Seeing and Perceiving
Synesthetic Perception, Embodied Intersubjectivity, and Gender Masquerade in Siri Hustvedt's Works
Published on 3. November 2021
X, 317 pages
978-3-8253-7260-6 (ISBN)
Description
Siri Hustvedt is one of the few contemporary US-American authors who consistently engages with the questions of seeing and perceiving in her work. However, despite the growing academic interest in her narratives, many aspects related to the depiction of these fundamental practices have been left unaddressed in the criticism. This study aims to fill this gap by examining the concepts of seeing and perceiving as represented in both her fictional and nonfictional writings published to date and argues that Hustvedt's texts reveal the deep entanglement of the senses that inform a meaningful human experience.
Drawing on phenomenology and feminist epistemology, this study highlights Hustvedt's interest in embodied cultural habits and implicit forms of knowledge that play a crucial role in the ways people perceive the world and each other. Through the motif of gender masquerade, her narratives explore how the ideas about femininity and masculinity shape people's perceptions and interactions.
Drawing on phenomenology and feminist epistemology, this study highlights Hustvedt's interest in embodied cultural habits and implicit forms of knowledge that play a crucial role in the ways people perceive the world and each other. Through the motif of gender masquerade, her narratives explore how the ideas about femininity and masculinity shape people's perceptions and interactions.
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Diana Wagner
Seeing and Perceiving
Synesthetic Perception, Embodied Intersubjectivity, and Gender Masquerade in Siri Hustvedt's Works
Book
10/2021
1st Edition
Universitätsverlag Winter
€45.00
Shipment within 5-7 days
Content
- Cover
- Titel
- Imprint
- TABLE OF CONTENTS
- INTRODUCTION
- 1 SEEING AND PERCEIVING: KEY CONCEPTS AND APPROACHES
- 1.1 The Traditional Conceptions of Vision and the Mind-Brain Problem
- 1.2 The "Whole-Body-in-Relation-to-Its-Environment" Conceptions of Seeing
- 1.3 Intentionality and Embodiment: Phenomenological and Feminist Perspectives
- 1.4 The Gaze in Lacanian Psychoanalysis
- 1.5 Writing Seeing: Ekphrasis, Intermediality, and Literary Visuality
- Concluding Remarks: "Ambiguity as a Philosophical Position"
- 2 SYNESTHETIC PERCEPTION
- 2.1 "Inter-Acting Senses" in Hustvedt's Early Novels
- 2.1.1 SYNESTHETIC PERCEPTION OF PHOTOGRAPHS IN 'THE BLINDFOLD'
- 2.1.2 THE INTERACTION OF THE VISUAL AND THE TACTILE SENSES IN 'THE ENCHANTMENT OF LILY DAHL' AND 'WHAT I LOVEd'
- 2.2 Synesthesia and Memory in 'Memories of the Future'
- 2.2.1 SYNESTHESIA AND CARNAL AFFECTIVITY
- 2.2.2 NARRATIVIZING MEMORY
- Concluding Remarks
- 3. EMBODIED INTERSUBJECTIVITY
- 3.1 Towards a Theory of Embodied Intersubjectivity
- 3.2 Embodied Intersubjective Practices
- 3.2.1 EMBODIED INTERSUBJECTIVE 'MIXING' OF THE AUTHOR, THE TEXT, AND THE READER
- 3.2.2 EMBODIED INTERSUBJECTIVE 'MIXING' OF THE ARTIST, THE ARTWORK, AND THE VIEWER
- Concluding Remarks
- 4. GENDER MASQUERADE
- 4.1 Seeing (through) Gender: Feminist Discourse and the Motif of Masquerade
- 4.1.1 GENDER, MASQUERADE, AND PERFORMATIVITY: IRIS MASQUERADING AS KLAUS
- 4.1.2 MASQUERADE INVERSIONS: HARRY AND RUNE'S MASKED IMPROVISATION
- 4.1.3 'THE SUMMER WITHOUT MEN AND THE BLAZING WORLD': 'HAPPY HOUSEWIVES' VS. ARTISTS
- 4.2 Gender and/or Genius: The Mask as a "Mingled Reality" between Self and Other
- 4.2.1 MONSTERS AT HOME: ABIGAIL'S "PRIVATE AMUSEMENTS" AND HARRY'S THE BLAZING WOMAN
- 4.2.2 'MASKINGS'
- Concluding Remarks
- CONCLUSION
- WORKS CITED
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- Backcover
