VÉCU CORPOREL ET SENS DANS « MOI QUI N’AI PAS CONNU LES HOMMES » ET « RÉCIT DE LA DERNIÈRE ANNÉE » DE JACQUELINE HARPMAN
BODY EXPERIENCE AND MEANING IN « MOI QUI N’AI PAS CONNU LES HOMMES » AND « RÉCIT DE LA DERNIÈRE ANNÉE » BY JACQUELINE HARPMAN

Summary/Abstract: This paper explores the relationship between bodily experience and meaning in Jacqueline Harpman’s “Moi qui n’ai pas connu les hommes” and “Récit de la dernière année”. In other words, we intend to prove that the body can produce meaning and that the Belgian writer assigns an important role to bodily experience in the construction of her characters’ identity and of their connection to the world. The first part of this paper is dedicated to the review of some literature on the notion of “perception”, which, in our opinion, facilitates the study of bodily experience as a source of meaning. It helps explain how humans experience their bodies and the world through their somatic dimension. Perception allows us to make sense of our senses; it establishes a connection between physiology and psychology, between the information gathered by the sensory organs and its comprehension. Perception transforms sensation into understanding by translating biology into social and cultural terms. In the second part of this paper we show that bodily experience is a source of meaning in Jacqueline Harpman’s novels, as well. We point out that Delphine Maubert, the main character of “Récit de la dernière année”, defines the essence of her “self” as the uniqueness of her perceptive activity, that is, as the unique significance she assigns to the information gathered by the sensory organs. Confronted with her own death, heralded by the presence of an incurable lung cancer in her body, the heroine discovers that the uniqueness of her existence lies in her particular way of perceiving the world. Concerning the novel “Moi qui n’ai pas connu les hommes”, we prove that it contains concrete examples of meaningful structuring of the environment through the body.

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