Abstract
Patrick Süskind's Perfume chronicles Jean-Baptiste Grenouille's life from its ominous beginnings underneath a fish booth near the Cimetière des Innocents to its grotesque end in the same location, a haunting locus of infernal stench in eighteenth-century Paris. It is a story of raw brutality, rare intensity, and magic reality in which the protagonist's precarious position between olfactory prowess and lack of body odor motivates a string of despicable murders. The article correlates the protagonist's ontological crisis with the theme of the absent mother and brings to bear the feminist discourse on birthing and the womb in the trajectory of his life. Focusing on Kristeva's concepts of the Symbolic and the Semiotic and her notion of the chora, the article links the circumstances of Grenouille's birth, his seven-year sojourn in the cave, and the climactic closing of the cannibalistic feast, thus presenting new perspectives on the central events in the text.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callSimilar Papers
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
