Blind Reflections: Gender in Elias Canetti's Die Blendung (Studies in Austrian Literature, Culture, and Thought)

In the first full-length analysis of gender in Die Blendung (Auto-da-Fe), Kristie Foell argues that Nobel-prize winner Elias Canetti's novel depends on deep-seated misogynies for its narrative impact. Foell asks not only how the novel represents women, but also how it presents the male protagonist's evolving view of women, how the novel comments on his views, and how Canetti has addressed issues of gender and representation in his other writings. Foell probes the extent of the novel's dependence on early twentieth-century Viennese gender theory, particularly that of Otto Weininger, known for such acerbic statements as "Woman is man's fault." Karl Kraus and Sigmund Freud also figure in the novel's psychology of misogyny, prostitution, and murder-lust. The study concludes by investigating the relative weight of paranoia, homosexuality, misogyny, and Canetti's crowd theory in Peter Kien's final self-immolation.


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