Examen corrigé Université de Montréal Thèse numérique Papyrus ...

149Is the theory of the double a theory of repetition? Does the double double the ego’snarcissistic obsession with the return to the womb, to the lost missed origin? I will come back tothe melancholic and narcissistic turns in Moby-Dick later, but let me first quote from TheSpecters of Marx:Repetition and first time: this is perhaps the question of the event as question of the ghost.What is a ghost. What is the effectivity or the presence of a specter, that is, of what seemsto remain as ineffective, virtual, insubstantial as a simulacrum? Is there there, between thething itself and its simulacrum, an opposition that holds up? Repetition and first time, butalso repetition and last time, since the singularity of any first time makes of it also a lasttime. Each time is the event itself, a first time is a last time. (10; original italics)Derrida gets at the essence of repetition, of the automaton. Consequently, the motif of thedouble 50 allows the image of the self to be exteriorized and reflected upon an object ofnarcissistic projection. The subject, however, enters in dialectical relation of desire and hatredwith his double. Like the relationship between Ishmael and Queequeg which is initiallycharacterized by fluctuation between fascination and horror, Ahab and the white whale portraythe same relationship of love and hatred. In fact, the characteristics projected upon the whale aremere projections of Ahab’s fascinations and worries. “The whale fishery furnishes an asylum formany romantic, melancholy, and absent-minded young men, disgusted with the carking cares ofearth, and seeking sentiment in tar and blubber” (162). The supernatural powers of the whale arein fact the contemplative powers of Captain Ahab to ponder his inner self. His search for thewhite whale is in fact a search for his mirror imagean image of “monomania” (186). Ahab’sviolence is reflected by the white whale’s violent behavior.