A Hypnotising Dance of Bodies: The Case of Stephen King

Abstract

King's narratives exemplify the themes of the uncanny, of masking and unmasking, of the corporeal otherisation and of the questioning of identity. This paper is an invitation to go beyond what may commonly be thought of as a uniform looking-glass so as to discover King's particular treatment of the body. Far from shying away from sexuality, the American writer depicts it in an ambivalent or disguised manner (Thinner, Mr. Mercedes, Christine, Misery, Cycle of the Werewolf). If the female body is mainly connected with the taboos of rape and incest (Gerald's Game, Dolores Claiborne, Bag of Bones, Under the Dome), or with ungenderisation (The Tommynockers, Rose Madder), the notion of monstrosisation can nevertheless be applied to both male and female bodies (The Shining, Desperation, "The Raft," "Survivor Type"). Oscillating between hypermonstration and avoidance, King pulls the strings of the fragmentation, even of the silencing of the body. The fissure impregnating the characters' identity and bodies is enlightened by the shattering of the very connection between signifiers and signified, inserting the reader into a state of non-knowledge: a mesmerising dance of disembodied bodies within disembodied texts.