The Poetics of Dismemberment: Eros and Identity in the Alba

Abstract

THE POETICS OF DISMEMBERMENT: EROSAND IDENTITY IN THEALBA In its exploration of the effects of intimacy on the human psyche, thealba1 portrays the dramaofthe emergence oftheself. The genre as a whole manifests an explosion of interest in the construction ofthe self and its boundaries, aswell as in the effect eros has on self-definition. The power oflove to redefine the self andto reconstitute identitybecomes a persistentunderlying alba theme. In its imagery of dismemberment--of isolating andrearranging corporeal structures~and in its narrative scenario ofpassionate but short-lived love,2 the alba portrays a selfthat under- {;oes dissolution and recreation. The identity thatalba lovers are eftwith at the completion oftheir song involves diminution and loss. Their alba elegizes the lonely, solitary and fragmented futures they foresee. Theloverswhostarinthealbahave anidentitythatissocially determined. Specifically, thealbalady's identityisdictatedbyher legal and social status asthewife ofan aristocraticlord; the lady's lover is a knight. The lovers recognize that a gap exists between social and individual identity when social identity comes into conflict with personal desire: the lady's marital status prohibits any licit union between the pair. In describing the parameters of identity, Erik Erikson discusses a process " 'located'inthe core of the individual andyet also in the core ofhis communal culture, a processwhich establishes, in fact, the identity ofthose two identities " (22). For our fictive alba lovers, the suffering causedby the conflictbetween individual and communal identity is manifest in the song's use ofthe imagery ofdismemberment. The necessity for the lovers' reassessment of the self in the alba emerges from their dissatisfaction with social identity. The lovers' ambivalent, if not antagonistic, relationship to society as expressed in their laments indicates their divergence from societal norms. The lovers consequentlyreject social identity, defining themselves anew based on their opposition to social, legal and communal institutions. The act of rebellion may be seen to coincide with or to generate the lovers' recognition of self-consciousness . The marked difference that the lovers discern betweenthemselves andotherstransforms theirsense ofself,underscoringconsciousnessbothoftheirseparateness andoftheirindividuality . 134Gale Sigal Freud described the conflict between lovers and society as inevitable even when love is not adulterous: On the one hand love comes into opposition to the interests of civilization; on the other, civilization threatens love with substantial restrictions __Wederivetheantithesis betweencivilization andsexuality from the circumstance that sexual love is a relationship between two individuals inwhicha thirdcanonlybesuperfluous ordisturbing, whereascivilizationdependson relationshipsbetweenaconsiderable numberofindividuals. When alove-relationship is at itsheight there is no roomleft foranyinterestintheenvironment; a pairofloversare sufficient to themselves. {Civilization and itsDiscontents, 50, 55) Howmuch more intense mustbe the self-sufficiencyandexclusivity of a passionate love that is outlawed from the start and is pursued despite inherent dangers. In setting their union against society,alba lovers forma societyoftheir own, a "societyoftwo." The alba hinges upon the opposition between lovers and society; itcontrastsarapturous, gratifyingandself-centeredrealm of love with an empty, mundane, mercenary and often base marital relationship. Although alba lovers outwardly conform to existing societal constrictions, they resent society's antipathytoward their rebellion against its norms. Their realization that social convention is antagonistic to their needs generates on the part of the lovers a keen awareness oftheir inner selves, ofthe fact that a crucial part of their being is expected to remain hidden, unheeded —suppressed. The lovers' affirmation of personal feeling over social rule impelstheirrecognitionandacceptanceoftheirindividuality. Not onlydotheyquestionsocialhegemony,butindefianceoflaw,they unite, experienceperfectpleasure, andareneverapprehendedor punished for their transgression, despite the potential peril of their actions. In acting on emotions that define their difference from the rest of the community, the lovers achieve a heightened sense of self, but as Freud was to note, such a sense of self concomitantly entails alienation from others: Two peoplecomingtogether forthe purposeofsexualsatisfaction, in sofarastheyseekforsolitude,aremakingademonstrationagainstthe herd instinct, the group feeling. The more they are in love, the more completelytheysuffice for each other. (Freud,GroupPsychologyand theAnalysis ofthe Ego, 93) Poetics of Dismemberment135 The lovers' detachment from their community is evident in the isolatedsettingsoftheirtrysts, aswellasin the expressedneed for secrecyandconcealment. Inmostalbas,thepoetemphasizeshow alonetogethertheloversare,secludedeitherinaremote,pastoral greenworld or in a recessed inner chamber.4 The lovers' removal from the court evinces the fact that the affairhas become, according to Saville, "an independent world ofvalue."5 Violating legal and communal ties, the lovers' bond takes precedence over all else. If illicit love engenders a sense of individuality because...