The Discourse of the "Whore": An Economy of Sacrifice
1990; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 105; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/2905237
ISSN1080-6598
Autores Tópico(s)Classical Studies and Legal History
ResumoIn her first letter to Abelard, a letter which opens epistolary exchange now known as Correspondance, Heloise tells us a surprising story. Although addressed to an anonymous friend, Historia Calamitatum, a letter in which Abelard narrates the story of his misfortunes, accidentally reached Heloise, who decided to respond to it in place of its original and probably fictive adressee. But this decision poses a problem: from what position can Heloise respond to Abelard's text? Heloise is indeed both Abelard's wife and of oratory he founded, Paraclete. She can therefore address him from a secular or a religious position. Surprisingly, however, she refuses both, and instead chooses a much more provocative mode of address. In course of her letter, she first exchanges her monastic title of Mother Superior for still honorable title of wife, then for more dubious title of lover, and finally for shameful title of whore; she shockingly declares that she prefers name of whore to name of wife. It is therefore a whore who addresses Abelard in Correspondance, a whore who forces us, belated addressees of her letters, to read anew word whore itself. Although this word usually refers to a woman who puts sexual relations on most overtly economic basis possible, Heloise's first letter will not, as we will see, allow us to remain within this
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