Abstract
This concluding chapter examines the self wounded through narcissistic desire in a discussion of works by Thibaut de Champagne, Derrida, Barthes, Butler, and Kristeva. Tracing the implications of Narcissus’s lament “je me plaing” (I lament myself) from the Lay of Narcissus, a testimonial appeal etymologically related to the wound (plaga in Latin), I posit that this cry establishes the definition of selfhood echoed throughout the literary texts analyzed in this book. As the cry implies, to be a self is to be wounded by an other that destroys any concept of an integrated subjectivity. The literature analyzed here, I argue, points to the notion that to be wounded by the other is to love, to desire, and to be fully human.
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Notes
- 1.
Thibaut de Champagne, “Chanson d’amour” in Chansons des trouvères, ed. Marie-Geneviève Grossel et al. (Paris: Librairie Générale Française, 1995), vv. 25–40, 588, 590, my translation.
- 2.
Jacques Derrida , “There Is No One Narcissism” in Points…: Interviews, 1974–1994, ed. Elizabeth Weber and trans. Peggy Kamuf (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995), 199.
- 3.
Claire Nouvet, Enfances Narcisse (Paris: Galilée, 2009), 155. My translation of: “Séparer purement et simplement le ‘moi’ de l’autre, c’est tenter de simplifier le ‘moi’ en le ‘purifiant’ d’une altérité qui le constitue et l’humilie tout à la fois. Pour le ‘moi,’ l’autre en ‘moi’ est en effet l’épreuve d’une victimisation originelle qu’une fière affirmation de soi s’efforce d’oublier, et, surtout, de dénier. Le ‘moi’ s’affirme en excluant l’autre afin de ne pas savoir, et surtout de ne pas sentir, l’altérité qu’il porte en lui sans parvenir à la contenir ou à la comprendre. Alors même qu’il s’affirme par exclusion, il s’engourdit, s’insensibilise à la blessure narcissique qui le frappe et dont il émerge: la blessure de l’autre en lui qui d’origine met à mal toute prétention d’être lui-même. Narcose narcissique. Conduite de fuite.”
- 4.
Roland Barthes, A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments, trans. Richard Howard (New York: Hill and Wang, 1978), 93–94.
- 5.
Judith Butler, Undoing Gender (New York: Routledge, 2004), 19.
- 6.
Patrick Fuery, Theories of Desire (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1995), 16.
- 7.
Julia Kristeva , Tales of Love, trans. Leon S. Roudiez (New York: Columbia University Press, 1987), 4–5.
References
Barthes, Roland. 1977. A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments. Trans. Richard Howard. New York: Hill and Wang.
Butler, Judith. 2004. Undoing Gender. New York: Routledge.
Derrida, Jacques. 1995. There Is No One Narcissism (Autobiographies). In Points…: Interviews, 1974–1994. Ed. Elisabeth Weber and Trans. Peggy Kamuf, 196–215. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Fuery, Patrick. 1995. Theories of Desire. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
Kristeva, Julia. 1987. Tales of Love. Trans. Leon S. Roudiez. New York: Columbia University Press.
Nouvet, Claire. 2009. Enfances narcisse. Paris: Galilée.
Thibaut de Champagne. 1995. Chanson d’amour. In Chansons des trouvères, ed. Marie-Geneviève Grossel et al., 586–591. Paris: Librairie Générale Française.
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Ealy, N. (2019). Epilogue: Between Je me plaing and Iste ego sum. In: Narcissism and Selfhood in Medieval French Literature. The New Middle Ages. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27916-5_7
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