Androgynes et gynandres : la relecture péladanienne du Banquet de Platon // Androgynes and gynandres : The Péladan’s reinterpretation of the Symposium by Plato

The Symposium alias The Banquet belongs to those hypotexts by Plato which have been constantly reread and reinterpreted by the authors of French decadence. This article is focused on the Péladan’s reinterpretation of one of its parts, the famous Aristophanes’s speech about love. It implies on one hand the masculine notion of “androgyne”, heavily valorised in the fin de siècle novels, and, on the other hand, the feminine concept of “gynandre”, perceived negatively, feared and mocked. Why in Péladan’s (1858–1918) eyes and according to many others decadent authors man is gorgeous and intelligent enough to realize on his own the platonic ideal of the union of the two sexes? And what about the woman, henceforth outmoded and “useless”? The decadent misogyny ties itself in knots over its fanciful theories which are reflective of the spirit of this historical period