This thesis examines the development of an anorexic discourse in Goethe's Die Wahlverwandtschaften. Chapter 1 investigates anorexia as a cultural signifier and its relationship to non-clinical and non-medical disciplines. I then submit that female self-starvation serves a structural and a thematic function in WV. In Chapter 2, I argue that Ottilie's arrested female development illustrates the central, concept (elective affinities) of the novel. Chapter 3 examines food as a non-verbal system of communication in the narrative. Here, I demonstrate that Ottilie's eating disorder denies her subjectivity while it signifies and affirms the dominant social institutions depicted in the novel. Chapter 4 examines Ottilie's oscillation between corporeality and bodilessness. Her physicality is always associated with instability. The disappearance of her flesh allows for the passive reflection of masculine identity. In Chapter 5, I analyze the representation of Otttilie's death and demonstrate that her corpse allegorizes the construction of subjectivity in the narrative. In closing, I argue that Ottilie is an empty signifier in the novel, onto which the plot is imposed. Her anorexia functions as a sign for the process of narration and is a condition of the novel itself.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.21273 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Trépanier, Michèle. |
| Contributors | Sia, Adrian H. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of German Studies.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001656735, proquestno: MQ50580, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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