Chapter 4 - THE DEBT–FREE MASCULINE SUBJECT: THE REPRESSED MATERNAL BODY IN 1 CHRONICLES 10–2 CHRONICLES 36

Summary

According to You (II)… Shall We Begin Again?

We now have an assembled cast, the peoples of the past who define the present from which your past is imagined. Effectively, the stage for the story in narrative form has been set, along with a well-crafted litany of family lines connecting the present with the past. However, the family tree is overwhelmingly masculine. The genealogical form of the past unfolds largely according to masculine mono-sexual production, from father to son in swift successions. Yet, when women do appear, it is predominantly to produce sons. What is most interesting to note is that women, nevertheless, have the ability to shatter the continuity of this discourse; they disrupt your flow. This ability is indeed significant given the discernible phantasy of mono-sexual production underwriting this production of the past through the form of genealogy. When the maternal body is evoked, especially through the feminine forms of the verb root (“to bear”) and, in one instance, through a woman's speech, continuity and meaning become distorted. It is as if this language cannot cope when “she” and “it” (the specter of her maternal body) appear.

6. Now we're all burning.

Set alight.

Your sweet success.

Even your own fear you.

They loathe her, your daughter-bride.

She speaks your words in public,

but in private

your words pattern her little

like a dolly-whore, deeply fried.