R. Gray

German 390/Comp Lit 396/Engl 363/CHID 498/Euro490

Freud and the Literary Imagination

Short Writing Assignment 7

Write on one of the following topics in 150-200 words!

A. One of the most prominent tendencies of modern "psychological" literature (a tendency that nears perfection in some of Kafka's short fiction) is the projection of psychic states experienced by the fictional protagonists onto the empirical reality of the fictional world itself. Discuss some examples of such psychic landscapes in Musil’s Törless, drawing out their implications from a Freudian perspective.

B. The prostitute Bozena is largely a marginal figure in Musil's novella, yet she figures prominently in Törless's psycho-sexual imagination and in his development. Catalogue the traits associated with this figure. What symbolic role does she play in the psychological fantasies of the novella's main characters and in the overall structure of the novella or its "fictional" world?