Ind Aff

The story’s subtitle, “or Out of Love in Sarajevo,” summarizes the main thrust of the narrative: the narrator falling out of love with her professor on a vacation to Sarajevo. Throughout “Ind Aff,” Fay Weldon emphasizes the inappropriateness of the relationship, partly due to Gendered Power Imbalances in Love, that eventually leads to the falling out of love process.

As the narrator introduces the relationship between herself and her professor-turned-lover, she remembers that he has said that she has “a good mind but not a first-class mind” (Paragraph 4). Though she claims not to be offended by this, it’s an indicator of the imbalance of power in the relationship, as he is in a position in which he can judge her intellectual capacity and have institutional backing in doing so. The term “first-class” not only means “high quality” but also refers to British university grading systems, underscoring the fact that he can influence her educational outcomes. Furthermore, when the couple goes out to lunch, they debate whether Princip’s actions really caused World War I. Peter contends that they did not. He takes a condescending tone, explaining his

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