Examen corrigé Université de Montréal Thèse numérique Papyrus ...

78threat of patriarchy. Although Hester’s primal scene is different from that of “The CustomHouse,” it intersects with the narrator’s, for it is this conjuncture that generates the narrative. Wehave seen that the impact of trauma is always belated. It does not yield itself to simple narrativeand its effects are going to show up as symptoms of trauma. The need to trace the letter A back toits origin marks the belatedness of trauma and the temporality of the subject. The primal scene ofthe narrative is Hawthorne’s (missed) encounter with Surveyor Pue 22 . Following Freud’s modelof belated trauma, I want to argue that the traces that are left by the impression of the scarlet letterA come back in various different ways, and that meaning can emerge only symptomatically. Ishall open up this register by expanding the analysis of desire.The desire of the characters in The Scarlet Letter, much like the reader’s, to penetrate thesecret of the letter is in fact part of the letter’s gamethe game of jouissance. Disclosing thesecrets of The Scarlet Letter, or having access to knowledge and truth would lead to the loss ofwhat Lacan calls jouissance which exists only as an index of manque (lack), deferral, andsecrecy. It is in this sense that Lacan’s idea of lack gains importance as the subject can only besupposed (assumed). Supposing the subject, however, necessitates barring the subject. Pointing toa historical necessity, The Scarlet Letter is also linked to the death of the author which is in factthe death of authority, truth, and certainty. Deconstructive as it is, Hawthorne’s fetishized writingis understood as an attempt to revive the affects of the past. As in psychoanalysis, the reader ofThe Scarlet Letter should not know in order not to lose jouissancethe concept that structuresboth psychoanalysis and the act of reading. However, as I shall explain, visiting the future tochange the past fails at the Real of America which defies symbolization. The impossibility orfailure of symbolization guarantees the work of Jouissance and ensures the return of the