Gothic's Enigmatic Signifier

It seems that Davis would argue that, as a whole, the effective component of the Gothic novel, or the Gothic text as horror, is the fear of death itself...and which also is the end/death of what it means to conceptualize oneself with meaning (being human). We as readers and interpreters become caught in the same component of these texts which provokes a feeling of fear or horror; this the element that makes the Gothic so effective, entertaining and interesting. As Davis puts it so well,

“That 'unspeakable horror', indeed that traumatising, unnamable horror which is deposited by the other and forced into us by the Gothic text is, ultimately, the 'very attack of the death drive'; that impulsion towards the death of meaning itself...Finally, if we, as readers of the Gothic, are in fact caught in the same 'vortex of summons and repulsion' as Laura, then our constant attempts to decipher the Gothic text, 'to master, to translate, those enigmatic, traumatising messages', leave us all trapped in our own repetition compulsion, inexorably (but perhaps pleasurably) drawn to 'the place where meaning collapses'; a place 'very nearly dark'” (Davis p. 234)

Rather than analyze Carmilla from a literal Freudian interpretation, Davis chooses to incorporate the work of psychoanalyst Jean Laplanche to explore the novel as a Gothic allegory. Davis says that the element of fear or horror in the story comes from the effects that Carmilla has on Laura; specifically her inability to make sense of or find meaning in Carmilla's desires. “Carmilla represents a failure of 'translation'; a traumatising failure to decode the enigmatic received from and indeed implanted by the other, namely Carmilla...repression and its potentially traumatising effects are the result of a failure to decipher and metabolise the other's messages or 'the enigma of the other's desires'” (p.224).

My first interpretation of Laura's confusion and paradox in trying to decode Carmilla's very sexually charged seduction was possibly that Le Fanu was hinting at repressed homosexual desire. Although Freud would possibly do the same, especially with Laura's dreams, Davis uses Laplanche to make another credible analysis to ponder. When referring to the inability of someone to decipher the “enigma of the other's desires”, Davis says that for Laplanche they are always “'saturated with unconscious sexual signifiers' as he insists 'sexuality reaches the subject from the other' and 'it is in the very nature of sexuality to have a traumatic effect' (p. 224). Davis is saying that the “the enigma of the other's desires” involves the “'seductive intrusion of the other...the inauguration of human sexuality shifts the location of its source 'from a biological stimulus to an exciting internal foreign body that attacks the ego from within' And the source of this assault is 'the intrusive intimacies of the other.' At the heart of this intrusion lies a situation of primal seduction” (p.224).

Indeed, Carmilla pursues and stalks Laura in a very primal animalistic sense. This made me think again of one of Laura's dreams. “But I soon saw that it was a sooty-black animal that resembled a monstrous cat. It appeared to me about four or five feet long for it measured fully the length of the hearthrug as it passed over it; and it continued to-ing and fro-ing with the lithe, sinister restlessness of a beast in a cage” (Carmilla Ch. 4). Through Carmilla's desire and advances (intrusion), Davis would say that, she implants a signifier (or deposit) into Laura's subconscious. Laura in turn tries to comprehend that signifier and is unable to do so (resulting in psychological trauma). Laura clearly is effected by this for years afterward. I will stop here in exploring the various reasons as to why Davis and Laplanche give in order to explain exactly why Carmilla is able to implant this signifier and why Laura is incapable of making sense of the enigma. In regards to saving space in this post, I would like to explore the central concept of this as a whole and why it is so important and effective in the Gothic and horror genre in general.

The idea of the vampire has a component that can be found in numerous attempts in the horror genre. This is the concept of something foreign or alien penetrating the human body or mind that threatens life or sanity (in other words erase or bring meaningless to existence). While reading Davis' article, I automatically thought of William Peter Blatty's novel, The Exorcist and Ridley Scott's film, Alien. Indeed the concept of alien or foreign penetration is highly sexual in and of itself. Like in Alien, the alien has no way of reproducing solely through its own species. It is a parasite and will latch on to a human face ramming its phallic like appendage down the throat. It then implants an egg into the stomach until the embryo becomes mature. It then, when ready, burst through the stomach and skin killing the human carrier. This is obviously a very violent and harsh way to play on the human fear of a parasite sexually penetrating the body (in this case killing it) in order to create life. What I find more interesting though is the concept of the human fear of something penetrating the mind. It is this fear that seems more complex and threatens the very meaning of what it is to be human. This is a component that works so well in The Exorcist and Carmilla.

Like Davis says, “In turn this deposit becomes unconscious fantasy, or an 'internal other'...thus the deposited untranslated residues of the other's enigmatic messages become 'an internal foreign body' or as Laplanche puts it, 'an alien inside me, and even one put inside me by an alien'...This process by and of the alien other becomes the key element of Laura's experience in Le Fanu's tale” (Davis p. 226). This implantation of a signifier by an alien person (or creature) becomes embedded in the subconscious. By not being able to decipher the message (in this case a sexual one) it becomes an object that the conscious self is unable to assign meaning to. This attacks the ego and evokes the death drive, creating trauma. This implantation of a foreign message reflects another component of human fear: the threat of something attacking the ability to assign meaning to existence. If we as humans are unable to to provide meaning to our lives or an explanation for existence then we have no purpose in being alive. If there is no meaning attached to life, what would be the purpose of reproducing in order to create more life that will inevitably die? This reveals an element of human fear that is just as dangerous as being physically threatened: we are in danger of becoming dead inside (or losing our concept of humanness) because we can be equally attacked mentally. Although Laura is not in danger of losing her motivation for existing, she still suffers mental trauma from Carmilla implanting such an undecipherable signifier into her subconscious.

As Davis says, “By the end of Le Fanu's tale, we know that this element that can not be metabolized, assigned meaning and assimilated remains actively at work in Laura's psyche, attacking the ego from within', long after the events she narrates. Like the alien (source-object) inside the object and like the Gothic itself, the internal alien object is 'exciting rather than informing' And as Laplanche points out, what is not translatable becomes 'the measure of the quantity of trauma' (Davis 227).

Although Davis' (or Laplanche's) interpretation can not be considered as an absolute truth in being correct, it does present very intriguing ideas and explanations. Even more so than its analysis of Carmilla, the article raises some very interesting questions about human fear. More importantly, Davis makes a credible statement about what exactly the Gothic does to its audience and why it is so attractive. This threat of penetration from not just a physical alien or object but a psychological one reveals a major component of human fear. It is a key component not just to the Gothic, but can be seen in the horror genre in numerous mediums and continues to scare us to this day.