Corporeality in Daphne du Maurier’s Short Stories
This paper examines the shorter fiction of Daphne du Maurier and argues that she engaged fully with contemporary political, social, and intellectual issues through developing a conceptual framework of corporeality that unifies the works. The argument establishes the context of corporeality in which...
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| In: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/jsse, |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Language: | Anglais |
| Published: |
Journal of the Short Story in English
2023
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| Online Access: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Summary: | This paper examines the shorter fiction of Daphne du Maurier and argues that she engaged fully with contemporary political, social, and intellectual issues through developing a conceptual framework of corporeality that unifies the works. The argument establishes the context of corporeality in which du Maurier’s short stories are to be read, and postulates that her stories illustrate the results of frustrated desire by recurrent reference to the incomplete or impaired human form. Three stories are chosen from the corpus to illustrate how du Maurier employs the gendered and non-gendered, disabled and maimed human form as a recurrent symbol for social, political, and domestic misalignment. Examples include “Monte Verità” as an exploration of gyno-geography and a locational blending of the spiritual and the corporeal; “The Alibi,” with particular regard to impotence, artistic prowess, and murderous intent; and “The Little Photographer” as the arena of fetish, fertility, and the power of the body in pictorial form. This analysis of the short stories lends weight to the reassessment of du Maurier’s reputation, contending that her stories are significant in the development of the genre throughout the twentieth century. It shows how corporeality is the central governing concept in narratives that blur the boundary between psychological study, cautionary tale, horror narrative and the Künstlerroman. |
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