Examen corrigé Université de Montréal Thèse numérique Papyrus ...

263perspective, the Real represents the epistemological and ontological point in which thesemodalities merge. This merging does not mean that jouissance is achieved. What is at stake hereis the complexity and impossibility of the encounter with the Real. If the Real is possible in itsimpossibility, contingent in the chance that regulates its events, impossible to comprehend andapprehend, and necessary to pursue a fantasy, then we can argue that jouissance is always alreadythwarted. We know that fantasy, much like desire and différance, is viral, reproducing itselfindefinitely. As Žižek argues in The Plague of Fantasies, “fantasy animates and structuresenjoyment, while simultaneously serving as a protective shield against its excess” (1).However, there is a way out of the prison of this impossibility, a way that is suggested byDeleuze and Guattari, who argue in A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia thatMoby-Dick in its entirety is one of the greatest masterpieces of becoming; CaptainAhab has an irresistible becoming-whale, but one that bypasses the pack or theschool, operating directly through a monstrous alliance with the Unique, theLeviathan, Moby Dick. There is always a pact with a demon; the demonsometimes appears as the head of the band, sometimes as the Loner on thesidelines of the pack, and sometimes as the higher Power (Puissance) of the band.(243)To recognize Moby-Dick as a masterpiece of “becoming” is to redeem it from the vicissitudes ofnegativity. Deleuze and Guattari’s assertion is that the process of writing is in fact a process ofinventing the future. Writing, according to them, is becoming. My focus here is not to study therhizomatic dimension and investiture of writing, although it makes perfect sense if applied to bothHawthorne and Melville, but rather to study the concept of becoming. I am interested in makinga connection between Deleuze and Guattari’s idea of becoming and the circuits of desire in order