Otherness in the World of Gothic Fiction: the Symbolic Potential of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat"

Abstract

Frequently seen as rather aloof and eerie, the cat has always been an important literary symbol, especially in Gothic and horror fiction, where it represents a powerful image through which writers can explore the deepest fears and the darkest desires of the human psyche. The aim of this paper is to provide insight into the symbolic potential of one of the most famous literary cats and to explore the perspectives from which it can be analyzed. Since “The Black Cat” is one of Edgar Allan Poe’s most notable Gothic stories, in which he demonstrates his ability to use Gothic tradition as a means of exploring the human psyche, it is closely connected to the psychoanalytic theories proposed by Sigmund Freud, Julia Kristeva and Jacques Lacan. As it will be demonstrated, the image of the cat proves to be a very powerful symbol which represents the unconscious drives that human beings strive to suppress. The first part of the paper deals with the psychological aspects of Gothic fiction, focusing on what Freud named “the Uncanny”, as well as on Kristeva’s term “the abject” and Lacan’s notion of “Otherness”. The second part is concerned with the incorporation of Gothic tradition in Poe’s short stories, and the last part provides an analysis of Poe’s tale, in which the cat can be seen as an embodiment of the narrator’s destructive drives and his subconscious urge to destroy “the Other”. Keywords: the cat, psychology, Gothic