Bodies in Narrative and Ethics of Feminist Narratology. Not far enough, yet.

A classmate and I were having a discussion about what we felt were the least useful theories we have read/learned/discussed this semester.  We both feel strongly that the feminist slant on narrative has not gone far enough. I am certain she will write her own opinion and it will, undoubtedly, look different than mine. We are both feminists, but have very different considerations therein, because, shocker, feminists don't all look at story through the same lens. That’s the wonder, for me, of feminist theories. Very often the theorizing is messy as hell. One must be able to hold ambiguity in their very hand in order to consider the theories and the academic and activist arguments therein. That is a hallmark of much feminist theory, for me. And it is wondrous.

But those doing feminist work through narrative theory OR, and I don't know which they consider themselves doing, those trying to bend narrative theory with a feminist perspective have so far seemed to remain in the safe and often less vulnerable waters of primarily white feminist theory. That’s a tragedy. There is so much more. And it is wondrous. And, my point in this post is to strongly urge that the more is absolutely important. Important absolutely.

In defining a corporeal narratology, Daniel Punday writes of some of the misguided thinking about bodies in narrative. For example he points to what should be an outdated consideration of narrative and reading, the concept that “Not only do we escape from the body while reading, but the experience of that escape, the suspension of corporeality, is part of what makes reading pleasurable” (V11). Do we really leave our bodies behind? Can we ever really leave our bodies behind? Especially considering that our identities are so closely connected to our embodiment. Punday suggests, “narrative, then first and foremost depends upon a corporeal hermeneutics – a theory of how the text can be meaningfully articulated through the body” (15). Punday also notes that much feminist narratology work so far is guilty of essentializing. Essentializing, as many feminist/womanist theorists have proven, is dangerous and re-inscribes marginalization.

I wonder aloud . . . How do we move away from such an essentializing way of looking to bodies and identities as presented in narratives without looking deeper into the feminist theories, like womanist theory, that speaks to embodiment? Important absolutely.