Seductions in Narrative: Subjectivity and Desire in the Works of ...

As manifestations of a subjectivity the main characteristic of which is its refusal to be fixed, narratives are likewise open to a multiplicity of unstable (re)interpretations, as many as a text may cater for. Belsey is here arguing for a reading which is seductive, in so far as it values openness, dialogue, and multiplicity. The multiplicity of the reader, that of the author, that of the text itself, may all converge to propose open–ended readings and interpretations, thus dissolving any absolutist idea that one reading is more accurate, above the others or, simply, better. The present study is based on this idea of multiplicity which extends beyond the characters of a text to include the text itself, its author, its reader, and the writer of this study.

Desire

[E]t ses pansers est de tel guise que lui meïsmes en oblie, ne set s’il est, ou s’il n’est mie, ne ne li manbre de son nom, ne set s’il est armez ou non, ne set ou va, ne set d’on vient.

—Mario Roques, Les Romans de Chrétien de Troyes, III, Le chevalier de la charrete 714–719⁸

Desire is what is not said, what cannot be said.

—Catherine Belsey, Desire: Love Stories in Western Culture 76

‘But I live on the land, not in the water […] You need not be shy. Here I am. Look at my face…’ But the shepherd, Narcissus, declined her offer. ‘It isn’t you I want,’ he answered politely, ‘only your image.’

—Suniti Namjoshi, “The Disinterested Lover,” in Feminist Fables 113

Sir Lancelot, inLe chevalier de la charrete (1958), is a victim of desire. His (adulterous) love for Queen Guinevere affects him in such a way that makes him forget himself—“lui meïsmes en oblie”—to the point that he is unsure of his own existence—“ne set s’il est, ou s’il n’est mie.”