Hoc est corpus meum -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 20:24:57 04/07/08 Mon
Author: Betsy Peters
Subject: Hoc est corpus meum

Okay, so this is not about the Eucharist--but it is about bodies. I was surprised reading Narcissus and Echo by the repetition of bodiness and bodilessness. It made me think of our discussion on object-less desire--that the desire can still exist and exist strongly even when the imitator and mediator aren't even objects any longer. When Echo first meets Narcissus "she still had a body--she was not just a voice" (p.91) The longer she knows Narcissus, the more she fades away until "her voice and bones are all that's left; and then her voice ALONE" (p.93). Meanwhile, Narcissus looks at himself in the pool and "dreams upon a love that's bodiless" (p. 94)-- on a "shape that had nothing of its own" (p.94). Echo does not exist in the body, yet Narcissus appropriates her love for him to himself. Narcissus meanwhile loves an object (his reflection) that does not exist in corporeal form. Finally, at Narcissus' death "They had prepared the pyre, the bier, the torches; but nowhere could they find Narcissus' body" (p.97). The crowds may still desire him, but he too has disappeared--they desire a nothing.

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