First Advisor

Alastair Hunt

Date of Award

Spring 6-5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in World Languages & Literatures: German and University Honors

Department

World Languages and Literatures

Language

English

Subjects

human-animal relations, psychoanalysis, dogs, mourning, deconstruction, hauntology

DOI

10.15760/honors.1870

Abstract

This paper offers a reading of Sigmund Freud’s German translation of Marie Bonaparte’s book, Topsy: The Golden-Haired Chow, in which the author attempts to both delay the death of her dog and mourn it in advance through what I call foremourning. I argue that the manifest subject matter of Topsy should not be interpreted away as a projection of merely human concerns, but rather that close attention to Freud’s translation introduces themes from his analytic experience which engender an appreciation of Topsy’s atopia (intractability). I draw from recent psychoanalytic theory, literary criticism, and deconstruction, especially Jacques Derrida’s seminars on animals, to explain how Bonaparte navigates the challenge of addressing and responding to a nonhuman animal. I conclude that Freud’s translation reveals how Topsy plays the role of the ghostly Nebenmensch (neighbor), never being directly encountered as an object, but always dis-placed and dis-placing the subject-object distinction. This displacement, revealed through the movement of translation, ultimately calls for a restoration of the ambivalent status of animals as nonhuman neighbors and living ghosts.

Rights

An undergraduate honors thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in University Honors and German & Arts and Letters

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/44804

Download

Share

COinS