Stevenson’s Aesthetics of Entanglement and Non-Disjunction in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Bratislav Milošević

Abstract


The paper engages with Stevenson’s novel The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde from the perspective of essential duality embedded in every one’s nature: it explicates the entangling nature of binaries and the aesthetics of non-disjunction of the binary self/Other as embodied in the figures of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde respectively. By the novel’s end, the two aspects, the Jekyllean and the Hydean, are perceived not only as “innately responsive and relational”[1](Schapiro 1995: 128) to each other but also as entangled and non-disjunctive within the synthesizing model of the Hegelian dialectic.

[1] In her book Literature and the Relational Self Barbara Ann Schapiro argues that individual human beings are fundamentally “responsive and relational” (Schapiro 1995: 128). Accommodating her insightful argument on the interpersonal level, I argue that it can likewise be applied on the intrapersonal level – the two opposing aspects of every one’s nature are not only responsive but also relational. Put differently, the Jekyllean aspect and the Hydean aspect are mutually ‘responsive and relational’ in a complex, entangling, and intertwining way.


Keywords


self; binaries; entanglement; non-disjunction; duality; bothness

Full Text:

PDF

References


Coale C. S. (2011): The Entanglements of Nathaniel Hawthorne. New York: Camden House

Connor, S. (2000): “Rewriting Wrong: On the Ethics of Literary Reversion”. Lucy, Niall (ed.). Postmodern Literary Theory: An Anthology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers

Docherty, T. (2000): “The Ethics of Alterity”. Lucy, Niall (ed.). Postmodern Literary Theory: An Anthology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers

Garrett K. P. (2003): Gothic Reflections: Narrative Force in Nineteenth-Century Fiction. New York: Cornell University Press

Indick, W. (2012): Ancient Symbology in Fantasy Literature: a Psychological Study. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland

Livingston J. D. (2002): Healing Violent Men: A Model for Christian Communities. Minneapolis: Fortress Press

Lohrey, A. (1997): The Meaning of Consciousness. Michigan: The University of Michigan Press

McCarthy, E. (2010): Ethics Embodied: Rethinking Selfhood Through Continental, Japanese, and Feminist Philosophies. New York: Lexington Books

Ninnes E. L. (1983): “Hegel on Pure Thought.” Maxwell, William (ed.). Thinking, the Expanding Frontier: Proceedings of the International, Interdisciplinary Conference on Thinking Held at the University of the South Pacific, January, 1982. Philadelphia: The Franklin Institute Press

Saposnik S. I. “The Anatomy of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. Vol. 11. No. 4. Nineteenth Century (Autumn 1971) pp. 715-731.

Snodgrass M. E. (2005): Encyclopedia of Gothic Literature. New York: Facts on File

Schapiro A. B. (1995): Literature and the Relational Self. New York: NYU Press

Stevenson R. L. (1994): The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. London: Penguin Books Ltd.

Vardoulakis, D. (2010): The Doppelgänger: Literature’s Philosophy. New York: Fordham University Press

Walker J. R, (2007): Labyrinths of Deceit: Culture, Modernity and Identity in the Nineteenth Century. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press

Washburn, M. (1994): Transpersonal Psychology in Psychoanalytic Perspective. Albany: State University of New York Press

Whitlark, J. (1991): Behind the Great Wall: A Post-Jungian Approach to Kafkaesque Literature. London: Associated University Presses, Inc.

Wong C. S. (1993): Reading Asian American Literature: From Necessity to Extravagance. Princeton: Princeton University Press




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/lsmll.2016.40.1.36
Date of publication: 2016-07-27 14:57:57
Date of submission: 2016-03-05 18:22:33


Statistics


Total abstract view - 1017
Downloads (from 2020-06-17) - PDF - 655

Indicators



Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2016 Bratislav Milošević

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.