Feminizing the Fetish
Psychoanalysis and Narrative Obsession in Turn-of-the Century France
Published on 15. August 2018
Book
Paperback/Softback
294 pages
978-1-5017-2774-0 (ISBN)
Description
Shoes, gloves, umbrellas, cigars that are not just objects-the topic of fetishism seems both bizarre and inevitable. In this venturesome and provocative book, Emily Apter offers a fresh account of the complex relationship between representation and sexual obsession in turn-of-the-century French culture. Analyzing works by authors in the naturalist and realist traditions as well as making use of documents from a contemporary medical archive, she considers fetishism as a cultural artifact and as a subgenre of realist fiction. Apter traces the web of connections among fin-de-siecle representations of perversion, the fiction of pathology, and the literary case history. She explores in particular the theme of "female fetishism" in the context of the feminine culture of mourning, collecting, and dressing.
Reviews / Votes
In light of recent critical debate, one might say that of the perversions fetishism is the most widely shared. Its subjects and objects are ubiquitous, and include male and female writers, patients, and literary characters and critics. The publication of such an in-depth analysis of fetishism in turn-of-the-century French literature seemed necessary in such a climate, and Apter's insightful book fulfills the perverse reader's expectations.- Marie Lathers (French Review)
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Ithaca
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5017-2774-0 (9781501727740)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Emily Apter
Feminizing the Fetish
Psychoanalysis and Narrative Obsession in Turn-of-the Century France
E-Book
03/2018
Cornell University Press
€4.49
Available for download
Person
Emily Apter is Professor of French and Comparative Literature and Chair of Comparative Literature at New York University. She is coeditor of Fetishism as Cultural Discourse: Psychoanalysis and Narrative Obsession in Turn-Of-The-Century France, also from Cornell University Press, and the author of Against World Literature: On The Politics of Untranslatability, The Translation Zone: A New Comparative Literature, and Continental Drift: From National Characters to Virtual Subjects.