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Abstract
Using theories of fascist aesthetics and ideology and of psychoanalytic surplus, this thesis examines the original and revised versions of Timothy Findley's The Butterfly Plague, and asks, "Are Findley's texts themselves not dangerously complicit with the highly stylized forms of representation that they fiercely censure?" I examine the extent to which the novel provides the reader with a mechanism for distinguishing between the models of perfection it endorses and those it condemns.
The thesis explores the surplus that operates in several textual registers of The Butterfly Plague's 'economy of desire,' and argues that this excess repeatedly destabilizes the novel and undermines the text's moral imperative to have its readers "Pay attention. Listen. Watch."
