Books in the Nordeuropaeische Arbeiten zur Literatur, Sprache und Kultur / Northern European Studies in Literature, Language and Culture series

Vanishing Selves deals with autobiographical works by Goethe, Sand, and Nietzsche. A key strategy in these works is to downplay the significance of the self. They avoid an interiorizing strategy in favour of an affirmation the world. The objective of Vanishing Selves is to reveal the existential as well as ethical claims of this affirmation.

This study is an intertextual-thematological investigation of the Narcissus theme at the turn of the century around 1900 in French, German, and English language literature, sexology and psychoanalysis.