Seen and Foreseen: Theorising Collapsible Observer State Theory through Dattani's Bravely Fought the Queen, Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper, and Mann's Death in Venice

Literature often portrays human emotion under pressure, shaped by the awareness of being watched, by others, by memory, or by imagined futures. This paper introduces Collapsible Observer-State Theory (COST), a literary-philosophical model explaining how identity collapses under observation. Drawing from Schrödinger’s Cat paradox and narrative perspective theory, COST proposes that the self shifts across first-person volition, second-person relationality, and third-person simulated identity. When this balance gets disrupted by surveillance or introspection, it leads to performativity, inhibition, or dissociation. This theory can be analysed through three texts: The Yellow Wallpaper, Death in Venice, and Bravely Fought the Queen, each revealing a different kind of perspectival collapse under scrutiny. The paper concludes with Collapsible Observer-Reactive Theory (CORT), which explores how anticipation of future judgment triggers psychologically reactive or avoidant behaviours. Together, COST and CORT offer a framework for understanding identity formation under real, remembered, or imagined observation.