Examen corrigé Université de Montréal Thèse numérique Papyrus ...

269raise is the fact that a certain power accrues to Hestera power that arises from themarginalization of her abjection. Why else would she choose to return to New England at the endof the narrative, and to assume the scarlet letter once again?Because the missed encounter is beyond representation, because of our heavy dependenceon language, we find ourselves face to face with our own symptoms. The ontological andepistemological wager reduces to a dilemma: to enjoy or not to enjoy the symptom. To betterunderstand the politics of the missed encounter we need to research the aporia and lack at theheart of the missed encounter, and effectively read the affective politics connected to theSymbolic representations of the Orient and the Occident. To understand these symbolic missedencounters would allow one to better understand the politics of the material encounter. Myargument is that the missed encounter is closely linked to its affects, which can be experiencedonly in non-presentational and non-decomposable spaces.If we consider the mutual implication of Orient and the Occident, although I prefer not touse these categorization, as circles revolving around their impossibility, are we not referring tothe Lacanian Borromean rings in which the Imaginary, the Symbolic, and the Real overlapwithout losing their characteristics? We have learnt from Lacan that the Symbolic can never fullyaccount for the Real as there is always a residue of the Real that resists representation. Each spaceis trapped in a kind of impossibility, confronting primarily its own fantasy. In order to displace apolitical, an economic, or an ideological impasse, cultures invest in this fantasy, a fantasy that isalways associated with a certain violence—Symbolic or Real.However, the mutual encounter of the Orient and the Occident is not just about violence.It also a quest for the sublime. The sublime, I suggest, is one of the excesses that lie at the heart