Examen corrigé Université de Montréal Thèse numérique Papyrus ...

67the historical violence, the violence done to Hester and by extension to women, and the violenceof symbolization itself. These turns help account for the interruptions of the Puritantranshistorical project and the eruptions of the unspeakable as the shadow of the subject. Mypoint, essentially, is that the reader, like the analysand, can deduce from these interruptions anderuptions the contours of the loss that is cryptically secluded from the author. Trying to liberatehimself from the charge of the affect tied to the memory of the loss of the object, the subject’sabreactionthe emotional liberation and reaction to the affectrelies heavily on anasemia.Going back to the event of loss and Working-Through the trauma of loss, the subject reactsadequately to the affect. Working-Through (Durcharbeitung) permits the subject to acknowledgecertain repressed things and free himself from the confinement of repetition. As I will explain inthis chapter, the passage from repetition compulsion to working-through is made possible throughtransference.Wanting to forget the Thing, Hester asked for forgiveness for having failed to concealDimmesdale’s identity from Chillingworth: “forgive me! In all things else, I have striven to betrue! Truth was the one virtue which I might have held fast, and did hold fast, through allextremity; save when thy goodthy lifethy famewere put in question!”(143) Rather thanalleviating Hester’s pain, Dimmesdale held her responsible for what happened: “woman, woman,thou art accountable for this!—I can’t forgive thee!” (143). According to Derrida, forgiveness isthe enshrouded signifier that is responsible for all hope, growth, giving, and faith, it is notpossible to forgive if “the person asking forgiveness is always, to some extent, another person” (Paper Machine 160). The clergyman’s actions work against his persona and functions as hisshadow that won’t leave his consciousness until he discloses the secret and dies. What we have is