國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
often related to a sense of novelty, strangeness, and foreignness, which often bring about cultural and emotional confrontation. However, it is at the moment of the encounter with the other that one is able to gain the experience that is different from the past.
2.4 Isabelle/the Stranger, on the Move
New Anatomies is a play that centers on Isabelle Eberhardt’s traveling experience.
The play involves the ideas of displacement, nomadic traveling, and the encounter with the other; besides these typical features in traveling experience, New Anatomies also involves the gender issue. In the play, Isabelle is a female, who disguises herself as a man in a male outfit during her voyage. Karen R. Lawrence in the introduction of Penelope
Voyages: Women and Travel in the British Literary Tradition points out that “[i]n the
multiple paradigms of the journey plot—adventure, pilgrimage, exile . . . women are generally excluded” (1). Lawrence gives a brief survey on travel literature and notices that the “dominance of man as subject and woman as object is manifested in thetheoretical and critical discourse about travel and the plot of the journey as well as in the stories and myths themselves” (1). Traditionally, men are those who leave home and face challenges, while women are those who stay within domestic spheres and do house chores. Intellectually, men are the ones who own knowledge, while women are often illiterate. Physically, men are tough and strong, while women are weak and vulnerable.
The division explains why in traditional literary work, it is often men that embark on voyages, leave home, face challenges, and return home afterwards.
In New Anatomies, however, Isabelle subverts all the stereotypes in appearance, manners, and intellect. Firstly, in appearance, Isabelle is not an ideal woman with a
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
decent look. In the first scene, as a twenty-seven-year-old lady, Isabelle shows up as a person, who has “no teeth and almost no hair” (New Anatomies 5). Secondly, in manners, Isabelle keeps telling her friend Séverine that she needs “a fuck” in the opening scene (New Anatomies 6). Furthermore, Isabelle’s habit of smoking is said to be a “vulgar”
conduct (New Anatomies 20). Finally, in intellect, unlike Natalie, who is always looking forward to marriage, and excels at doing house chores, Isabelle drives men away because she is incapable of doing housework; what’s worse, she is an intellectual. Natalie tells Isabelle that she has been “reading too much,” (New Anatomies 17) and should have been
“taught” to “sweep” instead (New Anatomies 16). To Natalie, it is useless that their father treats Isabelle as “an exception” (New Anatomies 18). Women are conventionally
restricted within domestic sphere. Natalie represents a prototype of a traditional woman, who takes care of family. Natalie is a contrast to Isabelle. Due to this contrastive
character, we are able to see how Isabelle, who is being raised as “an exception,” is able to earn a living by selling articles and to have a positive mind to embrace the world with all kinds of possibility (New Anatomies 18).
Gender/sex issue is not posited in an arbitrary condition in the play. The fixed gender norms in patriarchal society are challenged. Women are not necessarily feminine, and men are not always masculine. Furthermore, women manage to challenge gender norms through cross-dressing process. For example, in opposition to her brother Antoine, who is said to be “frail and feminine” (New Anatomies 8), Isabelle calls herself a “strong”
person (New Anatomies 9). The following conversation is provided as an evidence:
ANTOINE. I have no choice. I’ll have to run away and join the army.
ISABELLE. I’ll come with you, we can take Mama.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
ANTOINE. The army’s only for boys.
ISABELLE. We can’t leave Mama.
(New Anatomies 9)
The dialogue appears as Antoine tells Isabelle that he cannot stand their father anymore, and desires to leave home. When Antoine mentions that “[t]he army’s only for boys,” he is trying to remind Isabelle that he is the only person that can join the army (New
Anatomies 9). Nevertheless, in the play, Antoine is depicted as an unmanly male, and
Isabelle is presented as a manly female. At times Isabelle actually identifies herself as a male. Isabelle once tells Séverine that she is “not a woman” and that she “like[s] men”(New Anatomies 40).
Wertenbaker plays with the stereotypical notion on gender expression of men and women; in addition, she arranges cross-dressing scenes in the play to show how gender identity and gender expression may or may not be corresponded to biological sex. When Antoine sees Isabelle in Arab jellaba, he proclaims that:
Isabelle looks like all our recruits. No one would know you [Isabelle] were a girl.
