On Impotence, Atrophy of the Will and Lack of Agency (Flaubert, Melville) Cover Image
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O impotencji, zaniku woli oraz braku sprawczości (Flaubert, Melville)
On Impotence, Atrophy of the Will and Lack of Agency (Flaubert, Melville)

Author(s): Łukasz Wróbel
Subject(s): Studies of Literature, Polish Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Flaubert; Melville; potentiality; potence; will; agency; impotentiality; impotence
Summary/Abstract: The aim of this article is to read Gustave Flaubert’s "Bouvard and Pécuchet" and Hermann Melville’s "Bartleby, the Scrivener. A Story of Wall-Street" in the light of the demiurgic impotence, creative unproductivity, atrophy of the will and loss of agency – problematised and fictionalized in them. The works’ protagonists are characters experiencing the loss of a transcendent and/or quasi-transcendental signifié, figures of a weak subject affected by multidimensional disintegration, functioning amidst the ruins of a once stable world.

  • Page Range: 93-116
  • Page Count: 24
  • Publication Year: 2024
  • Language: Polish