'Der schein ist gegen sie': Physiognomy and Honour in Schiller's "Der Verbrecher aus verlorener Ehre"

In "Der Verbrecher aus verlorener Ehre", Schiller espouses an understanding of honour as an inner attribute and reveals the dangers of denying honour to individuals on the basis of external, physical attributes. At the same time, Schiller's text attests to his interest in physiognomic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Modern language review Vol. 101; no. 3; pp. 759 - 773
Main Author Cusack, Andrew
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Belfast Maney Publishing 01.07.2006
Modern Humanities Research Association
Subjects
Analysis
Anthropology
Criminals
Enlightenment
Geist
Literary criticism
Literary themes
Morality
Narrators
Personal appearance
Philosophy
Physiognomy
Protagonists
Schiller, Friedrich
Self image
Theory
Wolves
Germany
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Summary:In "Der Verbrecher aus verlorener Ehre", Schiller espouses an understanding of honour as an inner attribute and reveals the dangers of denying honour to individuals on the basis of external, physical attributes. At the same time, Schiller's text attests to his interest in physiognomics, a theory grounded in a postulated correspondence between the moral constitution of an individual and observable physical traits. While rejecting the notion that the body is 'die sichtbar gemachte Seele', Schiller accepts that physiognomics may have a part to play in the psychological evaluation of individuals.
ISSN:0026-7937
2222-4319
DOI:10.1353/mlr.2006.0265