BEYOND PHILOLOGY AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS, LITERARY STUDIES AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING, 2018
This paper investigates the narrative voice employed by Thomas Harris in Red Dragon as a source o... more This paper investigates the narrative voice employed by Thomas Harris in Red Dragon as a source of knowledge about the fictional universe, more particularly about the main villain, Francis Dolarhyde. Confronting important epistemological notions (knowledge, justification and their sources) with literary theoretical concepts (narrative voice and points of view), I analyse alternating modes of representation. Harris’ narrator shifts between three modes: the quasi-perceptual one – sense-based, rich in descriptive elements; the quasi-introspective narration carried out from a close subjective angle, using free indirect speech or stream of consciousness; and the testimonial mode – telling (rather than showing) the story through exposition resting on the principle of cause and effect. Employing a vast array of inter-textual pragmatics, the narrative remains ambiguous. In consequence, any proposition about Dolarhyde can be empirically and rationally challenged and all propositional knowledge regarding the character is merely fragmentary.
This paper explores the impact of the conceptual boundary created by the notions of lawfulness an... more This paper explores the impact of the conceptual boundary created by the notions of lawfulness and lawlessness on the individual. Law in Western culture is a goal-oriented instrument of state. The legal limits established in legislative acts and judicial decisions delineate a territory for potential action. As a normative domain, law guides human conduct in the process of individual practical reasoning. In states where codes and statutes go against natural human inclinations, individuals view the conceptual boundary of law as a challenge, which leads to conflicts between the system and the individual. I analyze such a conflict in the personal narrative of Bigger Thomas, the main protagonist in Richard Wright’s Native Son. The growing tension caused by the discriminatory system of Jim Crow laws ends in the character crossing legal- and custom-determined boundaries.
While in the early-modern times public execution was a rather common and undisputable form of pun... more While in the early-modern times public execution was a rather common and undisputable form of punishment, it began to excite controversy in the advent of new liberal democracy. As a consequence of public debate on capital punishment, the late-modern era has witnessed a steady decline in imposing the death penalty. Yet, the rise of humanitarian sentiments was not sufficient to abolish the sanction everywhere in the demo-Christian world. More importantly, in the jurisdictions retaining the sanction the death sentences enjoy considerable public support. Take the contemporary U.S. as an example, there seems to be no apparent contradiction between upholding capital punishment and the values America has been built on. How, then, can one rationally condemn depriving an individual of life in the act of murder but support taking another life in the course of execution? Answering the question in The Death Penalty, Vol.1, Derrida notes that in Western culture murder and the death penalty are construed as each other’s opposites: though both include killing, there is no affinity between them. He exposes the Western rationalization of the ongoing use of capital punishment: murder is a crime committed by an inhumane individual for his/her private gain, whereas execution is a lawful humane act of punishment that must be imposed in the name of public good. This paper seeks to retrace Derrida’s argument juxtaposing his work with Garland’s Peculiar Institution: America’s Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition.
This article investigates the notion of villainy as defined by the social contract theory in juxt... more This article investigates the notion of villainy as defined by the social contract theory in juxtaposition with real life capital cases of Patrick Elmo Sonnier and Gary Mark Gilmore depicted in two literary works: Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States by Helen Prejean and The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer. When the Capital felon is characterized as a “public enemy,” “moral alien,” and “monster,” it becomes easy to argue for his/her ultimate incapacitation. Society thinks of him/her as wicked to the core, either by nature or by choice, and beyond rehabilitation. Both popular and legal perceptions of the condemned are shaped through the horrors of their crimes. In contrast, I argue that it is not the crime but rather the culprit’s individual circumstances that create a just frame of reference for discussing his/her complexity. While social contract logic explains the villain as a construct, such an application of this logic to personal narratives is impossible—both generally and abstractly. Analysing the cases of Patrick Elmo Sonnier and Gary Mark Gilmore through Prejean’s and Mailer’s narratives, respectively, demonstrates the flawed, defective quality of prevalent legal rhetoric. However, though it may be irrelevant to the culprit’s complex circumstances, the logic still has a significant impact on the judgement and punishment passed on him/her.
