The Mousetrap of Language: The Mechanism of Anamorphosis in the Works of Edgar Allan Poe and Antun Gustav Matoš

• Authors: Andrea Milanko , Ana Tomljenović

Abstracts

EN

Rethinking conditions of revolutionary potential of literature, with special regard to ways literature incessantly has re-examined otherness in language, in this paper we have chosen to focus on specific mechanism of illusion-making, i.e. anamorphosis taken both as a technique and a theme. Since one of the most famous elaboration of anamorphosis in literature is to be found in Poe’s stories, it is worthwhile to examine how Poe’s game of hide and seek with depth and surface is reflected in his devoted Croatian reader and interpreter A.G. Matos. In a comparative analysis of Poe’s and Matos’s stories, we will elaborate on how a procedure of naming and a procedure of signifying are revealed to be mere effects of anamorphosis in Matos’s short story “Miš” (The Mouse). Since it is an embodiment of a figure designating schism and split, the rodent from the title of Matos’s short story reveals the other side of thinking, which is no other than the other within.

Keywords

EN

anamorphosis; Matoš; Poe; rhetorical figures; paregmenon

• Publisher: Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
• Journal: Poznańskie Studia Slawistyczne
• Year: 2023
• Issue: 25
• Pages: 257-275

Dates

published

2023

Contributors

author

Andrea Milanko

• University of Zagreb

• https://orcid.org/0000000339437771

author

Ana Tomljenović

• University of Zagreb

• https://orcid.org/0000000328200816

References

• Baltrusaitis, J. (1977). Anamorphic Art. Trans. W.J. Strachan. Cambridge: Chadwyck–Healey.
• Bašić, S. (1970). A.G. Matoš prema E.A. Poeu. In: Hrvatska književnost prema evropskim književnostima. Eds. A. Flaker, K. Pranjić. Zagreb: Liber, pp. 393–412.
• Bašić, S. (1986). E.A. Po, junak našeg doba. In: Poe, Grad u moru. Zagreb: NZMH, pp. 346–362.
• Benčić, Ž. (1991). Barok i avangarda: studije. Zagreb: Hrvatski zavod za znanost o književnosti Filozofskog fakulteta u Zagreb.
• Brlek, T. (2020). Čitanje Kafke ili perpetuum mobile. In: Kafka. U prilog minornoj književnosti. Trans. U.Vlaisavljević. Zagreb: Matica hrvatska, pp. 151–164.
• Cantalupo, B. (2005). Poe’s Visual Tricks. “Poe Studies,” vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 53–63.
• Dolar, M. (2015). Anamorphosis. „S: Journal of the Circle for Lacanian Ideology Critique,” vol. 8, pp. 125–140.
• Flaker, A. (1988). Nomadi ljepote: intermedijalne studije. Zagreb: Grafički zavod Hrvatske
• Guattari, F., Deleuze, G. (1986). Kafka. Toward a Minor Literature. Trans. D. Polan. London: University of Minnesota Press.
• Hocke, G.R. (1991). Svijet kao labirint. Trans. Nadežda Čačinović-Puhovski. Zagreb: Biblioteka August Cesarec.
• Jukić, T. (2012). Matošev loboratorij: rad, goli život i tumačenje snova. In: Prostori snova. Oniričko kao poetološki i antropološki problem. Eds. Ž. Benčić, D. Fališevac. Zagreb: Disput, pp. 339–361.
• Lacan, J. (2006). Écrits. Trans. B. Fink. New York–London: W.W. Norton & Company.
• Matoš, A.G. (1953). Miš. In: Sabrana djela A. G. Matoša. Vol. 1. Ed. D. Tadijanović, M. Matković. Zagreb: JAZU.
• Matoš, G. Antun. (1973). Dojmovi. Ogledi. Sabrana djela A. G. Matoša, vol. 3. Ed. by D. Tadijanović. Zagreb: JAZU–Liber–Mladost.
• Oraić Tolić, D. (1980). Pejzaž u djelu A. G. Matoša. Zagreb: Nakladni zavod Matice hrvatske.
• Petlevski, S. (2015). Matoševa simptomatologija moderniteta: modernizam, bodelerizam, dekadencija. In: Matoš u Parizu. Ed. Y.Vrhovac. Zagreb: FF–press, pp. 67–82.
• Poe, E.A. (2001). The Works of Edgar Allan Poe in Five Volumes. Vol. 3. The Pennsylvania State University, Electronic Classics Series.
• Poe, E.A. (2005). Collected Works of Poe. Vol. 1. Webster’s Thesaurus Edition. San Diego: ICON Group International.
• Rabelais, F. (2012). Gargantua and Pantagruel. Trans. T.Urquhart, P. Motteux. Chicago: University of Chicago.
• Slabinac, G. (1988). Hrvatska književna avangarda. Zagreb: ITRO August Cesarec.
• Smolčić, I. (2019). Usporedna analiza proze Edgara Allana Poea i Antuna Gustava Matoša na primjeru novela Crni mačak i Miš. “Hum,” vol. XVI, no. 21, pp. 263–277.
• Todorov, T. (2018). Trijumf umjetnika: revolucija i umjetnici. Rusija od 1917 do 1941. Trans. U. Burger. Zagreb: TIM press.

Identifiers

DOI

10.14746/pss.2023.25.12

Biblioteka Nauki

30148686