SPECTRALITY AND ABJECTION IN THE STORIES OF CHARLES DICKENS’ THE SIGNAL-MAN AND HERMAN MELVILLE’S BARTLEBY
Abstract
The stories of Charles Dickens and Herman Melville, respectively The Signal-Man (1866) and Bartleby (1853), have received much critical attention more than one century to date. The settings and themes of the two stories suggest that they share a common understanding of mid-nineteenth century Britain and America in terms of urban alienation, industrialised landscape, and the division of labour. In this study, I argue that spectrality has been used as a narrative strategy to describe the experience of abjection, a psychoanalytical theory developed by Julia Kristeva in Powers of Horror (1982). Kristeva asserts that when an adult confronts the abject, s/he simultaneously identifies it and feels a sense of helplessness. Thus, an abject turns into a threat against the self and ‘it must be radically excluded from the place of the living subject, propelled away from the body and deposited on the other side of an imaginary border’ (Creed, 1993, p. 65). Once the subject is driven into the world of the abject and imaginary borders are disintegrated, fear and horror become unavoidable. The occupations and eccentric characterizations of the signalman and Bartleby signify this fragile border between their selves and experiences of abjection through spectrality.
Keywords
Spectrality Abjection The Signal-Man Bartleby Urban space Alienation Industrialism Wall-Street
References
- BEAUMONT, Matthew and Freeman, Michael. (Eds.). (2007). The Railway and Modernity: Time, Space, and the Machine Ensemble. Bern: Peter Land AG, International Academic Publishers.
- BERMAN, Marshall. (1983). All That is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity. London: Verso.
- CARTER, Ian. (2001). Railways and Culture in Britain: The Epitome of Modernity. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
- COX, Judy. (1998). An Introduction to Marx’s Theory of Alienation. International Socialism,79. Retrieved from: http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/isj79/cox.htm
- CREED, Barbara. (1993). The Monstrous Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis. New York: Routledge.
- DALY, Nicholas. (2004). Literature, Technology and Modernity 1860-2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- DICKENS, Charles. (Christmas number, 1866). ‘The Signal-Man’. In All the Year Round:Mugby Junction, (pp. 20-25).
- FELLUGA, Dino Franco. (2015). Critical Theory: The Key Concepts. New York: Routledge.
- FREEMAN, Michael. (1999). Railways and Victorian Imagination. New Haven: Yale University Press.
- GOLDLEAF, Steven. (1994). Bartleby, The Scrivener: Overview. In Noelle Watson (Ed.), Reference Guide to Short Fiction. Detroit: St. James Press.
- GILES, Todd. (2007). Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener. The Explicator, 65.2, 88-91. DOI: 10.3200/EXPL.65.2.88-91.
- KRISTEVA, Julia. (1982). Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. (Leon S. Reodiez, Trans.). New York: Columbia University Press.
- MARX, Karl. (1844). Alienation of Labor. Economic and Philosophic Manuscript, 1. Retrieved from http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/MODERN/ALIEN.HTM
- MATUS, Jill L. (2009). Shock, Memory and the Unconscious in Victorian Fiction.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- MELVILLE, Herman. (1853). Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street. In The Piazza Tales (1856, pp. 31-109). New York: Dix and Edwards.
- MITCHELL, Thomas R. (1990). Dead Letters and Dead Men: Narrative Purpose in
- Bartleby, the Scrivener, Studies in Short Fiction 27.3, 329-338.
- REDHEAD, Steve. (2004). Paul Virilio: Theorist for an Accelerated Culture. Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press.
- REED, Naomi. (2004). The Specter of Wall Street: Bartleby, the Scrivener and the Language of Commodities. American Literature, 76.2, 247-273.
- SHUTTLEWORTH, Sally and Taylor, Jenny Bourne (Eds.). (1998). Embodied Selves: An Anthology of Psychological Texts 1830-1890. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- SIMMEL, Georg. (1950). The Metropolis and Mental Life, In Kurt H. Wolff (Ed.), The Sociology of Georg Simmel (pp. 409-424). New York: Free Press.
- THOMAS, Deborah A. (1982). Dickens and the Short Story. London: Batsford.
- VIRILIO, Paul. (1986). Speed and Politics: An Essay on Dromology. (Mark Politezzi,Trans.). New York: Columbia University Press.
- WILSON, James C. (1981). Bartleby: The Walls of Wall Street. Arizona Quarterly, 37.4, 335-346.
