The Voice of the Dead: Mesmeric Space in Poe’s “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar”
摘要
This chapter explores the mesmeric space of Poe’s “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar,” particularly focusing on the voice of the dead: “I am dead.” Although it is impossible for the dead to speak, this phrase depicts the linguistic scandal of this mesmeric story, illustrating an extended narrative after the hero’s death, an extraordinary situation added later only to extend Valdemar’s life. In this mesmeric space where the contradictory life and death are intermingled, the “rationale” and “facts” of mesmerism coexist. Poe’s mesmeric dialogue serves as a framework for a mesmeric revelation, transforming the “rationale” into “facts” when Valdemar’s “whole frame” instantly shrinks and turns liquid, depicting the transformation of the “rationale” of mesmerism into the “facts” at the very moment of awakening. In this mesmeric revelation, the voice without a speaker, “I am dead,” resonates like a recorded voice in the sound equipment of phonographs. When the voice preserved in Poe’s device of mesmerism attracts and mesmerizes us, “I am dead” becomes an “object voice” in a psychoanalytic context. Poe’s mesmeric space resembles “a resonant tomb” where Valdemar’s voice persists. Just as the voices of the dead preserved in this “resonant tomb” can cause us to mourn for the departed, our dream spaces sometimes metamorphose into such tombs, as explored in Freud’s dream interpretation. Poe portrays the boundary between life and death not as a pivoting point but as an extended space in which the voice of the dead is confined. The voice resonating in Poe’s mesmeric space leads readers to transcend the boundary separating life and death to create their own mesmeric dream space in which the dead can be resurrected and scenes of cherished memories of the deceased can be replayed.