Reflections on the Body in Clive Barker’s “The Body Politic”

Abstract

The article aims at deciphering Clive Barker's multilayered short story "The Body Politic" inserted in the 4th book of Books of Blood (1984-1985). In this work, the British author presents the human body as literally a book which has to be opened, rediscovered; it is a terra incognita marked by the resurgence of repressed elements or by the sense of urgency of applying a new significance to this locus. The notion of rewriting is a leitmotiv in "The Body Politic" as Barker seems to redefine not merely the organic political metaphor but drapes this imagery with Gothic, biblical or psychoanalytic veils. Julia Kristeva's Powers of Horror (1982) is a cornerstone to apprehend the depiction of the body as the ultimate unknown. The narrative traps the reader into the paradoxical hypnotic delights of the Otherized, abjectified body.