Research Project: Jungian Alchemical Cycles of Transformation in Locus Solus

        For my research project, I’ll be writing a short article-length research paper (16 – 18 pages) based on parts 1 and 2 of my blog entry on Roussel. Most of the primary works on Roussel and alchemy are only available in French (specifically works by Jean Ferry—a contemporary of Breton—and Ricahrd Danier). However, I’ve found sources in English that summarize and explain these sources, so I can have a basic understanding of how Roussel is already read in alchemical terms. In brief, previous scholars have focused on Roussel’s linguistic wordplay and cryptic metaphors connecting to alchemical materials and processes. Breton noted references to cabbalistic ritual and Tarot in Roussel’s work; however, he was primarily examining Roussel’s play La Poussiere de soleil. 

       Since my knowledge of alchemy is really only second-hand from Jung’s writings (in which he examines alchemy metaphorically to illustrate the functioning of the psyche—the union of the Self through opposites, as symbolized in the Lapis Philosophorum), I am doing a great deal of background research on the literal practices of alchemists. I am also researching critical interpretations and biographies of Roussel that don’t directly mention alchemy, such as Foucault’s Death and the Labyrinth and Mark Ford’s Raymond Roussel and the Republic of Dreams. Finally, I’m tracking down as much of Breton’s readings of Roussel I can find in English. This week I’ll be reading Breton’s Arcanum 17, which includes discussions of Jung and Tarot. 

       My unique angle (which I haven’t seen any scholars address, although I’m still in the midst of my research) is to take into consideration Jungian alchemical cycles in Locus Solus. I plan to argue that the novel's cyclical structure (in the way I have mapped it out in the chart on my blog) reflects certain traits of alchemy that Jung also describes as metaphors for individuation. With this reading, I’m trying to understand the novel as the artist’s search for wholeness or completeness of the fractured self. Instead of focusing on wordplay or finding linguistic connections to alchemy (which previous scholars have covered), I will do a very specific Jungian reading. In the process, I also hope to illuminate the cyclical narrative structure of the novel, based on my chart, which I argue mirrors Jung’s claim of “inner alchemy” as a process by which imagination fosters a cycle of creative death and resurrection that leads to transformations of both the unconscious and the outer physical world. To me, the narrative structure that I’ve mapped out is essential for understanding how the novel emphasizes death and rebirth as inner, creative processes that are expressed through the act of artistic creation. I also hope this reading will compliment and extend Foucault’s analysis.