Illusions of Armor: The Haptic Body in Ernst Junger's Early Works

Abstract

I demonstrate in this dissertation that touch can serve as tool with which to address sensory experience in all its forms in Jünger’s work. Following Paterson's lead, I apply components of the physiology of touch to my readings of Ernst Jünger's early work. The "skin" of touch represents the cutaneous sense of surface and tactility, the "flesh" of touch represents muscular feelings of movement and body position, and the "body" of touch represents comprehensive 10 awareness of the body in relation to external objects and spaces. Jünger draws upon each of these touch components in his memoirs, in his prescriptive writing, and in essays addressing the relationship between technology and body. As we will see, the sensate body also informs his understanding of photography and the political potential he assigned to the photography collections he edited in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Committee Chair

Lutz Koepnick

Committee Members

Lynne Tatlock, Matt Erlin, Jennifer Kapczynski, Lori Watt, Marina MacKay

Comments

Permanent URL: https://doi.org/10.7936/K7P26W22

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Author's Department

Germanic Languages and Literatures

Author's School

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Document Type

Dissertation

Date of Award

Spring 5-15-2010

Language

English (en)

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