Faith in the Ghosts of Literature. Poetic Hauntology in Derrida, Blanchot and Morrison’s Beloved
Literature, this paper argues, is a privileged language that can give form to those specters of existence that resist the traditional ontological boundaries of being and non-being, alive and dead. This I describe as the “hauntology” of literature. Literature, unlike our everyday, referential langua...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2013-07-01
|
| Series: | Religions |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/4/3/336 |
| _version_ | 1818190516870709248 |
|---|---|
| author | Elisabeth M. Loevlie |
| author_facet | Elisabeth M. Loevlie |
| author_sort | Elisabeth M. Loevlie |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Literature, this paper argues, is a privileged language that can give form to those specters of existence that resist the traditional ontological boundaries of being and non-being, alive and dead. This I describe as the “hauntology” of literature. Literature, unlike our everyday, referential language, is not obliged to refer to a determinable reality, or to sustain meaning. It can therefore be viewed as a negation of the world of things and sensible phenomena. Yet it gives us access to vivid and sensory rich worlds. The status of this literary world, then, is strangely in-between; its ontology is not present and fixed, but rather quivering or ghostlike. The “I” that speaks in a literary text never coincides with the “I” of the writing subject, rather they haunt each other. This theoretical understanding is based on texts by Jacques Derrida and Maurice Blanchot. The paper also draws an analogy between this spectral dynamic of literature and an understanding of religious faith or belief. Belief relates to that which cannot be ontologically fixed or verified, be it God, angels, or spirits. Literature, because it releases and sustains this ontological quivering, can transmit the ineffable, the repressed and transcendent. With this starting point, I turn to Toni Morrison’s book Beloved (1987) and to Beloved’s strange, spectral monologue. By giving literary voice to the dead, Morrison releases literature’s hauntology to express the horror that history books cannot convey, and that our memory struggles to contain. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T23:59:58Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f4d8853dabe445cc929a070d7256402b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2077-1444 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T23:59:58Z |
| publishDate | 2013-07-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Religions |
| spelling | doaj.art-f4d8853dabe445cc929a070d7256402b2022-12-22T00:45:15ZengMDPI AGReligions2077-14442013-07-014333635010.3390/rel4030336rel4030336Faith in the Ghosts of Literature. Poetic Hauntology in Derrida, Blanchot and Morrison’s BelovedElisabeth M. Loevlie0Institute for Literature, Area Studies and European Literature, University of Oslo, PO Box 1003, Blindern, 0315 Oslo, NorwayLiterature, this paper argues, is a privileged language that can give form to those specters of existence that resist the traditional ontological boundaries of being and non-being, alive and dead. This I describe as the “hauntology” of literature. Literature, unlike our everyday, referential language, is not obliged to refer to a determinable reality, or to sustain meaning. It can therefore be viewed as a negation of the world of things and sensible phenomena. Yet it gives us access to vivid and sensory rich worlds. The status of this literary world, then, is strangely in-between; its ontology is not present and fixed, but rather quivering or ghostlike. The “I” that speaks in a literary text never coincides with the “I” of the writing subject, rather they haunt each other. This theoretical understanding is based on texts by Jacques Derrida and Maurice Blanchot. The paper also draws an analogy between this spectral dynamic of literature and an understanding of religious faith or belief. Belief relates to that which cannot be ontologically fixed or verified, be it God, angels, or spirits. Literature, because it releases and sustains this ontological quivering, can transmit the ineffable, the repressed and transcendent. With this starting point, I turn to Toni Morrison’s book Beloved (1987) and to Beloved’s strange, spectral monologue. By giving literary voice to the dead, Morrison releases literature’s hauntology to express the horror that history books cannot convey, and that our memory struggles to contain.http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/4/3/336hauntologyliteraturereferential suspensionMaurice BlanchotJacques DerridaMorrison’s Beloved |
| spellingShingle | Elisabeth M. Loevlie Faith in the Ghosts of Literature. Poetic Hauntology in Derrida, Blanchot and Morrison’s Beloved Religions hauntology literature referential suspension Maurice Blanchot Jacques Derrida Morrison’s Beloved |
| title | Faith in the Ghosts of Literature. Poetic Hauntology in Derrida, Blanchot and Morrison’s Beloved |
| title_full | Faith in the Ghosts of Literature. Poetic Hauntology in Derrida, Blanchot and Morrison’s Beloved |
| title_fullStr | Faith in the Ghosts of Literature. Poetic Hauntology in Derrida, Blanchot and Morrison’s Beloved |
| title_full_unstemmed | Faith in the Ghosts of Literature. Poetic Hauntology in Derrida, Blanchot and Morrison’s Beloved |
| title_short | Faith in the Ghosts of Literature. Poetic Hauntology in Derrida, Blanchot and Morrison’s Beloved |
| title_sort | faith in the ghosts of literature poetic hauntology in derrida blanchot and morrison s beloved |
| topic | hauntology literature referential suspension Maurice Blanchot Jacques Derrida Morrison’s Beloved |
| url | http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/4/3/336 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT elisabethmloevlie faithintheghostsofliteraturepoetichauntologyinderridablanchotandmorrisonsbeloved |