Deduit’s orchard, an ‘artificial paradise’?

Authors

  • Armand Strubel Université Paul Valéry - Montpellier, France

Keywords:

paradise, locus amoenus, fascination

Abstract

Why does Genius show such a stubborn disdain for Diversion’s garden? Nature’s priest “moralises” this space: since then, before “the lamb’s park”, the charming hall built on the topoi of lyricism undergoes an ontological deficit whereby it becomes an “artificial paradise”. This locus amoenus stands as a place of temptation, a passive aesthetic contemplation site which the narrator turns into a bare inventory of nice perceptions. But such fascination does sometimes verge pathological borders, allowing only for reflections or illusions. How real can these roses, reflections of other reflections, be? This is a self-enclosed world gazing at itself: the young one looks at Oiseuse, who looks at herself in the mirror... Here the peril consists on the bewitchment of gaze, lost in an ongoing process of repetition and frustration. Such is the destiny awaiting Lover by the rosebush, facing —like Narcissus— the unreachable feature of the object of desire. But, isn’t this the real lesson Love is teaching, that which the God Love surreptitiously brings into his commandments?

imagen de portada número 21

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Published

2013-02-01

Issue

No. 21 (2013)

Section

Articles

License

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How to Cite

Strubel, Armand. 2013. “Deduit’s Orchard, an ‘artificial Paradise’?”. Cuadernos del CEMYR, no. 21 (February): 89-100. https://www.ull.es/revistas/index.php/cemyr/article/view/4174.