Original scientific paper
Anatomy of the Narration: Embodiment in the Novels Malone Dies and In the Flesh
Natalija Iva Stepanović
; Zagreb
Abstract
The main topic of this paper is the process of embodiment in the novels Malone Dies by Samuel Beckett and In the Flesh by Christa Wolf. Although repressed, the body is a part of the human semiotic and symbolic project. The primacy of the body may be felt both during sickness and dying, events which are the main topics of the analyzed novels, and during scientific and medical procedures. In the novels, the first event is the separation of the voice from the body, the split between the subject and his or her autobiography. It is followed by disembodiment and, finally, by the replacement of the organic body parts with prosthetics. Beckett writes about unstable bodily limits in a style which is similar to the general history of the grotesque. For Wolf, the most important model of the embodiment is a cyborg. Autobiographical narrative and the body are both subjected to criteria of representativeness, and only some are worth writing about. As corporeal narratology shows, the body has significance only in the wider cultural context. In this paper the most important cultural context is gender, an important factor in the recent reception of Beckett and in the general reception of Wolf.
Keywords
Samuel Beckett; Christa Wolf; the grotesque; cyborg; autobiography
Hrčak ID:
230315
URI
Publication date:
18.12.2019.
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