BEYOND PHILOLOGY AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS, LITERARY STUDIES AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING, 2018
This paper investigates the narrative voice employed by Thomas Harris in Red Dragon as a source o... more This paper investigates the narrative voice employed by Thomas Harris in Red Dragon as a source of knowledge about the fictional universe, more particularly about the main villain, Francis Dolarhyde. Confronting important epistemological notions (knowledge, justification and their sources) with literary theoretical concepts (narrative voice and points of view), I analyse alternating modes of representation. Harris’ narrator shifts between three modes: the quasi-perceptual one – sense-based, rich in descriptive elements; the quasi-introspective narration carried out from a close subjective angle, using free indirect speech or stream of consciousness; and the testimonial mode – telling (rather than showing) the story through exposition resting on the principle of cause and effect. Employing a vast array of inter-textual pragmatics, the narrative remains ambiguous. In consequence, any proposition about Dolarhyde can be empirically and rationally challenged and all propositional knowledge regarding the character is merely fragmentary.
This paper explores the impact of the conceptual boundary created by the notions of lawfulness an... more This paper explores the impact of the conceptual boundary created by the notions of lawfulness and lawlessness on the individual. Law in Western culture is a goal-oriented instrument of state. The legal limits established in legislative acts and judicial decisions delineate a territory for potential action. As a normative domain, law guides human conduct in the process of individual practical reasoning. In states where codes and statutes go against natural human inclinations, individuals view the conceptual boundary of law as a challenge, which leads to conflicts between the system and the individual. I analyze such a conflict in the personal narrative of Bigger Thomas, the main protagonist in Richard Wright’s Native Son. The growing tension caused by the discriminatory system of Jim Crow laws ends in the character crossing legal- and custom-determined boundaries.
While in the early-modern times public execution was a rather common and undisputable form of pun... more While in the early-modern times public execution was a rather common and undisputable form of punishment, it began to excite controversy in the advent of new liberal democracy. As a consequence of public debate on capital punishment, the late-modern era has witnessed a steady decline in imposing the death penalty. Yet, the rise of humanitarian sentiments was not sufficient to abolish the sanction everywhere in the demo-Christian world. More importantly, in the jurisdictions retaining the sanction the death sentences enjoy considerable public support. Take the contemporary U.S. as an example, there seems to be no apparent contradiction between upholding capital punishment and the values America has been built on. How, then, can one rationally condemn depriving an individual of life in the act of murder but support taking another life in the course of execution? Answering the question in The Death Penalty, Vol.1, Derrida notes that in Western culture murder and the death penalty are construed as each other’s opposites: though both include killing, there is no affinity between them. He exposes the Western rationalization of the ongoing use of capital punishment: murder is a crime committed by an inhumane individual for his/her private gain, whereas execution is a lawful humane act of punishment that must be imposed in the name of public good. This paper seeks to retrace Derrida’s argument juxtaposing his work with Garland’s Peculiar Institution: America’s Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition.
This article investigates the notion of villainy as defined by the social contract theory in juxt... more This article investigates the notion of villainy as defined by the social contract theory in juxtaposition with real life capital cases of Patrick Elmo Sonnier and Gary Mark Gilmore depicted in two literary works: Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States by Helen Prejean and The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer. When the Capital felon is characterized as a “public enemy,” “moral alien,” and “monster,” it becomes easy to argue for his/her ultimate incapacitation. Society thinks of him/her as wicked to the core, either by nature or by choice, and beyond rehabilitation. Both popular and legal perceptions of the condemned are shaped through the horrors of their crimes. In contrast, I argue that it is not the crime but rather the culprit’s individual circumstances that create a just frame of reference for discussing his/her complexity. While social contract logic explains the villain as a construct, such an application of this logic to personal narratives is impossible—both generally and abstractly. Analysing the cases of Patrick Elmo Sonnier and Gary Mark Gilmore through Prejean’s and Mailer’s narratives, respectively, demonstrates the flawed, defective quality of prevalent legal rhetoric. However, though it may be irrelevant to the culprit’s complex circumstances, the logic still has a significant impact on the judgement and punishment passed on him/her.
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