Mind as Ruin: Balzac’s “Sarrasine” and
the Archaeology of Self
Scott Sprenger
Abstract: While earlier critical studies of Balzac link his work to archaeology in a literal way, this chapter contends that the writer configures narrative consciousness as a site on which a kind of
“archéologie morale” is to be practised; that is, as the site of a construction of the self that has confronted or will confront catastrophe –
natural or otherwise – only then to undertake an archaeological process of reconstruction to make sense of it. This archaeological interpretation of Balzac’s fiction is illustrated by a close reading of the
novella “Sarrasine”.
Freud speculated on the causes of modern psychopathologies by figuring the mind as an ancient city in ruins. He postulated that, like an archaeological site, the modern mind is structured in temporal layers
and that forgotten or repressed events from the past can be reconstructed from fragmentary remains. In this new, archaeological figuration of the mind, Freud challenged the conventional Enlightenment
conception of it as unitary, rational and master of its conscious will.
Indeed, he exploded the traditional, rationalist view by speculating on
the ego’s irrational and largely unknown underside – the unconscious.
In an extended passage in Civilization and Its Discontents, Freud invokes the archaeological layers of Rome’s ancient cityscape to help
readers imagine the internal layering of the conscious and unconscious
portions of the modern psyche:
the Archaeology of Self
Scott Sprenger
Abstract: While earlier critical studies of Balzac link his work to archaeology in a literal way, this chapter contends that the writer configures narrative consciousness as a site on which a kind of
“archéologie morale” is to be practised; that is, as the site of a construction of the self that has confronted or will confront catastrophe –
natural or otherwise – only then to undertake an archaeological process of reconstruction to make sense of it. This archaeological interpretation of Balzac’s fiction is illustrated by a close reading of the
novella “Sarrasine”.
Freud speculated on the causes of modern psychopathologies by figuring the mind as an ancient city in ruins. He postulated that, like an archaeological site, the modern mind is structured in temporal layers
and that forgotten or repressed events from the past can be reconstructed from fragmentary remains. In this new, archaeological figuration of the mind, Freud challenged the conventional Enlightenment
conception of it as unitary, rational and master of its conscious will.
Indeed, he exploded the traditional, rationalist view by speculating on
the ego’s irrational and largely unknown underside – the unconscious.
In an extended passage in Civilization and Its Discontents, Freud invokes the archaeological layers of Rome’s ancient cityscape to help
readers imagine the internal layering of the conscious and unconscious
portions of the modern psyche: