Political Dandyism in Literature and Art by Geertjan de Vugt

Author:Geertjan de Vugt
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

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When, after reading the passage on dandysme, reinserted in the intertextual network it originated from, one returns to what is sometimes considered to be Van Deyssel’s most important text on dandyism—the review of Couperus’ novel Extaze—it becomes clear how Van Deyssel was able to read Extaze “as a dandyist gesture, without a doubt.” 96 The dandy, or at least the “greater dandy” is superior to any kind of artist because he does not have to give into the “amiable intimacy and excited diligence,” that is the “prostitution of the soul” of which the artist suffers. 97 Again, the critique of anarchic-individualism is brought into play and, again, this happens by contrasting it with the harmonious-utopian character of dandyism. It should be noted, however, that Van Deyssel is neither concerned with whether or not the author himself is represented in his own text, nor is he interested in representations of dandyism in other works by the author. “The mistake thus does not lie in it being dandy-like,” Van Deyssel for this reason observes, “but in the author, quite unjustified, emphasizing his own dandyism here.” 98 It does not serve any purpose to look for the characteristics of Couperus the dandy, nor, as some have done, for Van Deyssel, the dandy. If one does, Extaze could not be read as a gesture of dandyism, but only as a purely representational image of one author.

As a deed, as a gesture, the book points to a certain activity. The active element is not the persona of the author—Van Deyssel’s review contains the famous words: “Mr. Couperus may as well get lost, I don’t have anything to do with Mr. Couperus” 99 —but dandyism as such, i.e. as monumental-political phenomenon. Or as Van Deyssel writes in the same review: “This is the highest, this is the highest curvature of the line of beauty [schoonheidslijn], this is the Essence of Grace, this is achieving the supreme rhythm : to deny God-to-oneself in order to give God to the people.” 100 God should not be read as referring to the Supreme Being in any theological sense of the word, but as “Goal, Goal of the highest Spiritual-states, the Highest-End of emotional pursuits.” 101 Giving God to the community, that is, presenting to the community its highest spiritual goal, cannot but be read as a dandyist gesture, as another attempt to make the community function in the right rhythm (to phrase it in Van Deyssel’s words). Here again, one finds remnants of the idea of the choreographic community with the dandy as composer.

The dandy as the harmonizing element in a communal sphere in decline is a feature one sees reappearing over and again in Van Deyssel’s observations. It also occurs in another text, a short note on Stefan George , in which the dandyism of the literary man is briefly explored. Stefan George as a dandy and a man of letters is neither a fine, nor a curious “monstrous excrescence of modern times,” but a “centre of life instead of an outgrowth, a harmonious unity instead of a monstrosity.

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