little critical attention even though it is of foundational importance for her later fiction. This article examines the charismatic character of Ruth, an orphan, in relation to her male tutor and guardian. This predatory pedagogue and self‐styled advocate of women's emancipation seeks to dominate and seduce her as she in turn seeks to overcome her fears of abuse and abandonment. Her needs and fears link back to her early childhood, parallel to Sigmund Freud's Studies on Hysteria (1895) and lecture on the “Aetiology of Hysteria” (1896) on childhood sexual trauma, introducing his so‐called “seduction theory.” These texts may have influenced Andreas‐Salomé's writing of Ruth around the same time, long before she became herself a psychoanalyst and friend of Freud. The character of Ruth develops in relation to male Gewalt (physical, sexual or rhetorical) in a patriarchal society.