Examen corrigé Université de Montréal Thèse numérique Papyrus ...

63word is not only the condensation of past, present, and future but also the displacement of thistemporal continuum. There is, as Butler argues, no sovereignty in speech as words are not alwaysfelicitous or effective in performing what they name. In fact, as Hester has demonstratedthroughout the narrative, neither context nor norm is binding. Although interpellation is aperformative utterance that constructs the subject in the act of naming him/her, its citationalityrests upon context and norm to be felicitous. In other words, interpellation is a citable utterancethat goes beyond the limits of the speaker“It is an address that regularly misses its mark”(Excitable Speech 33). This is where resistance lies. Since power is everywhere (Foucault), sinceinterpellation can be infelicitous (Althusser), since a text can go beyond its contexts (Derrida),since the encounter with the Real (tuché) in the network of signifiers (automaton) is a missedencounter, it is possible to resignify. Such resignification provides the opportunity for agency andresistance. Re-inscriptions or re-citations, as Butler calls them in Bodies that Matter, construct thesubject’s agency with the law. Hester “forbore to pray for enemies, lest, in spite of her forgivingaspirations, the words of the blessing should stubbornly twist themselves into a curse” (67).Hester appropriated and re-cited the letter, making it stand for power. The result is that “manypeople refused to interpret the scarlet letter by its original signification. They said that it meantAble, so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength” (120). Hester who is thought to bethe “living sermon against sin” (52) turns out to be a symbol of resistance. However,resiginification, as I shall explain in the following paragraphs, is possible through the use of thecrypt.To understand the Wolf Man’s case and his memory tableaux, Abraham and Torokreplaced Freud’s theory of “primal scenes” with a theory of “primal words.” This means that the