Commenting on the paradoxes of representation when confronted by the extremity of inconceivable horror, Blanchot’s resonant phrase, “the disaster de-scribes” (Blanchot 1995: 14), might offer an insightful entry point to approach Jenny Diski’s ‘difficult’ fictional world. Under various guises – harrowing or humorous, or both at the same time – all her novels attempt to carve out an impossible narrative space for her characters to retreat into from all ordinary connections to others and to conscious human awareness. However, although in the grip of traumatic loss and unacknowledged grief, the characters’ inherently indescribable struggle to sever all recognizable human ties by way of monomaniacal order, ‘madness’, or oblivion of the present is always paradoxically undone by the intrusion of more or less symptomatic others, and by the terror of desire and need. Thus the ambivalence about twining grief and melancholia with the possibility of ‘truth’ belies an ethical approach in Diski’s writing that, out of the shadows of a yearning for the inanimate and a longing for an oblivious implosion in nature, or in “a dissolution of the mind”, brings forth a monstrous tenderness engaged in a search for reparation and regeneration. I would argue that the privileged vehicle for this re-articulation of unexplored resources is Diski’s interestingly idiosyncratic use of the grotesque. As Harpham points out, the grotesque “stand[s] at a margin of consciousness between the known and the unknown, the perceived and the unperceived, calling into question the adequacy of our ways of organizing the world” (Harpham 1982: 3). As such, the grotesque would seem especially apt to engage the irreducible otherness of the other, its absolute alterity in the most humble and open way: “… its true home is the space between […]. This mid-region is dynamic and unpredictable, a scene of transformation or metamorphosis” (ibid.: 8). In this constellation, then, ‘madness’ is not merely a narrated symptom within the diegesis, but an eminently ‘ethical’ writing strategy meant to de-structure the narrative and linguistic fabric, de-stabilize the characters’ and readers’ epistemological certainties and, in so doing, explore the “ontological boundaries of humanity” (Nordius 1991: 442). For Diski, the polarity between Kayser’s and Bakhtin’s respective understanding of the grotesque necessarily serves a doubly grotesque purpose: whereas it precipitates a “catastrophe of Being” in Rainforest, it functions as a catalyst for radical (ontological) change in Monkey’s Uncle. Thus, the opposition between inside and outside, such a resonantly Kristevan theme in her analysis of “abjection”, takes on both a metanarratological meaning via Diski’s structural experiments with multilayered and polyvocal narrative and the ethical dimension spelt out by the interiority and exteriority dialectics of Levinas’s view of “transcendence”. The aim of the paper is to explore stylistically and narratologically Diski’s treatment of gendered melancholia in Rainforest and the possibility of regeneration in Monkey’s Uncle through her use of elements of the grotesque as alternately fantastic ways of overcoming a traumatic rehearsal of defensive solipsism.
L’espressione eloquente di Blanchot a commento dei paradossi della rappresentazione che cerca di confrontarsi con l’orrore estremo – “il disastro de-scrive” (Blanchot 1995: 14) – potrebbe offrire una chiave illuminante per accostarsi al problematico mondo narrativo di Jenny Diski. Sotto varie forme – strazianti o umoristiche, o entrambe le cose simultaneamente – tutti i romanzi della scrittrice tentano di ricavare un improbabile spazio narrativo in cui i personaggi possano trovare rifugio lontani dai legami quotidiani con gli altri e dalla coscienza di sé. E tuttavia, sebbene stretti nella morsa di perdite traumatiche e di sofferenze sconfessate, lo sforzo intrinsecamente indescrivibile dei personaggi nel voler rescindere ogni riconoscibile legame umano per mezzo di un ordine monomaniacale, della ‘follia’, oppure dell’oblio del presente viene sempre paradossalmente inficiato dall’intrusione più o meno sintomatica di altri, oltre che dal terrore generato dal desiderio e dal bisogno. In questo senso l’ambivalenza del legame del dolore e della malinconia con la possibilità di estrapolarne qualche barlume di ‘verità’ tradisce l’approccio etico di Diski che, dall’aspirazione verso l’inanimato e dalla brama di un’implosione immemore nella natura, ovvero nella “dissoluzione della mente”, produce una paradossale forma di tenerezza mostruosa tesa alla ricerca di riparazione e rigenerazione. La tesi sostenuta dalla scrivente è che nella narrativa di Jenny Diski il veicolo privilegiato di questa riarticolazione di risorse inesplorate è il suo interessante impiego idiosincratico del grottesco. Come sottolinea Harpham, il grottesco “sta a margine della coscienza tra il noto e l’ignoto, ciò che è percepito e ciò che non lo è, e in tal modo problematizza l’adeguatezza delle nostre modalità di organizzare il mondo” (Harpham 1982: 3). In quanto tale, il grottesco sembrerebbe particolarmente adatto a contemplare l’irriducibile e assoluta alterità