The Dismembered Body in Poe’s “The Man That Was Used Up"
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Poe’s “The Man That Was Used Up” is not a conventional narrative which follows a linear, progressive plot line. Rather, it is based on a series of unrelated short scenes in which the unnamed detective-like narrator tries to penetrate the mystery surrounding the enigmatic protagonist, the so-called Brevet Brigadier General John A. B. C. Smith, and identify the “something remarkable” he senses in the General character. As we can infer from the subtitle, “A Tale of the Late Bugaboo and Kickapoo Campaign,” the critical interpretation of the tale has been largely dominated by the historical readings. However, Poe’s text is also richly psychological in its implication. In this study, I intend to explore the theme of fragmentation in Poe’s tale as an extreme instance of the Lacanian Imaginary body in bits and pieces. In Poe’s oeuvre, the images of fragmentation―disintegrated objects and disintegrating bodies―often constitute metaphors or metonyms for the dissolution of the subject. Poe’s text undermines and problematizes the traditional Cartesian view of the unified, rational human subjectivity through its graphic images of dismemberment. The dismembered body of General Smith in Poe’s “The Man That Was Used Up” can be read as symbolizing the rupture of the Imaginary coherence of the subject, the corps morcelé inherent in the deceptive mirror-image.
Abstract
Poe’s “The Man That Was Used Up” is not a conventional narrative which follows a linear, progressive plot line. Rather, it is based on a series of unrelated short scenes in which the unnamed detective-like narrator tries to penetrate the mystery surrounding the enigmatic protagonist, the so-called Brevet Brigadier General John A. B. C. Smith, and identify the “something remarkable” he senses in the General character. As we can infer from the subtitle, “A Tale of the Late Bugaboo and Kickapoo Campaign,” the critical interpretation of the tale has been largely dominated by the historical readings. However, Poe’s text is also richly psychological in its implication. In this study, I intend to explore the theme of fragmentation in Poe’s tale as an extreme instance of the Lacanian Imaginary body in bits and pieces. In Poe’s oeuvre, the images of fragmentation―disintegrated objects and disintegrating bodies―often constitute metaphors or metonyms for the dissolution of the subject. Poe’s text undermines and problematizes the traditional Cartesian view of the unified, rational human subjectivity through its graphic images of dismemberment. The dismembered body of General Smith in Poe’s “The Man That Was Used Up” can be read as symbolizing the rupture of the Imaginary coherence of the subject, the corps morcelé inherent in the deceptive mirror-image.
참고문헌 (19)
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