Is this male or female? (New Anatomies 25)
It appears that there is not always a positive correlation between a person’s external appearances and behaviors, and his/her biological sex. The notions of masculinity and femininity are constructed by social and cultural norms. Isabelle challenges the restricted gender role in the society by means of setting forth on a voyage with her new male identity and in a male outfit; furthermore, she also joins a battle in Africa. Isabelle’s behaviors enable her to play with the symbolic meaning of the code, either the dress code or the traditional norms. As far as Isabelle is concerned, “clothes” do not “make the
‧
monk” (New Anatomies 25). By presenting herself as a male figure with a brand new identity, she is actually dominating her life out of her free will. In the Parisian salon, several women cross-dress as men as well; however, all of them still follow patriarchal ideology and consolidate male dominance.7 In contrast to those women who cross-dress in the Parisian salon, Isabelle wears a male outfit simply because she feels more
comfortable in it. In Isabelle’s opinion, the male outfit is “not a costume” but “clothes”
(New Anatomies 37). Wertenbaker intentionally creates the Parisian salon scene to place Isabelle and the rest of the European women at the same spot so as to form a contrastive example. Isabelle never intends to live an ordinary life as a traditional woman; thus, she manages to transgress gender boundaries by means of crossdressing. In addition, she leaves home to pursue freedom and knowledge. Is it possible for women to travel? The answer is positive. To quote from Isabelle’s Arabian friend Bou Saadi’s remark, “[w]hat difference does it make . . . if she was wise?” (New Anatomies 28).
According to Abbeele, to complete a voyage requires travelers to leave their posited home, and to expect to return home. In Act One, Scene One, the conversation between Isabelle and Séverine reveals that Isabelle does have a posited home but the exact posited point is unclear to the readers:
ISABELLE. When I was growing up in the Tsar’s villa in St Petersburg . . . SÉ VERINE. Geneva.
ISABELLE. What?
SÉ VERINE. You said Geneva earlier.
7 In the Paris salon, Lydia claims that she can only compose works and generate ideas when she dresses as a man. According to Lydia, women outfit distracted her from her work. Séverine mentions that she has to wear male outfit so that she can take her girlfriend to bars without being bothered by the other men. (New Anatomies 38)
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
ISABELLE. Did I?
(New Anatomies 7)
The dialogue does reveal that there is a point of departure. In the subsequent scene, readers also notice that Geneva is the place where Isabelle has grown up. Nevertheless, the dialogue seems awkward and ridiculous in the way that Isabelle is confused about her own homeland. On the surface, Isabelle is playing a joke on Séverine; she is in fact questioning the very definition of home. Isabelle grows up in Geneva, but she obviously does not recognize it as her home. The dialogue shows that the very definition of home can be problematic.
If there is a point of departure, there shall be a point of arrival. To Isabelle, the arriving point is the desert. It can be easily detected from the conversation between Isabelle and Natalie. Isabelle mentions that she will travel from “Geneva to Marseilles by train, Marseilles to Algiers by boat and then a camel for the desert” (New Anatomies 18).
On the one hand, the plan points out the arriving point. On the other hand, it expresses the idea of constant moving in a voyage. Isabelle, who owns the “nomadic spirit,” constantly expresses her desire to travel and she does put it into practice (New Anatomies 36). When Isabelle arrives in Algiers, she brings up the idea of movement again when she reminds Antoine of their youth dream of “moving, always moving” (New Anatomies 22).
According to OED, the word “nomad” can be referred to “an itinerant person; a wanderer” ("nomad, n. and adj."). Throughout the play, Isabelle is for certain the
wanderer who is on the constant move. In fact, Isabelle’s name also implies the nomadic spirit. In a salon in Paris, when Séverine mentions that Isabelle Eberhardt’s last name
“Eberhardt” is a “Jewish name,” her friend Lydia immediately comments that Jewish are
‧
“all nomads” (New Anatomies 35). Theoretically, Isabelle is not homeless because her homeland Geneva possesses the meaning of home right after Isabelle leaves the place.8 However, practically, instead of considering Geneva her homeland, Isabelle prefers to create one. Isabelle is convinced that the desert is her home. In the first scene of the play, Isabelle has confirmed the very thought:
SÉ VERINE. What brought you to the desert? . . .
ISABELLE. The Mektoub: it was written. Here. That means, no choice.
Mektoub.
