MOLLY INSIDE AND OUTSIDE “PENELOPE”
In: Joyce, "Penelope" and the BodySearch for other papers by VALÉRIE BÉNÉJAM in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Abstract
This essay focuses on the figure of Molly Bloom as she appears both inside and outside of the “Penelope” episode. Bénéjam sees Molly’s book-body as being represented, from “Calypso” in parts and by fetishistic associations with her discarded clothing and possessions, intriguingly suggesting that her discarded book may establish a certain link between her body and literature. Finding analogies for her “optics of seduction” in Flaubert and Marilyn Monroe, she proceeds to define Molly's body by its deferral and absence, an absence that ensures the reader's desire at the same time as it ensures that all that desire can hope to attain is not the represented bodily object but the body of the book.