Open AccessThe Uncanny and the Unspoken Element of Speech in Kazantzakis and Terzakis
Author(s) -
A. Alexopoulou
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
kafedra vizantijskoj i novogrečeskoj filologii
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2658-7157
DOI - 10.29003/m1729.2658-7157.2020_7/70-87
Subject(s) - element (criminal law) , uncanny , poetics , subjectivity , theme (computing) , literature , death drive , aesthetics , consciousness , impulse (physics) , subject (documents) , philosophy , history , art , psychoanalysis , sociology , psychology , epistemology , law , computer science , poetry , physics , quantum mechanics , library science , political science , operating system
This study investigates the theme of Uncanny in the Modern Greek roman of the 20th century and in particular in Terzakis’ Secret life and Kazantzakis’ Christ Recrucifi ed. The unspoken element of speech is a common component of the romans and a structural element of their poetics to the extent that it refl ects the divided consciousness of the characters. The encounter with the erotic Other becomes the occasion for the subjective division to emerge, to the point where the only escape is death drive. The cancellation of the love aff air brings the characters in confrontation with the diametrically opposed poles of their own subjectivity, the impulse of death on the one hand and life on the other. The depersonalisation of speech and the phenomena of xenopathy appear as a consequence of the extinction of the subject. Their doppelgängers emerge as a response to their desperate desire, up to the point where they eventually crush their living existence.