Cryptomimesis: The Gothic and Jacques Derrida's Ghost Writing

Jaroslaw Zurowsky is a translator and editor in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Cryptomimesis is the type of text that should come with a warning:
“This work deals with semiotic themes. Reader discretion is
advised.” Those who wholeheartedly believe in and adhere to semiotic
dogma will find the book interesting; those who believe that most
semioticians are essentially trying to reinvent the wheel—a circular
wheel rather than the traditional round one—will find it frustrating.

Castricano discusses Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House Usher
(1839) and Stephen King’s Pet Sematary in the light of Jacques
Derrida’s literary theories. Sometimes the analysis is interesting;
other times the works themselves get drowned out by the theories and
academic jargon. What is most frustrating is when the author totally
misses a point, such as in her discussion of Pet Sematary and the scene
when Creed’s wife returns from the dead. Creed is playing solitaire
and draws the Queen of Spades. This is an obvious connection to
Alexander Pushkin’s famous short story “The Queen of Spades.” If
Castricano had developed this angle, it would have greatly strengthened
her argument about the crosscultural influences at play in Pet Sematary.


Another weakness of the book is that the contexts in which Poe, King,
and Derrida are writing are never really discussed. Obviously, Poe and
King write in different periods, in different situations, and for
different audiences; therefore, their final product must be different.

Cryptomimesis seems to have begun as a thesis. It will most appeal to
semioticians and their adherents.