The Doppelgnger : Double Visions in German Literature

The Doppelgnger, or double, has been a key figure in literary representations of subjectivity since the Romantic movement. This book, based largely on psychoanalytic models, argues that the double embodies an ongoing crisis of identity in and around German culture in the nineteenth century. From the tales of Hoffmann to the Gothic revivals of early German cinema, it is seen to haunt both vision and language, representing a traumatic split between desire and knowledge.