05 05 La oferta comercial
02. Análisis sectorial: sector alimentario
My reading of Robert des noms propres has unveiled in what measure this text allowed Nothomb to experiment with new forms of bodily monstrosity that convey a powerful message. If monstrosity is less often associated with slender bodies as opposed to heavier physiques (because they are less socially repellent), this text nonetheless proves that the monstrous anorexic can be as much, if not more (visually) shocking, and that it testifies to a need to reassess corporeal standards. The fall and the fracture symbolically force Plectrude to re-enter in contact with her body, to renegotiate its limits, and to develop a different attitude towards her body if she is to recover from anorexia. This new attitude calls for a new perspective on her body on her part, a body that does not display its previous appearance and abilities. She is confronted with a reassessment of her own difference, and with other perceptions of corporeal standards. Her doctor declares that ‘Si vous étiez normale, un mois de plâtre suffirait’ (151), but Plectrude’s “abnormal” (because severely unhealthy) physical state may require an open-ended convalescence, ‘des années de suralimentation en produits laitiers pour [... se] recalcifier’ (152). Reading through the monstrous subject, via the impossible ‘envol’ and the subsequent collapse, therefore invites a reassessment of our understanding of the limits of the human body and of possible forms of corporeal identities.
Reading the functioning of ‘discipline’ and its implementation in the disciplinary institution has allowed me to explore how the subject is tamed to become a docile body who gradually acquires self-discipline. I showed that the extent of institutional control over the individual exceeds the supervision of space, activity, function and even the
body of the character, as it reaches the subject’s psychology and her present (and future) relation with her body. Moreover, the autonomous application-diffusion of power entails the dualistic role of its subjects and also evokes the (potentially) unsustainable nature of such a position. The inevitable (internal) fracture is realised through Plectrude and her excessive application of the disciplinary rules inculcated in the Opera School of dance. The numerous methods of bodily control (ranging from daily functioning, such as dieting, to the control of human transformation, such as the interruption of the menstrual cycle) disturb even further the already unstable relationship that the
adolescent subject experiences between the changing body and self. Anorexia emerges within these tensions, and encapsulates the trying necessity for the subject to submit to and confront the bodily standards of the institution. The monstrous metamorphoses undergone by Plectrude translate the conflict between control and resistance of the imposition of standards for the body, by a subject who simultaneously accepts, exceeds and defies the rules of the institution.
The excessive discipline and control imposed over the transforming adolescent body (a body “in transition” between childhood and the adult body) is an interruption of the human life cycle addressed in the form of the monstrous. As no human body (child or adult) can conform fully to the standards required by the disciplinary institution, only monstrous shapes can emerge from this environment. Plectrude’s transformation into a monstrous character points to the unsustainability and limits of the disciplinary system; indeed, she becomes monstrous as a result of (excessive) discipline but she is still rejected because of corporeal difference and inability. I showed that, contrary to
widespread understandings of monstrosity, the monstrous is not born outside society but within the disciplinary institution. It is the product of excessive bodily regulation and the effusion of disturbing incarnations that the institution seeks to exclude. In my next chapter, monstrosity is perceived by the family and the subject in Lorette Nobécourt’s
La Démangeaison, and it is explored via abjection in the complex relationship between
the subject and her (visually improper/sick) body. In Chapter 3, I shall expand on the previous discussion on the relationship between the individual and internal/bodily fractures, especially as the subject’s difference is inscribed on her face and skin, the body parts that first meet with others, and their rejection.
My analysis of Nothomb’s novel allows me to conclude that it is difficult, if not outright impossible, for the docile self-disciplined subject to evade the rules and to find
illusion of escape and the temporary mastery over the body and space in the school. I have shown that Plectrude’s salvation is above all else dependent on her recovery from anorexia, and also that her salvation may be said to rely (indirectly) on a paradoxical fall of the subject. Overall, the expressions of redemption of the subject that I explored in Part Four of this chapter remain limited, which highlighted that salvation is an ideal in the institution. It is my purpose at this stage to enquire whether the subject who has been evicted from the disciplinary institution can achieve a degree of liberation (from institutional control). This final discussion on forms of control in various societal structures also stands in anticipation of further analyses of (fictive) non fully-fledged disciplinary institutions in the following chapters of this thesis.
