Lies Told About the Body: Trauma and Telling in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Valorie Bunce A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department of English University of Manitoba Winnipeg June 24, 2008 Copyright © 2008 by Valorie Bunce Library and Bibliotheque et 1*1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-48955-0 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-48955-0 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Plntemet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non­ sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. 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Canada THE UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES ***** COPYRIGHT PERMISSION Lies Told About the Body: Trauma and Telling in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" BY Valorie Bunce A Thesis/Practicum submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba in partial fulfillment of the requirement of the degree Of MASTER OF ARTS Valorie Bunce © 2008 Permission has been granted to the University of Manitoba Libraries to lend a copy of this thesis/practicum, to Library and Archives Canada (LAC) to lend a copy of this thesis/practicum, and to LAC's agent (UMI/ProQuest) to microfilm, sell copies and to publish an abstract of this thesis/practicum. This reproduction or copy of this thesis has been made available by authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research, and may only be reproduced and copied as permitted by copyright laws or with express written authorization from the copyright owner. Abstract In "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," many critics believe Poe is propounding a culture of surfaces, a superficial approach to truth and knowledge that dismisses deeper meaning. The result is machine-like narratives that use interchangeable components, reorganizing basic story elements and manufacturing derivative products. Yet even as Poe's story seems to support this mechanized approach to the production of literature, it also resists it, complicating attempts to reduce literature to a formula. This resistance is deeply encoded in the text and defies explication through critical approaches. To access the subtextual narrative, I develop a hybrid, creative critical process. I use strategies and techniques common to autobiography, journal writing, fiction and poetry, to gain intuitive insights into the story. I use trauma theory to reconcile the two approaches, briefly discussing the work of Cathy Caruth and Freud. I conclude that Poe's work is antithetical to a formulaic approach to literature. 1 Acknowledgments I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Dana Medoro, for her support, encouragement and patience during this process. Her insights were invaluable, her sense of humour and her sense of humanity a gift. Her courage in looking into dark places and then looking again was a lesson in itself. It is not always easy, this life we live. I depended on her willingness to consider things never before considered; and then relied on her honesty to bring me home again. "All shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well." I thank the other committee members, Vanessa Warne and Sarah Elvins. I am grateful for Professor Warne's challenging and provocative feedback during the thesis defense. I appreciated Professor Elvins' thoughtful questions and her willingness to embrace the hybrid form. Their comments and insights made for a lively and stimulating discussion. I would also like to thank Murray Evans, Deborah Schnitzer and Keith Louise Fulton from the University of Winnipeg. Murray introduced me to Julian of Norwich and the romances of the middle ages. As for Debbie and Keith, in addition to a sound grounding in feminist scholarship, they fostered a creative critical approach to texts that gave me that first taste of freedom. I thank my children, Christine, Terri-Lynne and Jeff, the pride and light of my life. As much as I give to them, they give back to me. Their love and support sustains me through all things. I also thank: Jim, good friend, you are who you are. Mom and Dad, for all your flaws, there were gifts too. And Lindsay... Many years ago, as a four-year old, I went out with my Dad to feed the pigs. I remember the smell of the oat feed, the straw on the wooden floor, the sound of their hooves on the planks and their anxious snorting as they jostled one another and pushed forward to feed. I peeked through the slats to look at them, and one with a friendly pink face met my look and smiled back. He had mischievous twinkling eyes and seemed to laugh as he nodded, stepping high and away and back again, as if smitten with me and inviting me in to play. .. .As strange as it is, there is gratitude also for this. And finally, thank you, Mr. Poe. "Here Poe emerges — in no sense the bizarre isolated writer, the curious literary figure. On the contrary, in him American literature is anchored, in him alone, on solid ground. In all he says there is a sense of the him surrounded by his time, tearing at it, ever more with rancor, but always at battle taking hold. " William Carlos William In the American Grain 2 Table of Contents Reading Poe 4 Telling 7 Unanswered Questions 12 Title 12 Epigram 16 Preface 19 Meeting Dupin 27 Late Night Walkabout 37 Newspaper Version of the Murders 42 The Murdered Women 45 /primal scene 46 Murder or Suicide 48 Narrator and Dupin at the Scene of the Crime 51 Dupin's faulty logic 52 Ending 63 Poetic Insight: Lies Told About the Body 68 Critical Response 74 Trauma Theory 88 Re-considering the Story 93 Re-Telling Poe's Story 1 97 Re-Telling Poe's Story 2 101 Post-Mortem 104 Hearing 104 Sentence Fragments and Footnotes 104 Story as Textual Construct 105 Bibliography 108 3 Reading Poe The first reading of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" was an odd and unsatisfying ride for me. The solution1 to the murders was preposterous, yet it was and has been accepted by readers and critics alike for more than 160 years. That is forcefully persuasive. Who am I to say different? Yet I could not believe it. I could not buy into the whole "the orang-utan did it" solution. I felt that we were being sold a false bill of goods. Not only was the orang-utan being offered up as a scapegoat for humanity's brutality, but even more baffling to me, we have all accepted the obviously manufactured alibi that the animal did it. I am not sure what made or makes me different, but in my heart, I could not, would not, accept this blatant injustice. 1 Although "premise" might be a belter word to use in this sentence, I chose to use "solution". According to The New Oxford Dictionary of English, "solution" has a primary meaning of "solving a problem or dealing with a difficult situation," a secondary meaning of "a liquid mixture in which the minor component (the solute) is uniformly distributed within the major component (the solvent),' and an archaic meaning of "the action of separating or breaking down; dissolution." On the surface, the story is constructed around the puzzle of how the murders were accomplished, shifting the focus from the personal realm, from motives and morality to the mechanics of enactment. This shift in focus has the effect of reducing the murderous impulse to a problem of logistics. The formulaic approach to the murders of the two women poses a problem for me and, increasingly, for other critics. This creative engagement with the text is an attempt to 'resolve' the difficulty, and in some way answer it by echoing elements of the text. The secondary meaning of solution intersects with and alludes to the narrator's many references to re­ solution, to the "Bi-Part Soul," "the fancy of a double Dupin - the creative and the resolvent" (Edgar Allan Poe.