{"title":"The Misdirection of Unconscious Motives in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat”","authors":"Ansu Louis","doi":"10.1353/aim.2022.0016","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” (1843) offers an intriguing account of the role that unconscious conflicts play in what appears to be senseless human violence. The story presents an unnamed convict’s efforts to narrate a series of uncanny experiences which culminates in his killing of his wife. Although one might at first assume that a person who awaits the hangman has no reason to lie, this essay argues that the narrative as a whole is an elaborate attempt at misdirection intended to shift the blame for murder away from one unconscious agency onto another which resides in the same psyche. Using psychoanalysis, this essay further seeks to unveil the psychological motives behind such a seemingly futile exercise at a moment when the protagonist waits for his execution.","PeriodicalId":44377,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN IMAGO","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1000,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"AMERICAN IMAGO","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/aim.2022.0016","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract:Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” (1843) offers an intriguing account of the role that unconscious conflicts play in what appears to be senseless human violence. The story presents an unnamed convict’s efforts to narrate a series of uncanny experiences which culminates in his killing of his wife. Although one might at first assume that a person who awaits the hangman has no reason to lie, this essay argues that the narrative as a whole is an elaborate attempt at misdirection intended to shift the blame for murder away from one unconscious agency onto another which resides in the same psyche. Using psychoanalysis, this essay further seeks to unveil the psychological motives behind such a seemingly futile exercise at a moment when the protagonist waits for his execution.
摘要：埃德加·艾伦·坡（Edgar Allan Poe）的《黑猫》（The Black Cat）（1843）对无意识冲突在看似毫无意义的人类暴力中所扮演的角色进行了有趣的描述。这个故事讲述了一个未透露姓名的罪犯努力讲述一系列离奇的经历，最终导致他杀害了妻子。尽管一开始人们可能会认为，等待刽子手的人没有理由撒谎，但本文认为，整个叙事是一种精心设计的误导尝试，旨在将谋杀的责任从一个无意识的机构转移到另一个存在于同一心理中的机构。本文运用精神分析法，进一步揭示了在主人公等待处决的时刻，这种看似徒劳的行为背后的心理动机。
期刊介绍：
Founded in 1939 by Sigmund Freud and Hanns Sachs, AMERICAN IMAGO is the preeminent scholarly journal of psychoanalysis. Appearing quarterly, AMERICAN IMAGO publishes innovative articles on the history and theory of psychoanalysis as well as on the reciprocal relations between psychoanalysis and the broad range of disciplines that constitute the human sciences. Since 2001, the journal has been edited by Peter L. Rudnytsky, who has made each issue a "special issue" and introduced a topical book review section, with a guest editor for every Fall issue.
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