Intermedial elements in “The Artificial Silk Girl”: Distorted self-perception as a result of society's social models

Abstract

In the following study, the novel “The Artificial Silk Girl” (1932) written by Irmgard Keun will be examined with special regard to intermedial aspects. The aim is to give visibility to Irmgard Keun’s work, to which no attention was paid in Turkey, as well as to look at it in an intermedial framework and furthermore to present the negative influences of the mass media using the case study “Doris” as a representative of young women in the 21st century. The intermediality and the reader-related method will be the guidelines of this work. Various media, such as film, music and advertising, are sufficiently addressed in the novel. Especially around 1920, due to the new image of women, which caused an enormous change in gender relations through the media and also influenced the equality between men and women, a clear turn of the woman of the 20th century becomes apparent. Media personalities largely become ideals for young women, resulting in a chasm between reality and fiction in the case study Doris. The aim is to list the negative consequences of the ideals of beauty conveyed by the mass media and, within this framework, to bring a contemporary, social as well as timeless problem before the readers' eyes.