VALETUDINARIANS AND MONOMANIACS: ILLNESS IN SELECTED WORKS OF "LA COMEDIE HUMAINE" (HONORE DE BALZAC, "PIERRETTE," "LA PEAU DE CHAGRIN," "LE CURE DE TOURS," "LE PERE GORIOT," FRANCE).
Item
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Title
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VALETUDINARIANS AND MONOMANIACS: ILLNESS IN SELECTED WORKS OF "LA COMEDIE HUMAINE" (HONORE DE BALZAC, "PIERRETTE," "LA PEAU DE CHAGRIN," "LE CURE DE TOURS," "LE PERE GORIOT," FRANCE).
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Identifier
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AAI8515676
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identifier
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8515676
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Creator
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WINTER, MARSHA TERRY.
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Contributor
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John W. Kneller
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Date
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1985
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, Romance
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Abstract
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Balzac's theory of a puissance or force vitale diametrically opposed to the destructiveness of la pensee qui tue forms the basis of this study. An introductory chapter examines the familial, medical, and pseudo-medical themes in La Comedie humaine and the junc- ture where enlightenment and knowledge meet superstition and nescience. The sciences of physiology and psycho-physiology and the pseudo-scienes of physiognomy, phrenology, and magnetism are evaluated. Of paramount importance, it is la pensee that ultimately determines a personage's corporeal and intellectual well-being. The mechanism of thought is a Janus-faced one, having either deleterious or benevolent consequences.;The phenomenon of malady is probed in four major chapters. In La Peau de chagrin, Raphael's illness, in a subjective scope, is a psychosomatic condition which has as its etiology a "lucky" talis- man; whereas in an objective and clinical scope, it may be defined as progressive pulmonary tuberculosis. Goriot's malady, in Le Pere Goriot, is biosocial and biopsychological in nature and encompasses his physical condition, psychological state, and social status. These aspects are scrutinized in light of his monomania, a pathologic adoration of his daughters. In Pierrette, the clinical manifestations of chlorosis, an anemic disease of young women which was prevalent in the nineteenth century, and cranial necrosis, mortification of bone mass, caused by an abscess, are investigated, as they affect the novella's young heroine. A diagnostic portrait is painted of Birotteau, whose monomania and consistent fight against the rheumatic disease, gout, provide the background for Le Cure de Tours.;A concluding chapter summarizes medical knowledge interwoven with threads of fact and fiction to form a unique medical vernacular. Les Martyrs ignores and the Pathologie de la vie sociale are viewed as synopses of Balzac's ideas concerning the morbific nature of society and civilization. Balzac's own putative illness, Cushing's syndrome, which provides a view of the writer-as-valetudinarian, and his premature death, due to the inexorable depletion of his own peau de chagrin, are analyzed.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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French
