Monstrosity – Illness – Wound: Uncanny Interconnections in Deborah Levy’s "Hot Milk"

Anna Kisiel

doi:10.31261/errgo.14934

Published: 2023-12-20

No. 47 (2023)

Monstrosity – Illness – Wound: Uncanny Interconnections in Deborah Levy’s "Hot Milk"

Anna Kisiel

Section: varia - follow-ups and anticipations

https://doi.org/10.31261/errgo.14934

Abstract

Sofia Papastergiadis – the protagonist of Deborah Levy’s Hot Milk – seems to be encircled by various monstrosities. First, her overbearing, monstrous mother suffers from an equally monstrous unidentifiable illness, because of which the two women travel to Almería, seeking answers and potential therapy. Second, while in Andalusia, Sofia is often attacked by Medusae/jellyfish, which is a painful, yet uncannily addictive experience. Third, the protagonist is puzzled with her own doubtful motivations, hasty decisions, and
dark fascinations, resurfacing, for instance, in a pursuit of toxic, but sensual, affairs. All of these drive Sofia to investigate yet another monster: one residing inside her. In this article, I propose a reading informed by psychoanalysis and feminist criticism which aims at tracing how the discourse of illness interweaves with that of monstrousness in Levy’s Booker-shortlisted bildungsroman. Keeping in mind that disease and monstrosity engage in an interplay of secrecy and revelation in the novel, I wish to study the implications of that for the protagonist and her relationships with others.

Keywords:

Deborah Levy , monster , disease , jellyfish , Medusa , femininity

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Kisiel, A. (2023). Monstrosity – Illness – Wound: Uncanny Interconnections in Deborah Levy’s "Hot Milk". Er(r)go. Theory - Literature - Culture, (47), 255–270. https://doi.org/10.31261/errgo.14934

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Anna Kisiel

anna.kisiel@us.edu.pl
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8803-0145

Affiliation:

University of Silesia in Katowice Poland

Bio Statement (e.g., department and rank)

Anna Kisiel – PhD, assistant professor at the University of Silesia in Katowice. In 2019, she defended her PhD thesis in literary studies entitled Corporeal Aesth/ethics: The Body in Bracha L. Ettinger’s Theory and Art. She has published extensively on Bracha L. Ettinger’s matrixial theory and co-translated Ettinger’s texts into Polish. Her academic research revolves around matrixial psychoanalysis, trauma studies, photography theory, and body and femininity in the visual arts and literature.

No. 47 (2023)
Published: 2024-01-25

ISSN: 1508-6305

eISSN: 2544-3186

10.31261/errgo

Publisher

University of Silesia Press | Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego i Wydawnictwo Naukowe "Śląsk"

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Monstrosity – Illness – Wound: Uncanny Interconnections in Deborah Levy’s "Hot Milk"

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