Desire and Impaired Eyesight: Thomas Hardy’s Clinical Metaphors of Affect
This paper considers the clinical terms used by Thomas Hardy to build a model of misvision and missed opportunity. The glasses laid on the landscape in one of Hardy’s iconic drawings sem to materialize the object-gaze, and may also be read as a representation of his appropriation of the medical gaze...
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| Veröffentlicht in: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/fathom, |
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| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Sprache: | Anglais |
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FATHOM
2018
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| Online Zugang: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:fathom_735 |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:fathom_735 https://doi.org/10.4000/fathom.735 urn:doi:10.4000/fathom.735 en https://journals.openedition.org/fathom/735 2018-04-23T02:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/gais All rights reserved Desire and Impaired Eyesight: Thomas Hardy’s Clinical Metaphors of Affect FATHOM Association française sur les études sur Thomas Hardy info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2270-6798 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/fathom Lanone, Catherine désir regard aveuglement cataracte objet-regard gutta serena vision desire gaze blindness cataract object-gaze gutta serena vision This paper considers the clinical terms used by Thomas Hardy to build a model of misvision and missed opportunity. The glasses laid on the landscape in one of Hardy’s iconic drawings sem to materialize the object-gaze, and may also be read as a representation of his appropriation of the medical gaze. He transposes ophtalmological conditions (the cataract, gutta serena) or technological tools (X-Rays) to engage with the corporeal, as well as mental, nature of desire and its misdirections, or to explore the haunting ability to strip the present, and see the past with its compelling hallucinatory presence. Drawing upon the readings of J. Hillis Miller, Linda M. Shires and Rosemarie Morgan, as well as Annie Ramel, Laurence Estanove and Isabelle Gadoin, this paper considers the mediation of the gaze and its paradoxical remediation through an operation that all but shatters the self, a process that shapes the poems written after Emma’s death. It then takes Far from the Madding Crowd as its central case study. The novel proves a landmark in Hardy’s writing career, as he experiments with visual modalities to diagnose misdirected desire and emotional flaws, the “phantom[s] of his own figuring” that he dramatizes as physiological flaws in the eye, thereby foreshadowing today’s neurological and trauma studies. C’est l’écart entre l’œil et le regard qui fascine Thomas Hardy, et c’est le diagnostic clinique du trouble visuel qui rend compte de l’aveuglement du désir. On se souvient de cette paire de lunettes incongrue qui flotte sur le paysage dans l’une des illustrations des poèmes, dévoyant la perspective, matérialisant le regard du locuteur ou du lecteur, mais aussi désignant l’objet-regard, le fantasme qui fausse le point de vue. Dans les poèmes, l’acuité du locuteur découpe le présent aux rayons X, pour permettre la résurgence d’un passé qui ne passe pas. En s’inspirant des lectures de J. Hillis Miller, Linda M. Shires et de Rosemarie Morgan, mais aussi d’Annie Ramel, de Laurence Estanove et d’Isabelle Gadoin, cet article propose d’explorer la façon dont la métaphore optique fonctionne à la manière des lunettes du dessin dans la fiction, notamment dans Far from the Madding Crowd. L’œil dysfonctionne, du kaléidoscope de l’ivresse à la projection de la mort dans le paysage ; le diagnostic clinique “gutta serena” montre à quel point Hardy s’approprie l’idiome médical pour rendre compte de la pathologie du désir, entre confusion et frustration, comme s’il préfigurait les études du traumatisme et la lecture de cas neurologique d’aujourd’hui. |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
désir regard aveuglement cataracte objet-regard gutta serena vision desire gaze blindness cataract object-gaze gutta serena vision |
| spellingShingle |
désir regard aveuglement cataracte objet-regard gutta serena vision desire gaze blindness cataract object-gaze gutta serena vision Lanone, Catherine Desire and Impaired Eyesight: Thomas Hardy’s Clinical Metaphors of Affect |
| description |
This paper considers the clinical terms used by Thomas Hardy to build a model of misvision and missed opportunity. The glasses laid on the landscape in one of Hardy’s iconic drawings sem to materialize the object-gaze, and may also be read as a representation of his appropriation of the medical gaze. He transposes ophtalmological conditions (the cataract, gutta serena) or technological tools (X-Rays) to engage with the corporeal, as well as mental, nature of desire and its misdirections, or to explore the haunting ability to strip the present, and see the past with its compelling hallucinatory presence. Drawing upon the readings of J. Hillis Miller, Linda M. Shires and Rosemarie Morgan, as well as Annie Ramel, Laurence Estanove and Isabelle Gadoin, this paper considers the mediation of the gaze and its paradoxical remediation through an operation that all but shatters the self, a process that shapes the poems written after Emma’s death. It then takes Far from the Madding Crowd as its central case study. The novel proves a landmark in Hardy’s writing career, as he experiments with visual modalities to diagnose misdirected desire and emotional flaws, the “phantom[s] of his own figuring” that he dramatizes as physiological flaws in the eye, thereby foreshadowing today’s neurological and trauma studies. |
| author |
Lanone, Catherine |
| author_facet |
Lanone, Catherine |
| author_sort |
Lanone, Catherine |
| title |
Desire and Impaired Eyesight: Thomas Hardy’s Clinical Metaphors of Affect |
| title_short |
Desire and Impaired Eyesight: Thomas Hardy’s Clinical Metaphors of Affect |
| title_full |
Desire and Impaired Eyesight: Thomas Hardy’s Clinical Metaphors of Affect |
| title_fullStr |
Desire and Impaired Eyesight: Thomas Hardy’s Clinical Metaphors of Affect |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Desire and Impaired Eyesight: Thomas Hardy’s Clinical Metaphors of Affect |
| title_sort |
desire and impaired eyesight: thomas hardy’s clinical metaphors of affect |
| publisher |
FATHOM |
| publishDate |
2018 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/fathom |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/fathom.735 https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/fathom/735 |
| _version_ |
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