Examen corrigé Université de Montréal Thèse numérique Papyrus ...

74The dynamics of this incorporation explain Dimmesdale’s complex trauma. He is awitness and a cause of Hester’s trauma. Since he knows the traumatic event of the book, he is awitness to the trauma of Hester and a witness to his own. The traumatic event of The ScarletLetter can only be understood as a symptom and as a result of an encountera missedencounterwith the past. This encounter, missed as it is, is to be understood in terms ofabsencethe absence of spatial and temporal referents. Such absence leads to what I call cryptotemporalconstruction. Because of this crypto-temporal trauma, Dimmesdale is so possessed byhis traumatic experience. This absence allows for more experiences. This repetition that is at thecenter of traumatic belated experience and absence alike makes the traumatizedsubjectDimmesdalesurvive the trauma by bearing witness to it and by creating anotherexperience. By this logic, Dimmesdale’s death is the culmination of his various attempts tosurvive trauma.1.2. Psychoanalytics of the Symptom and the Temporality of the Sign/DesireWhat haunts are not the dead, but the gaps left within us bythe secrets of others. (Nicolas Abraham, “Notes on thePhantom” 87)Whenever A appears, I expect the appearance of B.(Deleuze, Difference and Repetition 90)