Derrida’s Haunted Subjects

«The Return of the Repressed»: Uncovering Family Secrets in Zola’s Fiction

“…This choice of critical theories originates not simply from the argument made, but also from the fact that I regard 'literature [as] encompass [ing] all human behaviour and symbolic actions', as Peter Brooks shows whilst relating psychoanalysis to the study of literature. 16 Brooks believes that literature deserves to be placed in the realm of psychoanalytic criticism in order to appreciate the power of the unconscious in relation to literary texts. He also likens the reader and the text to the analyst and the analysand.…”

“…In so doing, he opens the door to the spectre of a dead relative 'that exists in his ego' who 'returns to deliver a message' in order to disclose the trauma suffered by an earlier generation. 16 1.1 L'aire Saint-Mittre, Le Passage du Pont-Neuf, and the 'Return of the Repressed' For Castricano the crypt functions as a way of producing concealment and is, according to her, what Heidegger calls 'aletheia'. 17 Heiddegger defines aletheia as 'disclosure' or 'unconcealedness'.…”

“…Serge and Jacques experience a 'rêve obsédant' with regard to female sexuality through dreams and hallucinations. 16 The obsessive dreams or hallucinations which they experience reflect their unresolved infantile sexual development. 17 In this section, I look at Serge's oral stage: I relate objects that compare to the maternal in Serge's psyche, as they function as free associations to an unfulfilled sexual development.…”

“…(La Faute de l'Abbé Mouret, p. 1253) Serge's return to childhood memories is activated by Albine's sudden presence in the room and by her raw (from the vegetation since she lives in the garden) and feminine smell. Roger 16 Freud formulates this phrase when he refers to recurrent pathological dreams in The Interpretation of Dreams, p. 77. 17 Freud cites Radestock's work on dreams and creativity when the latter refers to the 'splitting of the personality in dreams' (The Interpretation of Dreams, p. 77); see Paul Radestock, Schlaf und Traum (Leipzig: Breitkopf and Hartel, 1879).…”

“…15 Mougeot criticized the nation for being culpable of neglect and of physical and moral corruption. 16 Bram Dijkstra highlights the issue of prostitution in nineteenth-century France further by studying images of women in the iconography and literature of the time which presented female sexuality as a symbol of a decadent and perverted sexuality. 17 Dijkstra also points to doctors who were concerned over the falling rates of marriage: young men were less eager to marry, as they could satisfy their sexual desires through prostitutes who would 'enable [them] to acquire pernicious habits […] turning them to debauchery at an early age.'…”