Possibilities of Habit-Change in The Essex Serpent: A Semiotic Analysis of Cora Seaborne
This article offers a semiotic approach to Sarah Perry’s 2016 novel The Essex Serpent. In the light of Teresa de Lauretis’s study of interpretants in relation to female subjectivity, it becomes evident that Perry in her protagonist Cora Seaborne reformulates female experience as an active and immane...
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The English Language and Literature Research Association of Türkiye
2022-04-01
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| Series: | Ideas: Journal of English Literary Studies |
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| Online Access: | https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/2401998 |
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| author | Onur Eyüp Böle |
| author_facet | Onur Eyüp Böle |
| author_sort | Onur Eyüp Böle |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article offers a semiotic approach to Sarah Perry’s 2016 novel The Essex Serpent. In the light of Teresa de Lauretis’s study of interpretants in relation to female subjectivity, it becomes evident that Perry in her protagonist Cora Seaborne reformulates female experience as an active and immanent force in socio-cultural processes of semiotic production. This article analyses this force in terms of de Lauretis’s habit-change, which defines subjectivity as a nexus between the norms that produce it and the change on which the very possibility of semiotic production depends. The full development of Perry’s protagonist in these terms brings about an awareness about this in-betweenness, which produces a non-binary and non-hierarchical ethical turn beyond rigid categories that define the subject’s relationship with the world. This ethical turn, this article demonstrates, is specifically important in that it situates female subjectivity inside history instead of marginalising it in an exclusive or antithetical manner, and that it offers a liberating space for all its participants (including the Victorian male characters). |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-5a720af153d142b69a1f2173762845ce |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2757-9549 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2022-04-01 |
| publisher | The English Language and Literature Research Association of Türkiye |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Ideas: Journal of English Literary Studies |
| spelling | doaj-art-5a720af153d142b69a1f2173762845ce2025-01-05T20:31:14ZengThe English Language and Literature Research Association of TürkiyeIdeas: Journal of English Literary Studies2757-95492022-04-01217387Possibilities of Habit-Change in The Essex Serpent: A Semiotic Analysis of Cora SeaborneOnur Eyüp Böle0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9444-3846Istanbul UniversityThis article offers a semiotic approach to Sarah Perry’s 2016 novel The Essex Serpent. In the light of Teresa de Lauretis’s study of interpretants in relation to female subjectivity, it becomes evident that Perry in her protagonist Cora Seaborne reformulates female experience as an active and immanent force in socio-cultural processes of semiotic production. This article analyses this force in terms of de Lauretis’s habit-change, which defines subjectivity as a nexus between the norms that produce it and the change on which the very possibility of semiotic production depends. The full development of Perry’s protagonist in these terms brings about an awareness about this in-betweenness, which produces a non-binary and non-hierarchical ethical turn beyond rigid categories that define the subject’s relationship with the world. This ethical turn, this article demonstrates, is specifically important in that it situates female subjectivity inside history instead of marginalising it in an exclusive or antithetical manner, and that it offers a liberating space for all its participants (including the Victorian male characters). https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/2401998sarah perrythe essex serpentsemioticsteresa de lauretisneo-victorianismhistorical fictionfeminist literature |
| spellingShingle | Onur Eyüp Böle Possibilities of Habit-Change in The Essex Serpent: A Semiotic Analysis of Cora Seaborne Ideas: Journal of English Literary Studies sarah perry the essex serpent semiotics teresa de lauretis neo-victorianism historical fiction feminist literature |
| title | Possibilities of Habit-Change in The Essex Serpent: A Semiotic Analysis of Cora Seaborne |
| title_full | Possibilities of Habit-Change in The Essex Serpent: A Semiotic Analysis of Cora Seaborne |
| title_fullStr | Possibilities of Habit-Change in The Essex Serpent: A Semiotic Analysis of Cora Seaborne |
| title_full_unstemmed | Possibilities of Habit-Change in The Essex Serpent: A Semiotic Analysis of Cora Seaborne |
| title_short | Possibilities of Habit-Change in The Essex Serpent: A Semiotic Analysis of Cora Seaborne |
| title_sort | possibilities of habit change in the essex serpent a semiotic analysis of cora seaborne |
| topic | sarah perry the essex serpent semiotics teresa de lauretis neo-victorianism historical fiction feminist literature |
| url | https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/2401998 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT onureyupbole possibilitiesofhabitchangeintheessexserpentasemioticanalysisofcoraseaborne |