Beschreibung:
AbstractT. S. Eliot’s rarely discussed prose-poem “Hysteria” poses a riddle insofar as its title’s reference remains ambiguous: Both the male and female protagonist may be the locus of hysteria’s disturbing presence, as well as the text itself. This article tries to unravel the hysterical knot by taking recourse to psychoanalytic theory and elucidating the dichotomies manifest in “Hysteria,” in form as well as in content. The prose-poem is characterized by a divide between mind and body, male and female, symbolic and semiotic. Instead of complying with this disjunction and attributing the signs of hysteria to either side of the dichotomy, I suggest situating the origin of hysteria beyond it. Since hysteria’s characteristic is transgression and role-play, it may not be confined to one pole of a binary, to the man or the woman, body or mind, but always already transcends these binary structures. Indeed, as a social malady par excellence, I believe hysteria arises out of the void at the base of the male and female protagonist’s relationship and is thus a jointly produced and somatically encoded sign of distress.