The rhetoric of contagion: Poe's sphinx and its riders—Barthes, Baudrillard, Foucault, Derrida, Miller, and de Man.

This essay represents a measured, reflective engagement with the thought processes involved in critically analysing a literary text, and with what a close and careful reading of it reveals about the nature of signs, problems of referentiality, and complexities of interpretation. Through a series of...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Neohelicon Vol. 52; no. 1; pp. 219 - 264
Autor principal: Pillai, Johann
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Springer Nature Jun2025
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
fields @attributes:
  recordID: 1
pdfLink:
plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=186373174&site=ehost-live
header:
  @attributes:
    shortDbName: hlh
    uiTerm: 186373174
    longDbName: Humanities International Complete
    uiTag: AN
  controlInfo:
    bkinfo:
    jinfo:
      jid:
        03244652
        OK8
      jtl: Neohelicon
      issn: 03244652
      maglogo: N
    pubinfo:
      dt: Jun2025
      vid: 52
      iid: 1
      pid: 237
      pub: Springer Nature
    artinfo:
      ui:
        186373174
        10.1007/s11059-024-00754-9
      ppf: 219
      ppct: 45
      formats:
        fmt:
          – @attributes:
              type: T
          – @attributes:
              type: P
              size: 947KB
      tig:
        atl: The rhetoric of contagion: Poe's sphinx and its riders—Barthes, Baudrillard, Foucault, Derrida, Miller, and de Man.
      aug:
        au: Pillai, Johann
        affil: https://ror.org/026b8w395 Pera School of Performing Arts & Faculty of Humanities, Girne American University, Kyrenia (Girne), Northern Cyprus, via Mersin 10, Turkey
      su:
        Sphinx, The (Short story)
        Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849
        Cholera
        Semiotics
        Ekphrasis
        Deixis (Linguistics)
      sug:
        subj:
          Sphinx, The (Short story)
          Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849
          Cholera
          Semiotics
          Ekphrasis
          Deixis (Linguistics)
      keyword:
        Communication and Culture Literary Studies
        Deconstruction
        Deixis
        Episteme
        Language
        Literariness
        Mise en abyme
        Omen
        Parasite-host
        Riddle
        Simulacrum
        Trace
        White mythology
      ab: This essay represents a measured, reflective engagement with the thought processes involved in critically analysing a literary text, and with what a close and careful reading of it reveals about the nature of signs, problems of referentiality, and complexities of interpretation. Through a series of original re-readings of "The Sphinx," a tale by Poe set during a cholera epidemic, it examines the interpretative problems posed by the text"s language—in the relations between epigraphs; the semiotics of riddles and omens; the historiographical conceit of a shifting episteme; and the shaping of realities by the logic of simulacra, rhetorical devices, recursivity, and a "metaphysics of presence" which continue to inform contemporary classifications and understandings of illness, and the sense of subversiveness associated with "deconstruction." The essay's reflections on method and meaning explore the nature of "literariness" and the relation between reader and text, focusing on how theory, embedded within the reading process, emerges from textual specificities, and forms the fundamental ground of criticism and critical thinking.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
    refInfo:
    copyright:
      @attributes:
        flag: Y
      custom: Neohelicon is a copyright of Springer, 2025. All Rights Reserved.
      item: Neohelicon
      holder: Springer Nature
      dt:
        @attributes:
          year: 2025
    holdings:
      @attributes:
        islocal: N