Examen corrigé Université de Montréal Thèse numérique Papyrus ...

86Scarlet Letter is to see, without being able to stop it, the scarlet letter A twist itself to become acipher or a crypt. The letter A slips in the suspense of the interval between origin and destination.The metonymic repetition of A is a chain of interlocked signs in which each signifierthat doesnot begin or endrefers to an absent referent. The absent signifiers that are freely associatedintroduce the compulsion of repetition. In free association, the signifiers are linked to one anotheraccording to the economy of hazard that has nothing to do with randomness. Such hazard leakssymbolic persistence that is connected to a missed Real that can only be distinguished by theinsistence of its absence. Repetition, therefore, is the symbolic illusionan illusion that keepsabsence inaccessible in the series of hazard and missed wagers. This decentralization of alltranscendental, transparent signifiers is central to Hawthorne’s and Derrida’s works. Much likeDerrida’s différance, the letter A does not have a beginning or an end. It is an incomplete,unfinished, and purloined letter. The letter A is a relation and a process of enunciation that isalways in movement. Différance is, he insists, not a concept, but rather the movement that opensup the interval, the gaps, the non-presence, that are paradoxically the very foundation of anydiscursive economy.The Derridean deconstructive model has taught us to be suspicious toward language.Language is a free system of floating “signs” that are related arbitrarily to each other and that areincapable of referring to any substantiality. Metaphors refer to themselves and comment on theirown raison d’être. Although the letter A seems to reach its final destination when Dimmesdaleacknowledges his sin and dies, it continues its endless journey. Many critics such as JonathanArac have argued that The Scarlet Letter reaches a final closure. Jonathan Arac sees in theindeterminacy that governs the text a kind of closure. He contends that “Hawthorne’s own