Citation

Wang W. Foreign Literature Studies 2013; 35(4): 65-72.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

Erotomania and amnesia are the two dominant metaphors of disease in Alasdair Gray's Poor Things (1992), which stand for different attitudes towards women in Victorian age. The freedom-pursuing Bella is diagnosed with erotomania by his former husband's private doctor. She chooses to commit suicide for she cannot accept the "treatment". Godwin Baxter resuscitates the drowned Bella through the transplanting of her unborn baby's brain and diagnoses her choice of remarriage as the aftermath of her amnesia. Erotomania is a metaphor of disease imposed upon a free woman in Victorian age, whereas amnesia is a therapy to escape from the social restraints. The full name of Bella has the connotation of "beautiful Scotland" and Scotland is often feminized in English historical narrative; therefore, Bella's fate may be as well taken as Scotland's fate in the United Kingdom. © Copyright by Foreign Literature Studies.

Language: zh

Keywords

Disease; Scotland; Amnesia; Erotomania; Poor Things