Non-Cures of Jealousy: Cervantes and Shakespeare to Proust and Beyond

This dissertation, "Non-"Cures of Jealousy" Cervantes and Shakespeare to Proust and Beyond" by Wai-chun, Louis, Lo, 勞維俊, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Abstract of thesis entitled Non-"Cures of Jealousy" Cervantes and Shakespeare to Proust and Beyond Submitted by Louis LO Wai Chun for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Hong Kong in January 2006 This thesis is a theory-based study of male jealousy in western culture, in order to unveil and discuss the existence of possessive assumptions in love relations. The works include those by Cervantes, Shakespeare, Proust, Bunuel, Vidor and Almodovar, in which different forms of jealousy in different kinds of love relations are portrayed. By tracing the meanings of jealousy and the representation of jealous men (married or unmarried, heterosexual or homosexual), this thesis argues that jealousy is promoted within patriarchy and logocentricism, where to love is the desire to be loved, and love cannot be guaranteed in any form of sexual relationship. By treating jealousy as a "symptom" of modernity, this thesis attempts to explore the causes and (non)-cures of jealousy, in order to show that the conditions basic to jealousy coincide with the beliefs which are made normal in the history of modernity. By examining jealousy in its simplest form using Cervantes' novella El celoso extremeno, Chapter One argues that jealousy, as a weaker form of paranoia, has to do with the crisis of possession. Chapter Two gives a theoretical framework of analysing jealousy by examining Freud's "Schreber Case" and brings in the existence of a homosexual wishful fantasy in jealousy. With reference to the love relationships in Dickens's Our Mutual Friend as an example, this chapter discusses problems related to love, possession, sex, and homosexuality. By analysing Cervantes' El curioso impertinente, Chapter Three argues that curiosity changes its meanings in the early modern period. This chapter aims to show that jealousy takes up a more complex form when the issue of homosociality involved in Los dos amigos ("the two Abstract friends") tradition becomes crucial. Chapter Four examines the differentiated meanings behind jealousy and envy in Shakespeare's Othello, and further develops relationships between curiosity, jealousy, and envy, and the eye, in order to show belief in a single masculine identity is constitutive of a particular form of jealousy. Through analysing love and jealousy in Proust's Un Amour de Swann, Chapter Five explores the idea of jealousy as anxiety over the impossibility of single truth and the mobility of signs. This chapter also shows that to be jealous is to read the unconscious signs of the beloved, as an attempt to possess the other. Chapter Six deals with the issue of homosexuality which becomes more explicit within modernity in Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu. Deleuze's notion of homosexuality as the truth of love is examined. Jealousy in homosexuality is analysed as a reaction to the allegorical nature of sexuality and identity, and by using Benjamin's theory of allegory, this chapter argues that the "allegorical" quality of sexuality causes jealousy. Finally, as a way of thinking beyond jealousy, Chapter Seven leads into the history of anatomy and develops the idea that life cannot be possessed, by discussing a claim made in Almodovar's Carne Tremula, which may perhaps be used to offer a possible cure for jealousy. (486 words) DOI: 10.5353/th_b3984906 Subjects: