Love the nucleus of belletristic literature — Necessity for the erotic element in polite literature — Remarks of the æsthetic Konrad Lange on this subject — Sexual topics in belles-lettres are principally problem-literature — As a mirror of the times — Description of puberty in our poems — The demi-vierge type — The “Vera” books — Misogyny and ascetic romances, and rejoinders — The “intimacy” and free love in literature — Irregular sexual intercourse in literature — Marriage in literature — Novels of divorce — The emancipated woman in belletristic literature — Novels dealing with “fallen woman” — Precursors and imitations of the “Diary of a Lost Woman” — Belletristic descriptions of brothel life, and of the life of prostitution — Alcoholism and syphilis in literature — Sexual perversities in belletristic literature — Larocque’s “Voluptueuses,” etc. — Homosexuality and bisexuality in belles-lettres — Masochism and sadism — Psychological love romances — More earnest and more profound grasp of sexual questions displayed in modern belletristic literature.
CHAPTER XXXI
It is a familiar fact that from the very earliest uprising of belletristic literature its nucleus has always been the passion of love. There are, indeed, very few recent romances or dramas in which love does not play a part. It is a fable to say that sexual matters have to-day for the first time been freely discussed in belletristic literature, to assert that the predominance of erotic literature (which is to be distinguished from pornographic literature by its artistic intention and form) is especially characteristic of modern civilization. A glance at the catalogue of the library of the poet and bibliophile Eduard Grisebach,[794] which contains the erotic literature of the world, teaches us that such literature has existed at all times and among all civilized nations. The erotic in belles-lettres has not merely a permissive existence, but by necessity forms a part of it—a fact very justly recognized by the æsthetic Konrad Lange.[795] Who that knows human nature can doubt the fact? Lange remarks:
“Art which represents the nude, because an opportunity exists for it to delight in the representation of the flesh, because it regards humanity as the crown of creation, and because it admires the purposive anatomical structure of the human body—such an art is within its own rights, and does what it may and must.
“If we regard the representation of the nude in painting and sculpture as not repulsive, although it does not suit us in ordinary life to go naked, so also in the poesy of the erotic we must sometimes allow a form to which in ordinary life a justification is refused. Indeed, the question arises whether it is not absolutely essential that art should represent the erotic, although this is forbidden by the civilization of our time; for this corresponds to a profound subjective human need, a yearning for the completion of man’s imperfect existence.
“Next to hunger and thirst, love is the strongest human emotion; next to death, its enjoyment is the most important human experience. It is not to be wondered at that art is especially fond of depicting it. Art which wishes to represent life in general cannot leave unconsidered an instinct which plays so important a part in the life of the majority of human beings, and from which such a number of conflicts proceed. With regard to the degree and the kind of representation, the decision depends not upon moral, but exclusively upon æsthetic, considerations. The task of the poet is no more than this: to describe transgressions of the moral code in such a manner that they appear to arise by an inner necessity out of the whole course of activity, out of the characters, out of the objective relationships. Then the immoral content comes to the help of the illusion.”
It is naturally impossible, within the narrow compass of this work, to give an exhaustive account of the sexual element in modern belletristic literature. I shall only refer to a few well-known phenomena which all exhibit a common feature. Love and sexual topics in belles-lettres are principally problem literature. The earnest and profound social perception with which sexual problems are to-day considered and explained is reflected also in the literature of our time. The adult will long ago in these matters have risen above the level of shallow story-telling and schoolgirl morality, and demands an earnest and honest representation of sexual problems. Frey[796] justly observes that it is a general and a healthy tendency of the time, not a tendency to perverse lust, which impels the choice of erotic material. In the economically determined forced labour of persons of average ability, in the monotony and the poverty of adventure of our civilized life, it is only by eroticism that into many a life any individual colouring is brought.
In the following brief sketch of the sexual problems treated in recent belletristic literature, I hope to give some idea of the very numerous and interesting topics which the various phenomena of the sexual life now offer to the poet.
The very first sexual activities of the child have been subjected to poetic treatment, as in Frank Wedekind’s drama, “Frühlingserwachen” (“The Awakening of Spring”); and the sexual note of the time of puberty is treated in Bonnetain’s celebrated onanistic novel, “Charlot s’Amuse,” in Walter Bloem’s novel, “Der krasse Fuchs,” in Max von Münchhausen’s “Eckhart von Jeperen,” and very strikingly in the novel “Lothar oder Untergang einer Kindheit” (“Lothar, or the Ruin of Childhood”), by Oscar A. H. Schmitz. In connexion with the consideration of the time of puberty in belletristic literature, the following works may also be mentioned: “Unterm Rad,” by Hermann Hesse; “Freund Hein,” by Emil Strauss; “Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törless,” by Robert Musil; “Was zur Sonne Will,” by Hans Hart; “Eine Gymnasiastentragödie,” a drama in four acts, by Robert Sandeks. Consult also Gustav Zieler’s review of “Frühlingserwachen,” published in Das Literarische Echo of August 15, 1907.