Chapter III: The Poetic Mirror

Andrew Webber

From Sexuality and the Sense of Self in the Works of Georg Trakl and Robert Musil (1990), pp. 36-56, doi:10.59860/td.c6ade2c

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Part of the book: Sexuality and the Sense of Self in the Works of Georg Trakl and Robert Musil

Andrew Webber

MHRA Texts and Dissertations 30

Bithell Series of Dissertations 15

Modern Humanities Research Association for the Institute of Germanic Studies

ModernGermanPoetryFictionPhilosophyopen


Abstract.  The progressive derangement of the poetic landscape that is prefigured in the metatextual configurations, can also be traced in the development of the mirror which so often functions as the screen for their appearance. The mirror, by virtue of its associations with the myth of Narcissus, coordinates the three types of desire with which this study is concerned. It provides a space at once for sexual encounter, for "reflection' on the self, and for textual figures. Sexual desire, the desire for an integral sense of self, and the desire for poetic authenticity are all at stake when the mirror is under threat. All three locate their ideal, narcissistic object within the transfigured space through the looking-glass. This chapter charts the resolution of the mirror as figurative device, out of a role of poetic transfiguration into one of radical disfigurement.

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