Face Value: Physiognomical Thought and the Legible Body in Marivaux, Lavater, Balzac, Gautier, and ZolaUniv of Wisconsin Press, 1994 - 275 pagina's This book explores ideas about human physical appearance expressed in French novels of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as the pseudoscience of physiognomy that influenced them. Physiognomy, which purports to "read" the body as an index to spiritual, intellectual, or moral qualities, had its greatest proponent in the eighteenth century Swiss theoretician Johann Caspar Lavater. In addition to closely reading the fictional narratives of Marivaux, Balzac, Gautier, and Zola, the author offers a critical reading of Lavater's work. He looks at some of the most compelling and explicit literary treatments of physiognomy in the French canon, suggesting that the ways authors use physiognomical ideas to render the world "hyper-significant" poses fundamental questions about the nature of narrative itself. He also shows how physiognomy serves almost invariably as a tool of sexism as it attempts to ascribe intellectual or moral qualities on the basis of corporal features. Linked by more than their physiognomical themes, these novels share similar dynamics of reading, rhetoric, and representation. |
Inhoudsopgave
Lavater and lalphabet divin | 3 |
Balzac and lhomme hieroglyphié | 4 |
Gautier and la beauté de lambigu | 5 |
Zola and le signe de la femme fatale Conclusion | 6 |
Notes Bibliography Index | 9 |
271 | 232 |
ix | 240 |
Overige edities - Alles bekijken
Veelvoorkomende woorden en zinsdelen
analysis appearance attempt Balzac beauty becomes bien body century character clearly concerns corporeal course critics d'Albert d'une dans defined definition desire discourse discussion distinction edition Essai essential example expression face fact fait female femme fictional figure French Gautier gender hommes human important interest interpretation knowledge language Lavater Lavater's least less literary literature logic Madelaine Mademoiselle de Maupin Marianne Marianne's Marivaux means method misogyny moral Nana Nana's narrative nature notion novel object observation Paris particular passage passions perhaps period physical physiognomy plot portrait possible provides qu'il question reader reading refer relation represent rhetorical seems serves sexual signifiers signs simply social sort specific suggestive tells theme theory tion tout traits true University various woman women yeux Zola Zola's