Examen corrigé Université de Montréal Thèse numérique Papyrus ...

The uncanny double is clearly an independent and visiblecleavage of the ego. (Otto Rank, The Double 12)Call me Ishmael! (Melville, Moby-Dick 21)There is no letterat least no understanding of the letterwithout its loss. The mainpurpose of this chapter is to reflect on, while it studies how the Hawthornesque lost letter isrecovered in the form of Moby-Dick; Or The Whale, the various psychological, tropopsychoanalytical,and narrative configurations of the missed encounter by staging its historicaland hermeneutic validity in the study of Melville’s Moby-Dick. Suspended between prolepsis andanalepsis, the letter in Moby-Dick indexes, I argue, following Derrida’s theory of différance, anempty space and fails to reach its destination. The novel keeps postponing the beginning of theletter. My understanding of the letter in Moby-Dick is the sliding that explains the spiralmovement of the letter from Hawthorne to Melville, from Melville to the characters, from thecharacters to their double and to the reader. The letter is this sliding supplementarity that revolvesaround a certain excess and lack. Moreover, the chain of digressions keeps the letter roaming inthe field of différance. This means that the narrative itself can only unfold proleptically. Melvillelearnt from Hawthorne that the return of the letter demonstrates the fantasy 43 of the symbolicpromise and deconstructs the status of the symbol. Full of encounters and missed encounters,Moby-Dick examines some disconcerting effects/affects of the business of the doublea businessthat is further complicated by the business of letter writing.