Description
Book SynopsisIn this book, Eva Yampolsky explores the questions of identity, illusion and suicide in the works of Guy de Maupassant. Utilizing a historical context which stimulated numerous social, technological and scientific transformations and developments during the 19th century, Dr. Yampolsky identifies two defining aims.
Firstly, she examines the various figures of the double, such as visual representations of the subject through painting, mirror reflection, generational proximity and resemblance, and the relation between self-perception and social norms. She seeks to show the complex and often conflicting relation between the individual and society, and more specifically the attempts and frequent failures to manipulate, control and embody a unique definition of self. This divergence between the social norms, such as class, profession, gender and honor, and the characters' notion of self is what drives the narrative.
Secondly, Eva Yampolsky analyzes the consequent psychologica
