Entre désincarnation et réincarnation : la poétique du corps dans le récit d'un soi anorexique suivi de Carnet d'une désincarnée
My research questions the relation between anorexia and writing, omnipotent in literature, but which the question of self-writing is still really obscure; the potential of reincarnation of the ascetic individual through writing being barely tackled. Amélie Nothomb (Biographie de la faim) and Geneviève Brisac (Petite) have been both remembering themselves, through autobiographical novels, their anorexic past through an ascetic poetic in itself. Analysing this textual performativity, as well as writing process such as self-mockery and narrative detachment solicited by these authors, my essay observes that these poetical features lead altogether to an independent corporeal reincarnation of the anorexic body into literary work, and therefore, draw a new vision on the past sufferings. Taking the form of a fragmented text sealed by an autofictionnal pact, Carnet d’une désincarnée (Disembodied’s Diary) experiment the reminiscence of my adolescence marked by anorexia. In this way, each fragment recall, using the pronoun « I » as talking to myself, an isolated situation of a routine in a perpetual battle with the self, battle which the unique goal is disembodiment. Further to this disembodiment, the objective of my project was to reincarnate myself with words through the production of a diary made out of flesh and bones. In between fiction and reality, Carnet d’une désincarnée is exploring the possibility of creating a performative text that projected the emaciation of anorexia, becoming a barebonned but alive body in itself.
autofiction Amélie Nothomb Geneviève Brisac anorexia asceticism autobiographical novel writing size zero performativity self-mockery narrative detachment