Examen corrigé Université de Montréal Thèse numérique Papyrus ...

270of the missed encounter. Is not the White Whale’s “nameless horror” (189) an invocation of thedanger the Western traveler might face in the East? Like the Orient, the White Whale isassociated with the sublime, “for all these accumulated associations, with whatever is sweet, andhonorable, and sublime, there yet lurks an elusive something in the innermost idea of this hue,which strikes more of panic to the soul than that redness which affrights in blood” (Moby-Dick190). This “elusive something” is in fact the elusive Thing that is beyond any categorization.Such impossibility of representing the Whale, of understanding the scarlet letter A, and ofcomprehending and apprehending the Orient refers to the sublime dimension of thesesignifierswhich depends on their position in a fantasy sphere. This is explained by Hegel’sdescription of Islam as the religion of the sublime:Mohammedanism is, therefore, in the strictest sense of the word, the religion of sublimity.The character of the western Asiatics, particularly the Arabs, is completely in accord withthe religion. This people is, in its aspiration to the one God, indifferent to everythingfinite, to all misery, and gives generously of its life and its goods; even today its courageand charity earns our recognition. But the Western Asiatic mind which clings to theabstract One does not get as far as the determination, the particularization, of the universalnor, consequently, to a concrete formation. (59)This reflects America’s quest for a place where it can achieve its jouissance. Mohammedanism,the religion of sublimity, is in fact a perfect example of the Hegelian fantasy of resolution(synthesis). This could be an argument against the claim that every representation of Orient is amisrepresentation. This imaginary representation of the Orient, which is studied by many postcolonialcritics, is not the main focus of my project. What interests me is the impossibility ofrepresentation as the ultimate representation. Is not Hegel’s Absolute Spirit, the only thing in his