BOOK REVIEW
Cătălina Bălinișteanu-Furdu, Femei, corpuri, pasiuni în literatura lui Heinrich Mann. Iași: Editura Universităţii „Al. I. Cuza”, Iaşi. 2012. Pp. 385. ISBN 978-973-703-795-4.
Reviewed
by Veronica Grecu Balan 
, Vasile Alecsandri University of Bacău, Romania
Cătălina Bălinișteanu-Furdu’s book can be considered a valuable contribution to the surveys dealing with the semiotics of bodies because it focuses on how women’s bodies ‘talk’ to men and because it also analyses the animal metaphors employed to depict the female characters. A revised edition of this book was published at Hartung-Gorre Verlag (Konstanz/Germany) in 2021: Das problematische Weib in Heinrich Manns Frühwerk. It seems the semiotics of bodies is a field which highly interests the author as she has published several other articles and book chapters on this topic (“Female Bodies in Interaction: From Figures in Children’s Literature to their Animated Representation” or “Sprechende Körper – eine Semiotik der Körper”) which discusses how the human body becomes a potential vehicle for different semiotic signs. Starting from Sebeok’s and Chandler’s theories on semiotic signs, Cătălina Bălinișteanu-Furdu illustrates how the body parts have their own language especially when the female characters are silenced by male authors.
The book analyses the women’s bodies in the fin de siècle literature written by Heinrich Mann where the bodies ‘express’ the cultural and social values of the 19th century Germany, ‘talk’ about the power and authority of a gender over the other, thus various body parts (hair, legs, shoulders, mouth) become semiotic signs (indices, symbols, icons). The construction of women’s identity is possible through their gestures and proxemics which transmit the readers the roles of characters based on gender stereotypes. Moreover, Bălinișteanu-Furdu suggests that the human body and the clothes reflect the person’s social position, one’s cultural background and education. In addition, posture and attitude highlight the difference in status between male and female characters. Make-up and hairstyle, too, become semiotic indices for the women’s social status, as they are used by women (instead of their voices) to express themselves in front of men. The author is interested in analysing this new ‘language’ employed by Heinrich Mann in his novels because women have always been defined as the Other and patriarchal structures have always marginalised and ostracised them, as Simone de Beauvoir suggests in her book The Second Sex. Men are ascribed power, strength and reason, whereas women are dependent on men, hence their objectification and marginalisation. So, any attempt of making women overcome their confinement in traditional gender roles contributes to the creation of this new language.
One of the chapters of Femei, corpuri, pasiuni discusses how the female characters striving for a better social position ‘speak’ to men through their bodies: flaunting their legs and breasts despite the societal restrictions and hypocrite morality; allowing their stockings and colourful petticoats to ‘speak’ about their sexual desire; exposing their arms and shoulders to boldly defy the virtuous ladies; dyeing their hair red betrays their desire to appear more sexualised, more sensual. Using Claudia Bork’s theory on femme fatale, Cătălina Bălinișteanu-Furdu shows how Rosa Fröhlich – the female protagonist from Heinrich Mann’s Blue Angel – proves to be fatal to any men in the novel, proving her tendency towards debauchery and exposing her wish for sexual pleasure and for humiliating men. She is compared to another famous fatal woman – Salome – and her dance places her into a superior position to the men enthralled by her moves. So, dance is defined as the woman’s language in her interaction with men. These are the moments when animal metaphors are employed comparing women to various felines so that they should gain more grace as well as aggressivity. Based on Carl Schorske’s theory on femme tentaculaire (1998: 212), the author also draws attention on the women’s beautiful hair which lures and entraps men; the hair ‘speaks’ again the language of seduction.
Another chapter in Das problematische Frau (Femei, corpuri, pasiuni) places emphasis on the women’s clothes and make-up due to Heinrich Mann’s use of metaphors and epithets when he chooses to let his female characters ‘talk’ through their dresses, petticoats, nightgowns, instead of their voices. Cătălina Bălinișteanu-Furdu resorts to Charles Baudelaire’s, Stefan Fuchs’ and Walter Benjamin’s theories which compare the woman to a corpse and the woman’s face to a mortuary mask because fin de siècle fashion prefers the artificiality of the make-up to the natural freshness of young bodies. As Cătălina Bălinișteanu-Furdu suggests, the mask frames the women’s face, consequently, the female body ‘speaks’ a different language that it did before 1900’s: a living body exudes sensuality, whereas the decadent make-up (specific to fin de siècle) inspires dread, disgust, even horror. Make-up generally conceals the women’s old age or tiredness, however, according to Bălinișteanu-Furdu, Heinrich Mann’s heroines use make-up only when they want to cheat on their husbands – so, their sexualised body again ‘speaks’ the women’s intentions and desire to ignore the traditional moral values.
The readers should perceive Cătălina Bălinișteanu-Furdu’s survey on Heinrich Mann’s female characters as an attempt at detecting the new language employed by silenced fin de siècle women who express their sensuality by flaunting their bodies and by letting certain body parts ‘talk’ for them. Speeches or monologues are no longer employed by the German writer; instead, he uses the woman’s corporeality, thus the human body becomes a signifying system at the end of the 19th century.
References
Bălinișteanu, C. (2012). Femei, corpuri, pasiuni în literatura lui Heinrich Mann. Iași: Editura Universității “Al. I. Cuza”.
Bălinișteanu, C. (2013). Female bodies in interaction: From figures in children’s literature to their animated representation. In E. Bonta (Ed.), Perspectives on interaction (pp. 93-109). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishers.
Bălinișteanu-Furdu, C. (2021). Das problematische Weib in Heinrich Manns Frühwerk. Konstanz: Hartung-Gorre Verlag.
Bork, C. (1992). Femme fatale and Don Juan. Hamburg: Bockel Verlag.
De Beauvoir, S. (1998). Al doilea sex. București: Editura Univers.
Nordau, M. (1993). Degeneration. Lincoln & London: University of Nebraska Press.
Schorske, E. C. (1998). Viena fin de siècle. Politică și cultură. Iași: Polirom.
Sebeok, T. (2002). Semnele: on introducere în semiotică. București: Editura Humanitas.
How to cite this review: Grecu Balan, V. (2024). Cătălina Bălinișteanu-Furdu, Femei, corpuri, pasiuni în literatura lui Heinrich Mann. Iași: Editura Universităţii „Al. I. Cuza”, Iaşi. 2012. Pp. 385. ISBN 978-973-703-795-4 [Review]. Journal of Linguistic and Intercultural Education – JoLIE, 17(3), 207–209. https://doi.org/10.29302/jolie.2024.17.3.12
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