The access to a form of liberation for Plectrude depends first of all on how society is perceived beyond the school, and on the social structures that the subject integrates after leaving the prestigious establishment. At this stage in her story, Plectrude is a broken subject apparently with no role, no place in her family, and no future. Yet, this distance from the world of classical dance forces upon Plectrude a new assessment of her body and her whole existence, criteria upon which her physical and psychological recovery depend. Following a lengthy and mostly lonely stay at the hospital, Plectrude’s return home and her gradual recovery is met with the support of her father and sisters (158). On the other hand, Clémence rejects her daughter whose (now visibly healthier) body definitely annihilates her ambition (by proxy) of being a ballet dancer: ‘Si tu t’imagines que tu as l’air d’une danseuse, maintenant!’ (160). Plectrude’s return home is comparable to a return to another form of disciplinary institution that similarly seeks to control her relationship with her body. The mother’s insulting remarks towards Plectrude’s physique (which worsen from ‘Tu es grosse’ (159), to ‘tu es obèse’ and ‘tu es énorme’ (164)) are reminiscent of the verbal abuse of children in the opera school (118). Clémence seeks to manipulate Plectrude’s
relationship with food (162, 168), and to destabilise the adolescent with psychological and emotional pressure. Plectrude is abruptly told that Clémence is not her mother but her aunt: ‘Tu n’as jamais été ma fille’ (160). Plectrude has therefore re-inserted herself in a controlling structure but she is aware of its dangers (‘Je ne te laisserai pas me tuer, maman’ (165)), and the young adult strives to gain financial independence in order to flee her mother’s noxious influence (166).
The second controlling structure in which Plectrude inserts herself is her deceased mother’s path: upon seeing a photograph of Lucette and noticing their
et que ce serait son destin à elle aussi’ (169). This “revelation” confines the character in another (invisible) structure that dictates her relation with her body. Like her mother before her, Plectrude births a child at the age of nineteen (175); despite stating ‘Je dois mourir: c’est un ordre, je le sens’ (176), she evades suicide thanks to outside
intervention by her rediscovered childhood love Mathieu Saladin (181). Therefore, these two instances of control of Plectrude show that the subject outside the disciplinary institution keeps on seeking out other forms of control and still remains under
institutional hold. This unveils the chameleonic nature of the disciplinary institution and the importance of “a-corporeal” power in the spreading of corporeal and behavioural standards in various areas of society. Moreover, as I will explore in Chapter 3 and 4, this reveals that the family is a powerful social institution that can impose limits and demands on (the body of) the subject.
Nothomb’s story assuredly demonstrates that there is no effective/permanent escape or liberation from the controlling power of the disciplinary institution (inside or outside its wall); it also reaches beyond the exposition/criticism of the disciplinary system as limiting for subjects, towards an evocation of other (non-disciplinary) approaches to the ways of being in the body. These two facets in Robert des noms
propres are encapsulated in the final twist to Plectrude’s story, when ‘Quelques années
avaient passé’ (188). Plectrude meets and befriends a character named Amélie Nothomb. She unveils to Plectrude that because of her chaotic life story, and because she is a ‘un témoin in utero’ of her father’s murder (by her pregnant mother), she is therefore ‘impregnée de ce meurtre’. As Amélie asks Plectrude, ‘Comment pourriez- vous ne pas devenir meutrière?’ (188-89), she essentially condemns Plectrude to become a murderer herself (188-89), which implies further constriction of the character (judicial; in her mother’s path). Plectrude is yet again manipulated into a chain of actions that control her relation with the body (here, the body of others) and eventually condemn her again to a different (moral) form of monstrosity. Another interpretation of this event emerges when Plectrude’s (induced) homicidal tendencies turn towards Amélie Nothomb: ‘Et comme il y a une forme de justice, elle assouvit son désir d’assassinat sur celle qui le lui avait suggéré’ (189). Her justification boils down to ‘C’est tout ce que j’ai trouvé pour l’empêcher d’élucubrer’ (190), that is to prevent Amélie from dreaming up more stories about Plectrude’s seemingly inescapable destiny. The murder of the textually inscribed author reveals a desire to get rid of constricting (disciplinary) structures – textual and societal – that control her life and her relation to the body, and to become the author of her own story. In the next chapter of
this thesis, I will also explore the coming to writing of another monstrous subject; in this case, the need to write will explore the question of coming to terms with one’s individual differences in order to reassess the relationships between the self, others, and society. Robert des noms propres counters (or at least evokes the need to challenge) the limitations on the subject imposed by the disciplinary system, and it opens different avenues for the appraisal and the writing of different ways of being in the body.