A negative of freedom: crime as a linguistic performative act. Readings by Edgar Allan Poe and Mário de Sá- Carneiro

Abstract

The present study stems from a quote from Mário de Sá-Carneiro where the latter evokes the concept of perversity in Edgar Allan Poe’s works, which is one of the main themes in “The Imp of Perverse” and “The Black Cat”. In these short stories the perspective of perversity refers to a variation of sensitive states with no given reason. The way crime and death constitute metaphors for writing which express performative acts of the language, both in Edgar Allan Poe and Mário de Sá-Carneiro, will be analysed. The relationships of similarity between artist and assassin, as well as between the murder weapons, the pen and the pen-knife, will be explored with the aim of establishing a connection between the act of violence and the act of writing. The physical reactions prone to be felt by the protagonist on the act of writing the occurrence will be analysed, and the question will be made on whether the exercise of describing the crime may lead to a double experience of the pleasure of committing the crime, just as Pierre Klossowski identified in the Marquis de Sade’s works.