Manchester University Press
2 The lady vanishes
Abstract
On 25 January 1920 Sophie Freud-Halberstadt, aged twenty-six, died of influenzal pneumonia. She was 'snatched away' in Sigmund Freud's words 'from glowing health, from her busy life as capable mother and loving wife, in four or five days, as if she had never been'. Several commentators have speculated that Sophie Freud in some sense functions as muse for her father's theory of the death drive, though Freud himself acknowledged this influence only in the form of negation. Freud's metapsychological writings distinguish themselves through the addition of an 'economic' point of view to the 'topological' and 'dynamic' factors informing psychic processes. J. Lacan repeats Freud's focalisation, repeats the fading of the maternal body, in order to make the game 'mean'. Lacan emphasises that for a subject to imagine itself as having a stable identity is always an act of mis-recognition, a fiction, an illusion of autonomy.
Abstract
On 25 January 1920 Sophie Freud-Halberstadt, aged twenty-six, died of influenzal pneumonia. She was 'snatched away' in Sigmund Freud's words 'from glowing health, from her busy life as capable mother and loving wife, in four or five days, as if she had never been'. Several commentators have speculated that Sophie Freud in some sense functions as muse for her father's theory of the death drive, though Freud himself acknowledged this influence only in the form of negation. Freud's metapsychological writings distinguish themselves through the addition of an 'economic' point of view to the 'topological' and 'dynamic' factors informing psychic processes. J. Lacan repeats Freud's focalisation, repeats the fading of the maternal body, in order to make the game 'mean'. Lacan emphasises that for a subject to imagine itself as having a stable identity is always an act of mis-recognition, a fiction, an illusion of autonomy.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of illustrations viii
- Preface x
- Acknowledgements xvi
- Part I Death – the epitome of tropes 1
- 1 Preparation for an autopsy 3
- 2 The lady vanishes 15
- 3 Violence of representation – representation of violence 39
- Part II From animate body to inanimate text 57
- 4 The ‘most’ poetic topic 59
- 5 Deathbed scenes 76
- 6 Bodies on display 95
- 7 The lady is a portrait 110
- 8 Noli me videre 141
- Case study: Wife to Mr Rossetti – Elizabeth Siddall (1829–62) 168
- Part III Strategies of translation, mitigation and exchange 179
- 9 Sacrificing extremity 181
- 10 Femininity – missing in action 205
- 11 Close encounters of a fatal kind 225
- Part IV Stabilising the ambivalence of repetition 253
- 12 The speculated woman 255
- 13 Rigor has set in – the wasted bride 269
- 14 Necromancy, or closing the crack on the gravestone 291
- 15 Risky resemblances 324
- 16 Spectral stories 349
- 17 The dead beloved as muse 360
- Case study: Henry’s sister – Alice James (1848–92) 384
- Conclusion: aporias of resistance 393
- 18 From muse to creatrix – Snow White unbound 395
- Bibliography 436
- Sources of epigraphs 453
- Index 455
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of illustrations viii
- Preface x
- Acknowledgements xvi
- Part I Death – the epitome of tropes 1
- 1 Preparation for an autopsy 3
- 2 The lady vanishes 15
- 3 Violence of representation – representation of violence 39
- Part II From animate body to inanimate text 57
- 4 The ‘most’ poetic topic 59
- 5 Deathbed scenes 76
- 6 Bodies on display 95
- 7 The lady is a portrait 110
- 8 Noli me videre 141
- Case study: Wife to Mr Rossetti – Elizabeth Siddall (1829–62) 168
- Part III Strategies of translation, mitigation and exchange 179
- 9 Sacrificing extremity 181
- 10 Femininity – missing in action 205
- 11 Close encounters of a fatal kind 225
- Part IV Stabilising the ambivalence of repetition 253
- 12 The speculated woman 255
- 13 Rigor has set in – the wasted bride 269
- 14 Necromancy, or closing the crack on the gravestone 291
- 15 Risky resemblances 324
- 16 Spectral stories 349
- 17 The dead beloved as muse 360
- Case study: Henry’s sister – Alice James (1848–92) 384
- Conclusion: aporias of resistance 393
- 18 From muse to creatrix – Snow White unbound 395
- Bibliography 436
- Sources of epigraphs 453
- Index 455