- WOLFREYS, Julian. (2004). Writing London, Volume 2: Materiality, Memory, Spectrality.New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Charles Dickens’ın The Signal-Man ve Herman Melville’in Bartleby Eserlerinde Hayalsellik ve Abjeksiyon
Abstract
Charles Dickens’ın The Signal-Man (1866) ve Herman Melville’in Bartleby (1853) adlı eserleri yüzyılı aşkın süredir farklı açılardan ele alınmıştır. İki öyküde olayin geçtiği çevre ve temalar göz önüne alındığında on dokuzuncu yüzyıl ortalarında İngiltere ve Amerika’daki kentsel yabancılaşma, endüstrileşen çevre ve işbölümü konularına benzer bir yaklaşım sergiledikleri anlaşılmaktadır. Bu çalışmada, hayalselliğin bir anlatı stratejisi olarak Julia Kristeva’nın Korkunun Güçleri (1982) adlı kitabında geliştirdiği bir psikoanalitik teori olan ve kişinin benlik duygusu sınırlarını koruma güdüsüyle ortaya çıkan dehşet ya da dışlama gibi tepkilerini açıklayan abjeksiyon deneyimini anlattığını öne sürmekteyim. Kristeva abjeksiyon nesnesi ile karşılaşan bir yetişkinin onu tanıyarak kendini savunmasız hissettiğini öne sürer. Bu nedenle, dışlanan nesne kişinin öz benliğine karşı bir tehdit olarak algılanır ve “bireyin yaşadığı alandan uzaklaştırılmalı, bedeninden atılmalı ve hayali sınırların ötesine itilmelidir” (Creed, 1993, p. 65). Birey abjeksiyon dünyasına çekildiğinde hayali sınırlar yıkılır ve yerini korku ile dehşet alır. İşaret memuru ile Bartleby’nin meslekleri ve eksantrik karakter tanımlamaları hayasellik stratejisi kullanılarak kişilerin benlikleri ile abjeksiyon deneyimi arasındaki kırılgan sınıra işaret eder
Keywords
References
- BEAUMONT, Matthew and Freeman, Michael. (Eds.). (2007). The Railway and Modernity: Time, Space, and the Machine Ensemble. Bern: Peter Land AG, International Academic Publishers.
- BERMAN, Marshall. (1983). All That is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity. London: Verso.
- CARTER, Ian. (2001). Railways and Culture in Britain: The Epitome of Modernity. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
- COX, Judy. (1998). An Introduction to Marx’s Theory of Alienation. International Socialism,79. Retrieved from: http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/isj79/cox.htm
- CREED, Barbara. (1993). The Monstrous Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis. New York: Routledge.
- DALY, Nicholas. (2004). Literature, Technology and Modernity 1860-2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- DICKENS, Charles. (Christmas number, 1866). ‘The Signal-Man’. In All the Year Round:Mugby Junction, (pp. 20-25).
- FELLUGA, Dino Franco. (2015). Critical Theory: The Key Concepts. New York: Routledge.
- FREEMAN, Michael. (1999). Railways and Victorian Imagination. New Haven: Yale University Press.
- GOLDLEAF, Steven. (1994). Bartleby, The Scrivener: Overview. In Noelle Watson (Ed.), Reference Guide to Short Fiction. Detroit: St. James Press.
- GILES, Todd. (2007). Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener. The Explicator, 65.2, 88-91. DOI: 10.3200/EXPL.65.2.88-91.
- KRISTEVA, Julia. (1982). Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. (Leon S. Reodiez, Trans.). New York: Columbia University Press.
- MARX, Karl. (1844). Alienation of Labor. Economic and Philosophic Manuscript, 1. Retrieved from http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/MODERN/ALIEN.HTM
- MATUS, Jill L. (2009). Shock, Memory and the Unconscious in Victorian Fiction.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- MELVILLE, Herman. (1853). Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street. In The Piazza Tales (1856, pp. 31-109). New York: Dix and Edwards.
- MITCHELL, Thomas R. (1990). Dead Letters and Dead Men: Narrative Purpose in
- Bartleby, the Scrivener, Studies in Short Fiction 27.3, 329-338.
- REDHEAD, Steve. (2004). Paul Virilio: Theorist for an Accelerated Culture. Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press.
- REED, Naomi. (2004). The Specter of Wall Street: Bartleby, the Scrivener and the Language of Commodities. American Literature, 76.2, 247-273.
- SHUTTLEWORTH, Sally and Taylor, Jenny Bourne (Eds.). (1998). Embodied Selves: An Anthology of Psychological Texts 1830-1890. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- SIMMEL, Georg. (1950). The Metropolis and Mental Life, In Kurt H. Wolff (Ed.), The Sociology of Georg Simmel (pp. 409-424). New York: Free Press.
- THOMAS, Deborah A. (1982). Dickens and the Short Story. London: Batsford.
- VIRILIO, Paul. (1986). Speed and Politics: An Essay on Dromology. (Mark Politezzi,Trans.). New York: Columbia University Press.
- WILSON, James C. (1981). Bartleby: The Walls of Wall Street. Arizona Quarterly, 37.4, 335-346.
- WOLFREYS, Julian. (2004). Writing London, Volume 2: Materiality, Memory, Spectrality.New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Details
| Journal Section | Articles |
|---|---|
| Authors | |
| Publication Date | July 12, 2016 |
| Published in Issue | Year 2016Volume: 40 Issue: 1 |
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