Rôle de la vision et du contexte visuel dans la construction du sens – The Oval Portrait (2)
Résumé
This paper is the sequel of a previous article published in ESA; it deals with the construction of meaning in Poe’s Oval Portrait. The idea is to show that under the pretence of establishing a dialogue between text and image, the author actually splits the text thus hinting at words mirroring themselves (cf. the narrative’s embedded structure). The odd divide leads to a reflection on how signs trigger what they signify, the visible leading to the invisible. The text’s efficacy lies in its ability to make us forget its presence and focus on the internal images it generates. This paradox is what makes it all the more powerful. Subsequently, such a transparency may help understand the ephemeral presence of a valet at the beginning of the story. Moreover, it may account for the fact that the narrator’s wound, also mentioned initially, seems to play no part in the plot. Those two elements act as narrative representations of what the linguistic sign is meant to do: guide the eye – the valet – through the text – the wound – to visualize what lies beyond the verbal screen.