The Doubles That Lost Their Faces: The Role of Physiognomy in the Literature of Doubles in the 19th Century

• Thesis title in Czech: Dvojníci, kteří ztratili tvář: Úloha fyziognomie v literatuře dvojníků 19. století .
• Thesis title in English: The Doubles That Lost Their Faces: The Role of Physiognomy in the Literature of Doubles in the 19th Century
• Key words: dvojník|doppelgänger|fysiognomie|Stevenson|Wilde|Hogg|devatenácté století|dualita
• English key words: double|doppelgänger|physiognomy|Stevenson|Wilde|Hogg|nineteenth century|duality
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2017/2018
• Thesis type: Bachelor's thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK)
• Supervisor: PhDr. Zdeněk Beran, Ph.D.
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 24.09.2018
• Date of assignment: 24.09.2018
• Administrator's approval: not processed yet
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 03.10.2018
• Date and time of defence: 05.09.2019 08:30
• Date of electronic submission: 14.08.2019
• Date of proceeded defence: 05.09.2019
• Submitted/finalized: committed by student and finalized
• Opponents: Colin Steele Clark, M.A.

Guidelines

The theme of duality in literature is especially popular during the 19^th century as can be observed in works such as J. Hogg’s The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, R. L. Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Hyde and O. Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. The mentioned works will stand at the core of my thesis and will be closely examined with focus on physiognomy – that is the belief that traces of people’s sins and virtues will appear on one’s face which was considered to be a scientific fact in the preceding century as well as the beginning of the 19^th century. For example, The Picture of Dorian Gray uses physiognomy as it deals with the main character’s appearance not being in accord with his actions and personality, Stevenson’s Hyde is repeatedly referred to as having a demonic appearance and Robert Colvan in Hogg’s The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner is described as a dark and sulky figure. The French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, whose work focused on literature and cinema, recognized three roles of face in a work of art:

“It is individuating (it distinguishes or characterizes each person); it is socialising (it manifests a social role); it is relational or communicating (it ensures not only communication between two people, but also in a single person, the internal agreement between his character and his role).“ (The Movement-Image)

The BA Thesis will aim to explore Deleuze’s three roles of face as applied to the doubles in literature of the 19^th century, arguing that the faces of literary doubles do not follow the said rules which renders them de facto faceless. This can be observed in Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Hyde where even though the word ‘face’ is mentioned 47 times, which would equal to once at every other page, Hyde’s own face remains undescribed apart from a medical description of Dr Lanyon’s “Narrative” which is found almost at the end of the novel. Dorian Gray loses his own face due to his wish to remain unchanged as the beautiful painting would and Robert Colwan’s mysterious friend steals not only his victim’s appearance but also parts of their personality, rendering him unrecognizable from the original.

References

Primary Sources
Hogg, James. The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. Edited by David Blair. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Classics, 2003.
Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror. Edited by Robert Mighall. London: Penguin Books, 2003.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Edited by Robert Mighall. London: Penguin Books, 2003.

Secondary Sources
Andrade, Pilar. Cinema Doubles, Their Meaning, and Literary Intertexts. CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 10.4 (2008), UP Purdue.
Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 1: The Movement-Image. Translated by Hugh Tomlinson and Barbara Habberjam. London: Athlone Press, 1986.
Dryden, Linda. The Modern Gothic and Literary Doubles: Stevenson, Wilde and Wells. New York: Palgrave Macmillian, 2003.
Freud, Sigmund. “The ‘Uncanny.’” Translated by Alix Strachey.
Miller, Karl. Doubles: Studies in Literary History. New York: Oxford UP, 1987.
Oates, Joyce Carol. “”The Picture of Dorian Gray”: Wilde’s Parable of the Fall.” Critical Inquiry 7.2 (Winter, 1980): 419 – 428, JSTOR
Oates, Joyce Carol. “Jekyll/Hyde.” The Hudson Review 40.4 (Winter 1988): 603-608, JSTOR .
Porter, Roy. Cambridge History of Science: Volume 4, Eighteenth-Century Science. Cambridge UP, 2008.