In a consumerist society the human body becomes a fetish, and sexual fetishism is also expressed in the 19^th century literature through the prototype of femme fatale. Most authors, who dealt with this issue, highlight the display of power imposed by the fetishized body on the persons who desire it. Due to the bourgeoisie’s hypocrite morality, the 19^th century society wanted to conceal sexuality, this being reflected in different forms of prostitution. The female body seen as fetish by male consumers establishes the relation between the buyer and purchaser. Many young girls traded/were forced to trade their bodies and this trade affected all levels of society. We have chosen for our analysis Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles, having the intention to extend Tess’ presentation from the archetypal victim into defining her as a possible femme fatale. Our survey is based on the identification of a certain type of sexuality through a form of sexual focus on an object or a body part. Tess’ body becomes a fetish due to Hardy’s persistent presentation of her sexuality, the text continually reminding the readers that her beauty and charms are not only tragic, but also fatal. This fatality is disclosed gradually and this process of unveiling enhances her physicality and seduction, but also the ultimate fear that underneath these ‘veils’ lies something repugnant or disturbing for Victorian society (as her ‘bad blood’ or her tendency to violence).

Keywords:

fatal sexuality, degeneracy, erotic fetishes, subversion of male dominance, femme fatale

Pages:

69-79

Full text

in PDF

Type:

Research Paper

Field:

Literary Science

Topic:

(Literary) Language and Social Conditioning

UDC:

821.111-311.2.09”18/19”

DOI:

10.5281/zenodo.447172

Research Paper

Citations

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