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how signs, in substitution of what is desired, can actualise one’s dream. Importantly, the question of the actualisation of one’s dream in the logic of signs, as seen here, seems just to give way to a deep Baudrillardian inspection. Not only is the issue of sign-substitution clearly involved, but, at the point, the consideration of the
prevalence of some semiotic materials is also allowed for.4 In this regard, a
Baudrillardian consideration that aims at the problem of hyper-reality seems able to offer a promising lens of viewing the questions of signs in Dickinson’s texts.
IV. Chapter Organization
The thesis explores with a postmodernist perspective the subject of dreams in three main aspects: the notion of dreams defined as ideals and deception, social relationships within human society, and the utopian/dystopian dreamscape. The following length of anatomy will be divided into four chapters. A reading of the notion of dreams construed as ideals and deception opens the next chapter, in which three dream poems of Emily Dickinson will be intensely examined: “We dream – it is good we are dreaming –,” “Dreams are the subtle Dower,” and “Doom is the House
4 Here, apart from the symbolic, I tend to take “the semiotic” as the main term throughout my discussion of Baudrillard’s ideas. My tendency for identifying “the semiotic” derives not only from the fact that sign is actually the focus Baudrillard mostly draws in his Simulacra and Simulation, but also from my consonance with Gary Genosko, who notes in his review of Baudrillard’s writing that
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without Door.” With these dream poems examined, I explore an important concern about the pursuit of ideals in Dickinson’s dreams imagery. Dream in the sense is nothing but just an equivalent of fantasy which only practises and actualises desire.
As dreams are associated with the idea of “ideals,” an awareness of pursuing ideals is also read. In this aspect, dream and fantasy of desiring for the ideal are examined as models of simulacra which involve the question of presence and absence.
Furthermore, since the question of presence and absence is explored, certainly the deceptiveness of dreams and fantasies revealed as “a vain hope,” “an illusion,” and “a delusion” can be best evidenced in the perspective on simulation and simulacra. Most importantly, a particular consideration of the conflicting relationship between e.g., the real and the non-real, the deceiving and the deceived, etc., is also read. Since the obvious menace of simulation and simulacra reveals the possible collapse of the truth, the conflicts between binary oppositions are definitely concerned in the arena of simulacra.
Succeeding the examination of the dream-ideal imagery, in the consideration of simulacra in which the dichotomy of reason and madness is explored, a deeper concern about human society precedes the coming Chapter Three. In this chapter, another three poems are mainly discussed: “I started Early – Took my Dog –,” “Much Madness is divinest Sense –,” and “Civilization – spurns – the Leopard.” With these
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poems concerning social relationship within human society, the poet’s concerns over the pursuit of ideals are located in the social aspect in which a critique of human society is developed in the poems. In this respect, the problems concerning the relationship of the self with human society will be mainly discovered, especially for the construction of human society is driven by not only the desire of pursuing the ideal but the sign (simulacra) that may fulfil the desire. A most essential concern about the construction of human society lies in the sign-constructed social order in human society, in that social order always dominates not only social relations but also the entirety of society. Yet, intriguingly, in the era of simulation, social order seems to be often called into question. The authority of social order seems to be threatened by the ambiguity of simulacra. Social orders appear to be under re-examination, since simulacra obscure the presence and absence of the signified. Simulacra present the pure play of signs. Perhaps, examined under this pure play of signs, social orders might ultimately be perceived as the sheer accumulation of simulacra, another model of precedence of the real without reality.
Following the observation of social order and signs, the position of the self of an individual in this simulacra-constructed society seems to be worthy of
examination. A sophisticated anatomy of social relationship of the self within human society is therefore intriguingly performed in several aspects: the problem of an
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encounter with the Other, the conflicts between the self and the Other, and, most crucially, the universal existential problem of an individual. The encounter with the Other is not merely an inevitable phenomenon for an individual in society. In fact, it always establishes the tensions among individuals who conflict with each other for different desires of their own.
Since, in society, the inevitable encounter with the Other determines the incessant conflicts of desire among individuals, the problem of the conflicts between the self and the Other requires equal consideration. The problem of the conflicts entails the intensive contrast between the encoding and decoding of individuals. The intensity between encoding and decoding sacrifices an individual for any supposed authority of signs of the ideal, and devours them for the good of society. The intactness of individuality is therefore called into question, in terms of the
construction of society where simulacra accumulate. In the respect, the existential problem of human beings in general follows. It becomes pivotal to consider the existential situations of individuals, in the face of the accumulation of simulacra which ultimately culminates in the utopian/dystopian dreamscape.
Yet, it is still called into question that the dreamscape is utopian. Since simulacra obscure the ambiguity between the real and the imaginary, the dreamscape might be constructed mistakenly as the dystopian one. Chapter Four, extending the
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discussion of the existential problem of human beings in general, proceeds to investigate the discourse of utopia/dystopia, in which the three poems of Emily Dickinson are explored: “‘Heaven’ has different Signs – to me –,” “There’s a certain Slant of light,” and “Within that little Hive.” With a sophisticated examination of Dickinson’s poems, a consideration of utopian/dystopian manifestation is focused.
Since the construction of the dreamscape is determined by the dream/fantasy of the ideals in the accumulation of simulacra which features the ambiguity between true and false, the dreamscape therefore entails a quality of vagueness. It also serves as a manifestation of the hyperreal in which the supremacy of the so-called
“paradise/heaven” is challenged by simulacra and simulation. Both ideas “paradise”
and “heaven,” posited in the utopian/dystopian dreamscape, might be construed as the pure names in the scope of dreams in which vain hopes or idle fantasies dominate.
Through the consideration of the utopian/dystopian dreamscape, then follows a question of meaning, which seems to manifest itself as another hint of vagueness and equivocality in Dickinson’s consideration of a “certain Slant of light.” In the utopian/dystopian aspect of simulation and simulacra, it is always questioned whether meaning is always absolute and determined with any signs of fixation within the mazy dreamscape. However, meaning seems always (dis)placed in a spectrum of
multiplicity and diversity, and a certain degree of fluidity comes to dominate. In this
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manner, here comes again a similar question of simulacra and simulation. The ultimate can be, in the utopian/dystopian dreamscape, the lack of distinction and confusion between the real and the imaginary, as Dickinson writes, “As made Reality a Dream / And Dreams, Reality –.”
The last chapter, Chapter Five, concludes the anatomy of Dickinson’s poems with an overall review of the findings of each chapter. I try to display the possible significances of a Baudrillardian reading of Dickinson. Potentials for further extension and exploration will be also elucidated with regard to comprehensive understanding of Emily Dickinson’s poems.
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Chapter Two
Dream with Simulacra