The Contemporary Writer and Their Suicide

Preface
References
Acknowledgments
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
About the Editor
Contributors
Part I: Suicide in Contemporary Writers Caused by Socio-Structural and Environmental Violence and Pressures
Chapter 1: Beyond the Wertherian Motif of Suicide: The Unity of the Self in Karoline von Günderrode’s Death
1 Historical and Sociopolitical Context
2 Inspirations, Work, and Indications of Her Suicide
References
Chapter 2: “I Manage It”: Analyzing Tropes of Suicide in Sylvia Plath’s Writing
References
Chapter 3: Virginia Woolf’s Suicidal Character(s): Schizophrenia and the Rebellion Against the Body and the Self in Her Literary Works
1 Introduction
2 Mrs. Dalloway: Constructing and Conceptualizing Madness
3 Biopower, Necropower, and the Question of Agency in Suicide: Rhoda’s Case (The Waves)
4 Beyond the Reality-Fiction Dichotomy: Virginia Woolf’s Suicide Case and History
5 Conclusions
References
Chapter 4: “Death Beats in My Heart Everyday”: A Sociological Reading of Suicidal Intent in Sara Shagufta’s Works
1 Background of Sara Shagufta
2 Gender and Suicide
3 Invisibility of Suicide Narratives in South Asian Context
4 Islam’s Perception of Women and Suicide
5 Social, Political, and Cultural Setting of the Pakistan of Shagufta’s Times
6 Erasure of Sara Shagufta from the Canon of Urdu Women’s Poetry
7 Contextualizing Sara Shagufta
8 Conclusion
References
Chapter 5: Inside the Medical Suicidal Mind: Felipe Trigo’s Death by Suicide and Its Self-Novelization as a Way of Understanding Suicide in Contemporary Practitioners
1 Introduction: Understanding Suicide in the Medical Profession
2 Felipe Trigo’s El médico rural (1912): Another Doorway into the Medical Suicidal Mind
2.1 Life and Work of Felipe Trigo
2.2 Insights of Suicidal Behavior in Trigo’s Writings
2.3 Trigo’s Suicidal Mind and Other Deaths by Suicide in Spanish Fiction Medical Authors
3 Conclusions
References
Chapter 6: The Problem of Suicide in Kafka: An Ethical or Aesthetical Problem?
1 Introduction
2 Suicide in Kafka’s Age: Only an Ethical Problem?
2.1 Durkheim’s Theoretical Frame to Classify the Types of Suicide
2.2 Which Kind of Suicide Did Kafka Think About?
3 Kafka’s Aesthetical Reasons for Thinking About Committing Suicide
4 Contradiction Between the Ethical and Aesthetical Points of View
5 Conclusions
References
Chapter 7: The Tragedy of Vladimir Mayakovsky: Suicide as a Dialectical Dilemma
1 Introduction
2 Unrequited Love as a Master-Slave Dialectic
3 Revelation Through Revolution: A Work Toward Freedom?
4 In Conclusion: Not with a Whimper But a Bang
References
Chapter 8: Paul Celan: The Abyss of the Word “Forgiveness”
1 Introduction
2 A Room Near the Seine
3 A Silent Dialogue in Todtnauberg
4 There Where the Horror
5 Philosopher’s Answer
6 The Reason for Silence
7 The Silence of Reason
8 Above Good and Evil, Above Pain
9 In Conclusion
References
Chapter 9: “Lines of Flight”: The Deterritorialization of Gilles Deleuze
1 Lines of Flight
2 Building Intensity and Deterritorializing the Interior
References
Part II: Suicide in Contemporary Writers as an Expression of the Will, the Dislocation Between the Individual and the Reality, and Existential Alienation
Chapter 10: The Ontological Suicide of Philipp Mainländer: A Search for Redemption Through Nothingness
1 Introduction
2 Mainländer’s Philosophy and His Consideration of Suicide
3 The Philosopher Behind the System: Biographical and Literary Approach to Mainländer’s Suicide
References
Chapter 11: Simone Weil, Martyr or Suicidal? Between Martyrdom and Suicide: The Question of the Meaning of Life and Death
1 Introduction: Simone Weil’s Choice of Life and the Conditions of Her Death
2 Suicide and Martyrdom: Where the Gaze Is Placed
3 Simone Weil as a Martyr: The Commitment with the Afflicted and the Concept of Decreation
References
Chapter 12: The Fall of a Legend: Deleuze’s Suicide and His Spinoza
1 Introduction and Preliminary Matters
2 Playing Detective with Deleuze and His Work
3 Two Interpretations of a Paradox
4 Conclusions: The Aphorism of Life
References
Chapter 13: Is Suicide a Choice? Suicide and Sophie’s Choice in William Styron
1 To Choose for Oneself
2 Insights from Darkness Visible (1990)
3 Insights from Sophie’s Choice (1979)
References
Chapter 14: Mortality and Meaninglessness: Leo Tolstoy and Mickey Sachs Reconsidered
