“Every water has its own rules and offering” : An Amphibious Interpretation of Anne Carson’s Blue-Green Short Story “1 = 1”

First published in The New Yorker magazine as a short story in January 2016, “1 = 1” addresses profound questions about what it means to swim in a large lake as a human and a non-human, terrestrial animal. The elliptic short story captures the central female character’s struggle with the rough waves of the lake during her morning swim and her subsequent observations as the ekphrastic commentator on two photos of refugees and on two chalk drawings on the pavement in front of her apartment. Gauging the significance of water in Carson’s short story requires, this article contends, an amphibious interpretation which is partly grounded in semiotics and partly immersed in ecofeminism. This amphibious reading opens up the ways in which Carson’s composition of narrator and character, intertextuality, and intermediality reflect on trans-corporeality, meaning the inseparability from one’s watery environment. The article examines the porous contours of the main character, the pitfalls of language and identity, the implicit references to the Great Lakes in North America, and the depiction of swimming alone and in cold water. Furthermore, it explores how Homer’s, Cheever’s and Deakin’s swim intertexts shine through “1 = 1” and how the four ekphrases evoke affects ranging from horror to hope. The story invites readers to recognise the main character’s insights in her ineptitudes as a swimmer and her idealised vision of the fox’s splashless swim in the lake.