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An Examination Into Absence and Desire for Self and Subjectivity in Anne Carson' S Men in the Off Hours and Gail Scott' S Main Brides

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An Examination Into Absence and Desire for Self and Subjectivity in Anne Carson' S Men in the Off Hours and Gail Scott' S Main Brides BORDERS OF BECOMING An Examination into Absence and Desire for Self and Subjectivity in Anne Carson' s Men in the Off Hours and Gail Scott' s Main Brides Erin Wunker Department of English McGill University, Montreal, February 2004. A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Masters of English. Copyright © Erin Wunker 2004. Library and Bibliothèque et 1+1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l'édition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Canada Canada Your file Votre référence ISBN: 0-612-98485-0 Our file Notre référence ISBN: 0-612-98485-0 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant à la Bibliothèque 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 télécommunication ou par l'Internet, prêter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans loan, distribute and sell th es es le monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non­ sur support microforme, papier, électronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriété du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protège cette thèse. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. ln compliance with the Canadian Conformément à la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privée, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont été enlevés de cette thèse. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. ••• Canada 11 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This paper could not have been undertaken without the moral support of my parents, Owen and Leah Percy, and Jessica Langston. 1 extend many thanks to François Ricard, Jane Everett and the Groupe de recherche sur Gabrielle Roy for employment and encouragement-merci mille fois. 1 am grateful to Alexie Lalonde-Steedman and Sophie CoupaI for their translation skills. Thanks to Professor Miranda Hickman who se comments on early drafts of these ideas were extremely helpful. To my advisor, Nathalie Cooke, this could not have come to fruition without your guidance, patience, employment and faith. To Brett Parker-there are not words enough. Thank you for countless hours spent discussing, encouraging, coaxing and editing-no one could hope for a better partner and friend. iii ABSTRACT This paper examines the way in which two contemporary Canadian women writers, Anne Carson and Gail Scott, integrate subjective theory into two of their respective texts (Carson's Men In the Off Hours, and Scott's Main Brides). This study rejects the presentation of a single protagonist and instead focuses heavy emphasis upon the presentation of subjective experiments. In this paper the subjects in Men In the Off Hours and Main Brides are examined through the desires they exhibit for the absent other-that which the subject perceives he/she does not have-as central to his/her own conception of him/her self The paper first acknowledges that subjective theory, the quest for the self, has maintained a central position in scholarly studies. It then proceeds to disseminate and critique Lacanian subjective the ory thereby setting the stage for close readings of Carson's Men In the Off Hours through theorist Julia Kristeva's notion of abjection, and of Scott's Main Brides through Jacques Derrida's theory of the borderline. The paper closes by questioning the possibility of a fully realized subject. IV RÉSUMÉ Cette thèse propose une étude de la façon dont deux écrivaines canadiennes contemporaines, Anne Carson et Gail Scott, intègrent une théorie du sujet dans leurs œuvres respectives. Nous rejetons la présentation d'un seul protagoniste dans chacun des textes à l'étude (Men In the Off Hours de Carson et Main Brides de Scott) pour mettre clairement l'accent sur une exploration des expériences subjectives. Dans le cadre de cette thèse, les sujets mis en scène dans Men In the Off Hours et Main Brides seront envisagés à travers le désir qu'ils éprouvent pour l'autre absent-le manque perçu par le sujet - désir qui est au cœur de la conception que le sujet a de lui- ou d'elle-même. Dans un premier temps, nous rendrons compte de la position centrale occupée par les théories du sujet, la quête de soi, au sein de la recherche universitaire. Nous entreprendrons ensuite une dissémination et une critique de la théorie lacanienne du sujet, pavant ainsi la voie à une lecture minutieuse des œuvres. L'analyse de Men In the Off Hours se fera à l'aide de la notion d'abjection mise en avant par Julia Kristeva et celle de Main Brides, en recourant à la théorie des frontières de Jacques Derrida. La thèse se conclut par une remise en question de la possibilité d'un sujet pleinement accompli. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 3 1. 1 Do Not Stand Alone: A Brief Introduction to Lacanian Subjective Theory 8 2. Lean on Lacan: A Brief Dissemination and an Interesting Investigation 10 a. 1 am YOU, but are you me: The Mirror Stage Il b. Forever choking: The Endlessness of abject petit a 12 c. (m)Other may 1?: The Problem of Pemale Desire and Subjectivity 16 CHAPTERI: ANNE CARSON' S MEN IN THE OFF HOURS READ THROUGH JULIA KRISTEV A 18 1. "This paradox of absent presence": The Role of Absence in Subjective Desire 18 2. "Something ta be afraid of": Introducing Julia Kristeva 19 a. Horror of the Void 20 b. Approaching "Approaching Abjection" 21 c. "Ordinary Time: Virginia Woolf and Thucydides on War" 24 d. The Epitaphs 28 e. "Sumptuous Destitution" 32 f. "No Epitaph" 44 2 CHAPTERII: GAIL SCOTT' S MAIN BRIDES, JACQUES DERRIDA AND THE BORDERLINE 54 "Writing Is About Constructing A Subject": Scott and Derrida Create Anew 54 2. Is This a "Fiction of Linguistic Practice": Writing From the Borderline 55 a. The Contract and the "living Mother" 59 b. Inside-Out: The Borderline in Action 61 c. The Brides, or Portraits of- 63 d. Oscillation, (dis)Placement and the Intertextuality of "Real Life" 66 e. The Moving Language of the Living Mother 68 f. Night Music: The Proof at the Center of Truth 72 CONCLUSION: THE POLITICS OF DESIRE, READING BEYOND THE ENDINGS 77 BIBLIOGRAPHY 81 3 INTRODUCTION If subjectivity is based on desire for the absent object as the theories of Jacques Lacan, Julia Kristeva and Jacques Derrida suggest, then 'self' can be defined and is guaranteed by an unending desire for the absent other. 'Self' is a problematic term. What does it mean? With whose 'who' are we concemed? Derrida has claimed "this question of the subject and the living 'who' is at the heart of the most pressing concems of modem societies" ("EW" 115). Indeed 'self,' and the search for subjectivity, form a troubling imago, one that has been scrutinized, theorized and de-constructed to the degree that it could be argued to be the central conundrum of post-modemity. How to begin talking about that which has so many definitions while simultaneously having none? Moreover, why are scholars (myself included), theorists and writers still grappling with the much-attended subject of subjects? The answer is, in short, that we still don't know who we are. Our desires for self and subjectivity remain insatiate. This paper is concemed not only with the way that three of the major French theorists of modemity and post-modemity theorize human subjectivity, but also with the way in which two contemporary Canadian writers integrate subjective theory into their "fictional" writing. 1 will interrogate why subjectivity still matters both in the Academy and, more importantly, in the space where scholarly theory meets fiction. The focus is ultimately on the way our desire for the absent other is still so very intrinsic to the way we define who we are. Subjectivity is a necessity. In one manner or another, a pers on needs to conceive of himlherself. Judith Butler tells us, "without a discreet subject with intemally 4 consistent desires the morallife remains indefinite; if the subject is ambiguous, difficult to locate and properly name, then to whom shaH we ascribe the life?" (SD 4). It is the subject' s desire for the absent other that guarantees definition and, therefore, we shaH begin our examination at the logical beginning: the subject and his/her desire. Butler goes on to point out that Hegel claims, "self-consciousness in general is Desire," in other words to be conscious of one's selfis to desire (7). But as Butler acknowledges, this requires a degree of reflexivity: the desired other must be one's own self. The post­ modem French thinkers who foHowed Hegel noted, in varying respects, that this degree of reflexivity is not a satisfactory mode in which to discuss desire of the self. The progression of the discussion on subj ecti vit y and desire is navigable: from Jacques Lacan to Julia Kristeva and from Julia Kristeva to Jacques Derrida this paper, in part, plots the way in which modem and post-modem French theorists approach the matter of the desirous subject.
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