dell’altro nella maniera più rispettosa e aperta al confronto: “… la sua propria dimora è lo spazio intermedio […]. Questa regione di mezzo è dinamica e imprevedibile, una scena di trasformazioni e metamorfosi” (ibid.: 8). In tale costellazione la ‘follia’ non è semplicemente un sintomo narrato intradiegeticamente, ma una strategia narrativa eminentemente ‘etica’ volta a destrutturare il tessuto narrativo e linguistico, destabilizzare le certezze epistemologiche dei personaggi e dei lettori e, con ciò, ad esplorare i “confini ontologici dell’umano” (Nordius 1991: 442). Per Diski, la polarità tra la concezione del grottesco di Kayser e di Bachtin, rispettivamente, non può non servire una funzione doppiamente grottesca: laddove il grottesco fa precipitare la “catastrofe dell’Essere” nel romanzo Rainforest – come per Kayser, esso funge da catalizzatore di una radicale trasformazione (ontologica) nel romanzo Monkey’s Uncle – alla maniera di Bachtin. Perciò l’opposizione tra interno ed esterno – un tema di chiarissima matrice Kristevana nella ben nota analisi dell’“abiezione”, assume sia una valenza metanarratologica per via degli esperimenti strutturali della scrittrice con una narrazione stratiforme e polivocale, sia una dimensione etica esprimibile, nei termini di una visione della “trascendenza” Levinasiana, come dialettica di interiorità ed esteriorità. Il presente saggio esplora da un punto di vista stilistico e narratologico le modalità con cui Diski affronta la malinconia femminile in Rainforest e la possibilità di rigenerazione in Monkey’s Uncle attraverso l’utilizzo di elementi immaginativamente antitetici del grottesco in quanto racchiudenti modalità di superamento della ripetizione traumatica del solipsismo difensivo.
“Averting the Catastrophe of Being: Jenny Diski’s ‘Metaphysical Grotesque’ in 'Rainforest' and 'Monkey’s Uncle'”
NICOLOSI, MARIA GRAZIA
2013-01-01
Abstract
Commenting on the paradoxes of representation when confronted by the extremity of inconceivable horror, Blanchot’s resonant phrase, “the disaster de-scribes” (Blanchot 1995: 14), might offer an insightful entry point to approach Jenny Diski’s ‘difficult’ fictional world. Under various guises – harrowing or humorous, or both at the same time – all her novels attempt to carve out an impossible narrative space for her characters to retreat into from all ordinary connections to others and to conscious human awareness. However, although in the grip of traumatic loss and unacknowledged grief, the characters’ inherently indescribable struggle to sever all recognizable human ties by way of monomaniacal order, ‘madness’, or oblivion of the present is always paradoxically undone by the intrusion of more or less symptomatic others, and by the terror of desire and need. Thus the ambivalence about twining grief and melancholia with the possibility of ‘truth’ belies an ethical approach in Diski’s writing that, out of the shadows of a yearning for the inanimate and a longing for an oblivious implosion in nature, or in “a dissolution of the mind”, brings forth a monstrous tenderness engaged in a search for reparation and regeneration. I would argue that the privileged vehicle for this re-articulation of unexplored resources is Diski’s interestingly idiosyncratic use of the grotesque. As Harpham points out, the grotesque “stand[s] at a margin of consciousness between the known and the unknown, the perceived and the unperceived, calling into question the adequacy of our ways of organizing the world” (Harpham 1982: 3). As such, the grotesque would seem especially apt to engage the irreducible otherness of the other, its absolute alterity in the most humble and open way: “… its true home is the space between […]. This mid-region is dynamic and unpredictable, a scene of transformation or metamorphosis” (ibid.: 8). In this constellation, then, ‘madness’ is not merely a narrated symptom within the diegesis, but an eminently ‘ethical’ writing strategy meant to de-structure the narrative and linguistic fabric, de-stabilize the characters’ and readers’ epistemological certainties and, in so doing, explore the “ontological boundaries of humanity” (Nordius 1991: 442). For Diski, the polarity between Kayser’s and Bakhtin’s respective understanding of the grotesque necessarily serves a doubly grotesque purpose: whereas it precipitates a “catastrophe of Being” in Rainforest, it functions as a catalyst for radical (ontological) change in Monkey’s Uncle. Thus, the opposition between inside and outside, such a resonantly Kristevan theme in her analysis of “abjection”, takes on both a metanarratological meaning via Diski’s structural experiments with multilayered and polyvocal narrative and the ethical dimension spelt out by the interiority and exteriority dialectics of Levinas’s view of “transcendence”. The aim of the paper is to explore stylistically and narratologically Diski’s treatment of gendered melancholia in Rainforest and the possibility of regeneration in Monkey’s Uncle through her use of elements of the grotesque as alternately fantastic ways of overcoming a traumatic rehearsal of defensive solipsism.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.