The In(de)finite Object of the Gaze: Reading Ian McEwan’s Atonement with Henry James’s Turn of the Screw

The In(de)finite Object of the Gaze: Reading Ian McEwan’s Atonement with Henry James’s Turn of the Screw

This paper dwells on the multiple echoes and points of convergence between Atonement and The Turn of the Screw, a text which has been rather overlooked in the teeming intertextuality crisscrossing McEwan’s novel. Thanks to a sophisticated scenography, the English novelist, just like Henry James, exp...

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Publicado en:URI:https://journals.openedition.org/polysemes,
Autor principal: Tollance, Pascale
Formato: Article ou chapitre numérique
Lenguaje:Anglais
Publicado: Polysèmes 2022
Materias:
spectralité
regard
spectrality
gaze
Acceso en línea:Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
id openedition-oai:revues.org:polysemes_9997
record_format openedition
spelling openedition-oai:revues.org:polysemes_9997 https://doi.org/10.4000/polysemes.9997 urn:doi:10.4000/polysemes.9997 en https://journals.openedition.org/polysemes/9997 2022-10-01T02:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/j6ce All rights reserved The In(de)finite Object of the Gaze: Reading Ian McEwan’s Atonement with Henry James’s Turn of the Screw Polysèmes SAIT info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2496-4212 info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/0999-4203 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/polysemes Tollance, Pascale spectralité regard spectrality gaze This paper dwells on the multiple echoes and points of convergence between Atonement and The Turn of the Screw, a text which has been rather overlooked in the teeming intertextuality crisscrossing McEwan’s novel. Thanks to a sophisticated scenography, the English novelist, just like Henry James, explores both the avidity of the eye and the anxiety it faces in front of what turns out to be an in(de)finite object, the ob-scene that shatters the frame of the scene. Structured around dramatic visual encounters that result in a frenzied escalation, the narrative shows how the fierce determination to protect innocence leads to a crime: the English garden becomes the theatre in which the “romance of the nursery” turns to tragedy. McEwan’s novel, very much like James’s tale, explores the fearful and destructive power of a certainty that too easily wipes away the fogs of doubt; it invites us to think of the spectral not as a marginal phenomenon, but, in the line of “the spectral turn”, as what fractures the word and the gaze. In the wake of James’s tale, the ghostly in McEwan involves the person who lives to tell the story, whether she is engaged in vision or in re-vision. At the point where McEwan seems to part company with James and as the long path to atonement begins, the ghosts continue to unsettle the narrative. Cet article se propose d’étudier les multiples échos et points de convergence entre Atonement et The Turn of the Screw de Henry James, texte que la critique semble avoir peu pris en compte dans son examen de l’intertextualité foisonnante du roman de McEwan. À travers la scénographie sophistiquée qu’il met en place, le romancier anglais, à la suite de James, explore à la fois l’avidité de l’œil et l’angoisse qui surgit face à ce qui s’impose comme un objet in(dé)fini, l’ob-scène qui met à mal le cadre de la scène. Structuré autour de plusieurs mini-drames du regard qui s’enchaînent dans une tension grandissante, le récit montre comment la détermination féroce à protéger l’innocence mène au crime : le jardin anglais devient le théâtre où la « romance de la nurserie » tourne à la tragédie. Le roman de McEwan, à l’instar du conte de James, explore le pouvoir redoutable et meurtrier d’une certitude qui écarte trop facilement les brumes du doute ; il nous amène, dans la lignée du « tournant spectral », à penser le spectral non comme un épiphénomène, mais comme ce qui installe sa faille au cœur de la parole et du regard. Comme chez James, le spectral chez McEwan implique celle qui porte le récit, il affecte sa vision autant que son entreprise de ré-vision ; au point où l’on pourrait penser que McEwan laisse James derrière lui et là où débute un long chemin d’expiation, les fantômes persistent à troubler le récit.
collection OpenEdition Journal
language Anglais
format Article ou chapitre numérique
building 0/Bibliothèque numérique/
1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/
topic spectralité
regard
spectrality
gaze
spellingShingle spectralité
regard
spectrality
gaze
Tollance, Pascale
The In(de)finite Object of the Gaze: Reading Ian McEwan’s Atonement with Henry James’s Turn of the Screw
description This paper dwells on the multiple echoes and points of convergence between Atonement and The Turn of the Screw, a text which has been rather overlooked in the teeming intertextuality crisscrossing McEwan’s novel. Thanks to a sophisticated scenography, the English novelist, just like Henry James, explores both the avidity of the eye and the anxiety it faces in front of what turns out to be an in(de)finite object, the ob-scene that shatters the frame of the scene. Structured around dramatic visual encounters that result in a frenzied escalation, the narrative shows how the fierce determination to protect innocence leads to a crime: the English garden becomes the theatre in which the “romance of the nursery” turns to tragedy. McEwan’s novel, very much like James’s tale, explores the fearful and destructive power of a certainty that too easily wipes away the fogs of doubt; it invites us to think of the spectral not as a marginal phenomenon, but, in the line of “the spectral turn”, as what fractures the word and the gaze. In the wake of James’s tale, the ghostly in McEwan involves the person who lives to tell the story, whether she is engaged in vision or in re-vision. At the point where McEwan seems to part company with James and as the long path to atonement begins, the ghosts continue to unsettle the narrative.
author Tollance, Pascale
author_facet Tollance, Pascale
author_sort Tollance, Pascale
title The In(de)finite Object of the Gaze: Reading Ian McEwan’s Atonement with Henry James’s Turn of the Screw
title_short The In(de)finite Object of the Gaze: Reading Ian McEwan’s Atonement with Henry James’s Turn of the Screw
title_full The In(de)finite Object of the Gaze: Reading Ian McEwan’s Atonement with Henry James’s Turn of the Screw
title_fullStr The In(de)finite Object of the Gaze: Reading Ian McEwan’s Atonement with Henry James’s Turn of the Screw
title_full_unstemmed The In(de)finite Object of the Gaze: Reading Ian McEwan’s Atonement with Henry James’s Turn of the Screw
title_sort in(de)finite object of the gaze: reading ian mcewan’s atonement with henry james’s turn of the screw
publisher Polysèmes
publishDate 2022
container_title URI:https://journals.openedition.org/polysemes
url https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/polysemes.9997
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/polysemes/9997
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