The letter that vivifies in Hardy’s texts
The epigraph to Jude the Obscure announces that “the letter killeth”. If we take the word “letter” as meaning “a missive”, we find that in Hardy’s novels it is often the letter that kills. More importantly, it is often because the characters’ words are taken to the letter that they meet their doom....
Salvato in:
| Pubblicato in: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/fathom, |
|---|---|
| Autore principale: | |
| Natura: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Lingua: | Anglais |
| Pubblicazione: |
FATHOM
2013
|
| Soggetti: | |
| Accesso online: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Riassunto: | The epigraph to Jude the Obscure announces that “the letter killeth”. If we take the word “letter” as meaning “a missive”, we find that in Hardy’s novels it is often the letter that kills. More importantly, it is often because the characters’ words are taken to the letter that they meet their doom. A peculiar characteristic of language in Hardy’s tragic universe is that the signifier is incarnated in the Real of human bodies—while human bodies are “intextuated”. There is too much meaning in the diegesis. The poetics of Hardy’s text corrects this excess in meaning, and thus pacifies the lethal jouissance that spells destruction for the protagonists. The flicker of meaning produced by the poetic play on language dissolves the coagulation that in the diegesis conflates signifier, signified and referent in a solid mass. It brings air to the textual fabric. It is through the textual voice—the voice that wends its way through the gaps and cracks of the text, producing “hole-effects” by the play on the materiality of the signifier and on the Letter—that the voice of the demanding Other of tragedy may be silenced, and that the death drive may turn into a life drive. Indeed, on the textual level, the Letter vivifies. |
|---|