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Done to Death: Pastiching the Trope of the Beautiful Dead Woman

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Done to Death: Pastiching the Trope of the Beautiful Dead Woman Done to Death: Pastiching the Trope of the Beautiful Dead Woman A Master’s Thesis by: Elsa Kristine Blomberg & Regitze Raben Andersen Aalborg University June 2020 Supervisor: Jens Kirk 0 ABSTRACT Tropen om den smukke, døde kvinde, er fokusset i dette speciale, med specifikt henblik på Lisa Kleins roman fra 2006 Ophelia. Denne roman er en pastichering af William Shakespeares stykke Hamlet fra 1603. Gengivelsen af det kendte stykke har Ophelia i fokus, med den ændring at Ophelia overlever plottet, og Klein derigennem giver den kendte karakter mulighed for at leve videre. Pointen med specialet er at give en kritisk analyse af romanen. Ophelia anvender og omskriver tropen om den smukke, døde kvinde for at imødekomme et samtidigt publikum. Dette er for at give en mere moderne kvindelig hovedkarakter, mens Klein stadig trækker fra en kendt karakter. Måden Klein forsøger at skabe en mere moderne version af Ophelia rejser dog spørgsmålet om, hvorvidt dette er det rette valg for netop denne historie og karakterens indflydelse på tropen. Tropen centrerer sig omkring indflydelsen af den smukke, døde kvinde, både i litteraturen og i virkeligheden. Vores fremgangsmåde har været nærlæsningen af Kleins roman, hvorefter vi har anvendt udvalgt teori, der fremhæver vores problemformulering. Ved hjælp af teoretikere som Elisabeth Bronfen og Lucinda Becker, har vi kunne konkluderer at tropen er tilstede i Kleins tekst. Vi har derudover gjort brug af Hoestereys teori om den litterære pastiche, for at kunne arbejde med romanen som en genfortælling af Shakespeares værk. Dette har gjort det muligt for os, at vi har kunne sætte de to værker i kontrast til hinanden, og derigennem komme frem til at Kleins roman er et atypisk, moderne pastiche. Vi kan se det er moderne, idet at Klein gør bredt brug af stilistiske værktøjer og udnytter endda en nyere genre end den Shakespeares værk originalt tilhørte. Dog er værket atypisk, da et moderne pastiche ofte sletter forfatter personligheden i sin stræben på at efterligne det pasticherede værks forfatter, ifølge Hoesterey. Dette er ikke tilfældet med Ophelia, da det gør brug af et markant anderledes sprogbrug, samt tilmed gør brug af allusioner til at kommentere på Shakespeares værk, som eliminerer den subtile forskel et moderne pastiche ofte stræber efter. Da tropen koncentrerer sig om køn, specifikt det kvindelige, har vi gjort brug af både Kath Woodwards teori om essentialisme og Laura Mulveys essay vedrørende the male gaze. Ved at bruge Woodward i dette speciale har vi identificeret og analyseret de sociale roller mænd og kvinder bliver placeret i. Dermed har vi konstateret at Kleins Ophelia besidder en del stereotypiske mandlige karakteristika, som ofte er et værktøj der er brugt på heltinden i ungdomsromanen. For at give den kvindelige karakter drivkraft tyes der ofte til de maskuline 1 træk. Mulveys teori bruger vi til at understrege forskellen på en autodiegetisk fortæller i en roman i forhold til en karakter på en scene eller skærm og hvilke reaktioner de hver især fremprovokerer i deres læser eller publikum. I denne undersøgelse er kommet frem til, at Kleins brug af en autodiegetisk fortæller i Ophelia er et forsøg på understrege, at Shakespeares Ophelia’s plads på scenen udsatte hende for det Mulvey kalder ‘male gaze’. Samtidig eliminerer Klein også dette element i hendes egen Ophelia, idet hun gør hende til en autodiegetisk fortæller. Med en historie som Hamlet, der har utallige genfortællinger, omskrivninger og nyfortolkninger under bæltet, er det ikke overraskende at Klein har valgt netop denne fortælling. Derimod er Kleins dagsorden vedrørende en opgørelse med tropen om den smukke, døde kvinde ikke passende med netop Ophelia, som er kendt for sin rolle som pragt eksempel for tropen. Klein kunne have skabt en progressiv, kvindelig karakter i Ophelia, som vækker inspiration i et yngre publikum, og stadig efterleve Shakespeares Ophelias øde. At Klein har gjort brug af Shakespeares Hamlet, et af de mest indflydelsesrige og anerkendte værker i engelsk litteratur, udtrykker et klart ønske om at deltage i en samtale med en større kanon af litterære værker. Dog konkluderer vi, at denne ambition kommer til kort, da Ophelia henvender sig til et yngre publikum, hvor i det ikke kræves af dem, at være bekendte med hverken Hamlet eller Bronfen’s trope. Uden et kendskab til disse vil Kleins ændringer og ligheder med Hamlet være svære at identificere, hvilket tilslører hendes budskab. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................................. 5 THEORY .............................................................................................................................................................................. 7 The deceased female in Early Modern literature .......................................................................................... 8 The function of the dead woman in Early Modern literature ..................................................................... 8 Over her dead body .................................................................................................................................................... 9 The literary confrontation with death ..............................................................................................................10 What is the ‘uncanny’? .........................................................................................................................................10 The Double ................................................................................................................................................................11 Death becomes her; the use of dead women in artworks ...........................................................................11 Woman as Other: Narcissism and survival ....................................................................................................14 The male gaze ..........................................................................................................................................................15 Woman unable to create meaning herself .......................................................................................................15 The pleasure derived from looking ....................................................................................................................16 What woman as image provokes ........................................................................................................................17 What if?: the muse, the waste of potential and lost love ............................................................................18 Becker vs. Bronfen ....................................................................................................................................................19 Suicide as the woman’s agency ..........................................................................................................................20 Essentialism .................................................................................................................................................................21 The essentialist viewpoint ....................................................................................................................................22 The pastiche .................................................................................................................................................................24 The literary pastiche ..............................................................................................................................................24 The pastiche: A literary medley .........................................................................................................................24 The contemporary pastiche..................................................................................................................................26 The ur-pastiche ........................................................................................................................................................26 Modern/Postmodern/Homage deconstructed ................................................................................................27 Method ...........................................................................................................................................................................28 ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................................................................................29 From play to novel ....................................................................................................................................................29 From side-character to lead-character ...........................................................................................................29 From Middle Ages to Renaissance ....................................................................................................................30 From revenge tragedy to young adult novel ..................................................................................................31 Ophelia’s style: Moderating a classic to fit a contemporary, young audience ...................................31 The Shakespearean self-awareness in Ophelia: How Klein reconstructs
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