Ghosted subjectivities in Margo Lanagan's 'The Point of Roses'. Issue 1 (1st April 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Thomas, Karima
• Is Part Of: Short fiction in theory and practice. Volume 10:Issue 1(2020)
• Page Start: 57
• Page End: 72
• Publication Date: 2020-04-01
• Subjects: Short story -- Periodicals; 808.31
• DOI: 10.1386/fict_00014_1
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2043-0701

Abstract

This article examines the tropes of ghosting in Margo Lanagan's 'The Point of Roses' in relation to Judith Butler's theory of the performative construction of identity through reiteration and foreclosure. The story illustrates the ghosting effect of normative subjectivities and the spectral, disruptive return of the contingent, socially erased subjectivities. Ghosting is considered in the light of the dual nature of the spectral as 'a dispossessing erasure or disappearance', and also a 'powerful ability to rematerialize as a disturbing force' (Maria del Pilar Blanco and Ester Peeren). In this sense, the ghost is that which is ontologically invisible because of absence/erasure; but which is also visible because it is haunting those who try to erase it. The article examines the role of the uncanny in disrupting the ontological conditions of time, space, character, substance and language. Then, it focuses on the traces of invisibility as signs of erasure and foreclosure that are meant to institute and suture an identity, while relegating other layers of subjectivity to oblivion. Finally, the article studies the disruptive return of the excluded and its dual consequences on the haunted subject, on the one hand by establishing a liminal condition of unknowing and, on the other hand, by opening up to a condition of 'transformative recognition' (Avery Gordon).