The Becomings of a Mime: Dis/empowerment in Borges' "Emma Zunz"
In the short story "Emma Zunz," Borges depicts a character seeking revenge and justice, but to enact her clear, straightforward intentions, the eponymous protagonist must engage in a mirror game, a game of mimicry in which Emma Zunz reproduces diverse sources, creates an overlap, and in th...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2023
|
| In: |
MLN
Year: 2023, Volume: 138, Issue: 5, Pages: 1481-1497 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Mimesis
/ Girard, René 1923-2015
/ Borges, Jorge Luis 1899-1986
/ Murder
/ Deleuze, Gilles 1925-1995
/ Lacoue-Labarthe, Philippe 1940-2007
|
| Further subjects: | B
Emma Zunz <Jorge Luis Borges>
|
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In the short story "Emma Zunz," Borges depicts a character seeking revenge and justice, but to enact her clear, straightforward intentions, the eponymous protagonist must engage in a mirror game, a game of mimicry in which Emma Zunz reproduces diverse sources, creates an overlap, and in this manner undergoes a process of dis/empowerment. Her actions become overdetermined and acquire a multifaceted meaning, but lose its single, identifiable, and original intention. The murder, which as a single action should have completed her revenge, becomes part of a continuous unfolding of versions and subversions of the same event and, in this manner, reveals a narrative structure challenging the idea of an autonomous and self-contained rational subject. To shed light on the dis/empowerment ensuing when a character is described in terms of a potential to affect and be affected, my approach builds up on mimetic studies as well as on Deleuze's and Lacoue-Labarthe's reflections. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1080-6598 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: MLN
|
