Notions of the feminine : literary essays from Dostoyevsky to Lacan

Approaching The Question Of How Male Novelists Perceive Their Female Characters, This Collection Of Creative Yet Analytic Literary Essays Unwinds The Complexities Of Male Authorship Versus Narration. Mark Axelrod Looks At A Wide Range Of Male Authors Including Fydor Dostoevsky, D.h. Lawrence, Carlos Fuentes, And The Theories Of Jacques Lacan. Just How Do Male Novelists Perceive Their Female Characters? Are There Subtle Or Not So Subtle Indications In The Narrative That Reflect The Perceptions Of The Author Rather Than The Narrator? And Are Some Of These Perceptions Pre-conceived Based On Certain Cultural Biases? These Are A Few Of The Questions That Notions Of The Feminine: Literary Essays From Dostoevsky To Lacan Addresses. With That In Mind, The Essays Examines Those Notions In Such Texts As: Dostoevsky's, Crime & Punishment; Tolstoy's, Anna Karenina; Lawrence's Women In Love And The Virgin And The Gypsy; Fuentes', The Old Gringo; Boll's, The Lost Honor Of Katharina Blum; And With An Additional Essay Based On Lacan's Notion Of The Gaze That Is Germane To The Other Texts.--page 4 Cover. Pale Whore, Pale Writer: Is There Punishment For The Crime? -- Blushes And Flushes: Anna Karenina's Shameful Physiology -- Women In Love: D.h. Lawrence's Paean To Misogyny -- The Virgin And The Gipsy: D.h. Lawrence's Paean To Misogyny -- Ugly Hairy Mounds, Fierce Hairy Armpits, And Sewer-like Menstruations: Women As Vulgar Commodity In Fuentes' The Old Gringo -- Mediazation And Marginalization Of The Feminine In Boll's The Lost Honor Of Katharina Blum -- Gazing From The Inside: Lacan And An Endocrinological Notion Of The Male Gaze -- Index. Mark Axelrod, Professor Of Comparative Literature, Chapman University, United States. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Mark Axelrod Is Professor Of Comparative Literature At Chapman University, Usa, And Is The Director Of The John Fowles Center For Creative Writing. He Has Received Five National Endowment Arts Grants And Is Also An Accomplished Novelist, Literary Critic, And Screenwriter.--page 4 Cover. Front Matter....Pages i-vi Introduction....Pages 1-3 “Pale Whore, Pale Writer”: Is There Punishment for the Crime?....Pages 4-8 “Blushes & Flushes”: Anna Karenina’s Shameful Physiology....Pages 9-15 Women in Love: D.H. Lawrence’s Paean to Misogyny....Pages 16-42 The Virgin and the Gipsy: D.H. Lawrence’s Paean to Misogyny....Pages 43-58 Ugly Hairy Mounds, Fierce Hairy Armpits, and Sewer-Like Menstruations: Women as Vulgar Commodity in Fuentes’s The Old Gringo....Pages 59-68 Mediazation and Marginalization of the Feminine in Böll’s Lost Honor of Katharina Blum....Pages 69-86 Gazing from the Inside: Lacan and an Endocrinological Notion of the Male “Gaze”....Pages 87-94 Back Matter....Pages 95-98