Examen corrigé Université de Montréal Thèse numérique Papyrus ...

164the ego and the double, there is not a clear encounter but an economic expenditure of libidinaldrives that are lodged in the abyss.In Melville’s other novels, however, we see that the postal effect of the letter at work.Drawing upon Derrida’s “envois,” I want to examine the performative nature of the relay of theaddress. The letter, structured around postal relay and reserved for a specific addressee,engenders a repetition of the address. In Pierre, the protagonist’s calamity is caused by his receiptof a letter from his lost sister; In “Bartleby,” the main character works in the dead letter office; in“The Encantadas”, where the post office is shown to be vital for society; and in Moby-Dick,which is full of letters. Moby-Dick deals with the representation of allegory and the variousscenes of readings that allegories produce. Melville’s letter to Sophia Hawthorne shows thecomplexity when the initial readerHawthorneinitiates meaning and becomes the author andMelville turns into a mere projection. To better understand the complexity of this exchange, let usquote at length from Melville’s letter:It really amazed me that you should find any satisfaction in that book … But, then, sinceyou, with your spiritualizing nature, see more things than other people, and by the sameprocess, refine all you see, but things which while you think you but humbly discoverthem, you do in fact create them for yourselftherefore, upon the whole, I do not somuch marvel at your expressions concerning Moby Dick. At any rate, your allusion forexample to the “Spirit Spout” first showed to me that there was a subtle significance inthat thingbut I did not in that case, mean it. I had some vague idea while writing it, thatthe whole book was susceptible of an allegorical construction & also that parts of itwerebut the speciality of many of the particular subordinate allegories, were firstrevealed to me, after reading Mr Hawthorne's letter, which, without citing any particular