1 Leo Tolstoy
1.1 Success
1.2 Crisis
1.3 Thoughts of Suicide
1.4 Search for Meaning
1.5 Faith?
2 Woody Allen
2.1 Success
2.2 Crisis
2.3 Thoughts of Suicide
2.4 Search for Meaning
2.5 Faith?
2.6 Answers?
3 Tolstoy Reconsidered
3.1 Faith?
References
Chapter 15: Carlo Michelstaedter and the Philosophical Suicide
1 Introduction
2 Biographical Notes
3 The Ideal Ego and the Ego Ideal in the Ultimate Theory of Carlo Michelstaedter
References
Chapter 16: Two-Gun Bob on the Pyre: Robert E. Howard’s Suicide in the Context of His Life and Work
1 Introduction
2 Texas and Early Fiction Period
3 Interim and Historical Fiction Period
4 Weird Tales and Adventure Fantasy Fiction Period
5 Conclusions
References
Chapter 17: The Confusing Anxiety of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
1 A Different Kind of Japanese
2 Religion, Aesthetics, and Suicide
3 Last Works
4 The Farewell
References
Chapter 18: Through the Mask. Behind Osamu Dazai’s Smile
References
Chapter 19: The Catastrophe of the Self: The Case of Unica Zürn
1 Biography
2 Hallucination as a Miracle: The Linguistic Dwelling
3 The Literalness of the Sign
4 Anagrammatic Writing
5 Identity and Suicide
References
Part III: Suicide in Contemporary Writers Understood Through Their Literary Styles, Their Writing Techniques, and Their Metaphorical Language
Chapter 20: Sylvia Plath: Suicidal Tendencies in Life, Poems, and Fiction
1 Introduction
2 Sylvia’s Life in Brief
2.1 Early Life in America
2.2 Life in England
2.3 Thoughts on Sylvia’s Life
3 Sylvia Plath’s Poems
3.1 Research on Sylvia’s Poems
4 The Bell Jar
5 Other Studies of Sylvia’s Suicide
6 Discussion
References
Chapter 21: Dying Is an Art: Death in the Art of Sylvia Plath
1 The Myth of Sisyphus
2 The Bell Jar
3 Ariel
4 The Savage God: A Study of Suicide
References
Chapter 22: One Wrist, Then the Other Wrist: The Mind Style of a Suicidal Protagonist as Portrayed in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar
References
Chapter 23: Reflection of Suicidal Tendencies in Poetry: A Computational Analysis of Gender-Themed Versus General-Themed Poetry by Cesare Pavese, Anne Sexton, and Sylvia Plath
1 Literature Review
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Depression Disorder
1.3 Anne Sexton
1.4 Sylvia Plath
1.5 Cesare Pavese
1.6 Conclusion
2 Method
2.1 Computational Analysis Software
2.2 Poet Selection
2.3 Poem Selection
2.4 Questions
3 Results
3.1 Affective Processes
3.2 Social Processes
3.3 Cognitive Processes
3.4 Perceptual Processes
3.5 Biological Processes
4 Discussion
5 Conclusion
References
Chapter 24: Black and Blue: Revealing Suicidality in the Poetry of the Afro-German Writer-Activist, May Ayim
1 An Empirical Analysis of Ayim’s Suicidality Through Her Poetry
2 Phase I: External Changes in the Number and Format of Ayim’s Poetry
3 Phase II: Internal Changes in the Composition of Ayim’s Poetry
4 Conclusion
References
Chapter 25: Words in Poetry: Early and Late Poems by Haizi
1 Too Early an Ending
2 About the Poet
3 Earliest and Latest Poetic Production
4 About Haizi’s First and Last Poems
5 Some Remarks to Conclude
References
Chapter 26: Being Suicidal After Birth: Recoveries of Brooke Shields in Down Came the Rain, Elif Şafak in Siyah Süt (Black Milk), and Fuani Marino in Svegliami a Mezzanotte (Wake Me Up in the Midnight) from Ecolinguistic Perspectives
1 Introduction
2 Theoretical Framework: Ecolinguistics
3 Ecolinguistics for Revealing Natural Cures
3.1 Appreciating Ecological Events
3.2 Adopting Animals
3.3 Noticing the Beauty of Plants
3.4 Respecting Works of Art
3.5 Eating Healthy Food
4 Conclusion
References
Index