Fictive Pouting: Moralistic Suicide and Werther-Emulation in Eighteenth-Century German Literature

Abstract

abstract: With attention to theories of affect, morality, and narrative empathy, this article investigates author and reader identification in eighteenth-century literary emulations of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Die Leiden des jungen Werthers . Considering Émile Durkheim's sociological theory of suicide insufficient for classifying literary suicides of the eighteenth century, I propose a definition of moralistic suicide in which individualistic protagonists choose death as a means of preserving virtue. I argue that moralistic suicides appeal to readers by providing an imaginary model for emulation. By witnessing a moral death through literature, readers may inhabit exhibited righteousness and engage with characters in a form of fictive pouting.