Literary Criticism

For this assignment, I chose to read Michael Davis’ (of the University of Birmingham) Gothic’s Enigmatic Signifier: The Case of Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla. The thrust of Davis’ argument is as follows:

o Dreams are similar to the Gothic, in that dreams and the Gothic are both enigmatic, with meaningful subtext which needs to be explored to reach a true understanding

o A part of the enigmatic nature of both dreams and the Gothic involves the notion of that which cannot be decoded, deduced, understood, or fathomed … the “enigmatic signifier”

o In Carmilla, the relationship and attraction between Laura and Carmilla is defined by this factor of the “enigmatic signifier;” the mysterious, powerful, and ambiguous pull between Laura and Carmilla … a connection which baffles, thrills, seduces, and sometimes terrifies Laura, even years after the relationship in question has ended.

In Gothic’s Enigmatic Signifier, Davis chooses to examine Carmilla through the lens of William Veeder’s (distinguished Professor of English at the University of Chicago) noted Freudian analysis of the vampire novella, relying as well on Jean Laplanche (French author, theorist, and psychoanalyst) and his expert musings on Freud’s seduction theory. Citing John Fletcher’s documentation of Laplanche’s most recent work, Davis notes that

“Laplanche’s revision of the inauguration of human sexuality shifts the location of its source ‘from a biological stimulus to an exciting internal foreign body that attacks the ego from within.’ And the source of this assault is ‘the intrusive intimacies of the other.’ At the heart of this intrusion lies a situation of primal seduction. Laplanche writes:

I am, then, using the term primal seduction to describe a fundamental situation in which an adult proffers to a child verbal, non-verbal and even behavioural signifiers which are pregnant with unconscious sexual significations. We do not have to look far to find concrete examples of what I call enigmatic signifiers. (Davis, p.224)

This is a primary underpinning of Davis’ further exploration of the meaning and allegorical subtext of Carmilla. He posits that during the initial dream encounter between Laura and Carmilla, there was deposited this “exciting internal foreign body that attacks the ego from within … this assault (of) the intrusive intimacies of the other … a situation of primal seduction.” This “seed,” the energetic foundation of the future reunion and liason between Laura and Carmilla, is characterized as an undecipherable, ambiguous, emotionally- and energetically-charged message communicated to a child by a parent figure, which remains unsolvable and unknowable and powerfully mysterious yet unconsciously repressed in the heart of the young.

Davis clarifies his intentions by explaining, “rather than reading the tale as a narrative of (barely) repressed lesbian desire, I shall trace the traumatizing incursions of sexuality from the other (italics added) and, in Laplanchian terms, also examine Laura’s failure to translate the other’s enigmatic address into stable meaning – with all its consequences. Thus, I propose to read the text not literally (or at the level of Freud’s manifest content) but as an allegory of the psychic processes identified by Laplanche. In this sense my reading will be situated at a different level of unconscious meaning” (Davis, p.227)

This is precisely what Davis goes on to do. He interprets Laura’s behavior, and the strange power Carmilla has over her young object, as symbolic of the pervasiveness of the enigmatic other, the mystery which grows from within. The sexual nature of the relationship between Laura and Carmilla, and of the powerful sway Carmilla holds over Laura, is essential to Davis’ assertion that Carmilla as a novella exhibits simultaneously Gothic and Freudian undertones.

Davis observes, “For Laura the memories of the past, sexually arousing experiences remain enigmatic: vivid and yet vague, clear and yet obscure, but retain their power to re-invoke the disturbing effects of (wild and terrible) trauma. As Laplanche points out ‘it is in the very nature of sexuality to have a traumatic effect.’ And as Laura’s psychic disequilibrium testifies, the trauma of sexual seduction remains ‘encysted,’ an inner (unconscious) foreign body waiting to break out from within; ‘a sort of waste-product of certain processes of memorisation.’” (Davis, p.228)

I find Davis’ analysis of Carmilla to be compelling. Certainly, the profound psychological influence which Carmilla wields so dominatingly over the hapless Laura is made clear when, in Carmilla, Sheridan La Fanu writes (as Laura):

I now write, after an interval of more than ten years, with a trembling hand, with a confused and horrible recollection of certain occurrences and situations, in the ordeal through which I was unconsciously passing; though with a vivid and very sharp remembrance of the main current of my story. But, I suspect, in all lives there are certain emotional scenes, those in which our passions have been most wildly and terribly roused, that are of all others the most vaguely and dimly remembered. (La Fanu, p.261)

This passage captures the essence of the effect which Carmilla has had on Laura, the psychic stain, the residue which has been left to fester and thrive deep within Laura’s wounded psyche: sexual in nature, thrilling throughout the whole spectrum of emotions, lasting, and inexplicable. The Sigmund Freud-based interpretation of Davis, and by extension Veeder and Laplanche, is novel to me, but persuasive nonetheless. It is clear that Laura is essentially defined by her irrestible lure towards Carmilla, and the degree to which this unknowable force within her dominates her state of being makes clear that this is something deep and powerful within her. Davis’ assertion that Laura illustrates the power and the importance of the unknowable subconscious enigma characteristic of the Gothic is convincing.

Some questions to further engender conversation about Davis’ examination of Carmilla are:

o How does the imprinted stain upon the spirit and subconscious of Laura impact her relationships with others in her life, if at all?

o To what degree is Carmilla affected like-wise by her part in the relationship, in the enigma? Is the effect as powerful upon the “giver of the mark” as it is on those who have been “marked?”

o If this analysis of Carmilla in the context of Freudian psychology is accurate relative to the Gothic in general, what are some examples we can find in other Gothic works which demonstrate similar psychological underpinnings and concepts?