(New Anatomies 8)
As far as Isabelle is concerned, there is no need to explain the reason why she heads for the desert since it is her destiny. Isabelle begins her journey from Geneva, which is the departure point; nevertheless, it is not the returning point that Isabelle intends to return to.
There is a scene when a Judge blames Isabelle for causing trouble to Arabian religion by wearing a masculine outfit. The Judge also questions Isabelle why she has no intention of returning home.
JUDGE. What are you doing here, Miss Eberhardt?
ISABELLE. I belong here.
JUDGE. You are a European.
ISABELLE. No, I am not –
JUDGE. Were you lying when you told us you were born in Switzerland?
ISABELLE. No.
JUDGE. You are a European, Miss Eberhardt. You are also a young woman.
8 Abbeele mentions that “[t]he concept of a home is needed (and in fact it can only be thought) only after the home has already been left behind” (Abbeele xviii; emphasis in the original).
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
ISABELLE. No I am not.
JUDGE. You are not a young woman? Twenty-six is not old, Miss Eberhardt.
ISABELLE. I belong in the desert.
JUDGE. You belong at home, Miss Eberhardt, in Europe. We consider ourselves responsible for your safety.
(New Anatomies 47-48)
In the courtroom, the concept of home is argued via the incongruity of dialogue between the Judge and Isabelle. On the one hand, the Judge, who is authorized to make a decision in the court, constantly reminds Isabelle of her origin. On the other hand, Isabelle refutes such a claim by reiterating that she belongs in the desert. In the beginning of the play, Isabelle confuses Séverine by making incoherent statement regarding her homeland; this time, Isabelle offers a resolute determination that she is not a European. Isabelle always wants to visit the desert and she considers it a place she belongs to. Such an intention is in fact previously revealed in a monologue scene when Isabelle admits to the audience that she is “seeking peace and a home in the desert” (New Anatomies 26). The vast desert is both the destination and home to Isabelle. When the Judge mentions that Isabelle belongs “at home,” the Judge is not only implying that Isabelle shall return to Europe but also suggesting that she should stay in the domestic field (New Anatomies 48). Isabelle disregards the Judge’s advice and insists on traveling in the desert. As soon as Isabelle arrives in Algiers, she is well prepared to indulge herself in the Arabic culture.
In the end of the play, Isabelle does not return to Europe. Such a plot arrangement challenges the conventional notion on traveling proposed by Abbeele. I propose that New
Anatomies is characterized by a post-modernist sense of traveling. Firstly, the concept of
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
home is no longer a fixed home base from which one departs and to which one returns.
Instead, the play is filled with a sense of traveling-in-dwelling, dwelling-in-traveling (Clifford). In the play, Isabelle makes pilgrimages to her ideal home, which possesses floating characteristics. From this perspective, Isabelle is a wanderer, who makes her voyage an ongoing process. Secondly, New Anatomies possesses an open ending. I suggest that this plot arrangement leaves Isabelle in openness with all kinds of
possibilities regardless of social and cultural restraint and confinement. The play ends with the declaration of Isabelle’s death by Séverine and Lyautey to the Judge. Though the readers are told that Isabelle is drowned, we are well aware that no one truly finds her body. A possible explanation is that Isabelle is still alive and her friends are trying to protect her from being bothered; Isabelle dies literally but lives with another identity she has formed, which is Si Mahmoud. At the moment Isabelle determines to travel as Si Mahmoud, she makes clear declaration that she intends to search for a home in the desert.
The open ending can be thought of as a ticket for Isabelle to continue her journey. With such interpretations, Isabelle is still on her way of traveling.
Isabelle’s voyage can be regarded as an approach to wish fulfillment. To be more specific, the journey represents Isabelle’s constant search for freedom and knowledge.
Isabelle has long been trapped in the miserable family and socially constructed norms imposed on women; thus, she is always looking forward to escaping from home(land).
New Anatomies reveals Isabelle’s frustration of her unchangeable life condition;
however, traveling, which is considered to be the process of border crossing, opens up a possibility for her to leave behind her miserable past and to transgress the existed sexual and political boundaries.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
Since Isabelle was young, she has possessed the idea of traveling to foreign countries. In youth, Isabelle and her elder brother Antoine can barely bear their father, who ill-treats them. In order to escape from reality, Isabelle daydreams of leaving home and traveling, and so does Antoine:
ISABELLE. Let’s dream.
ANTOINE. He [Father] threatened to hit me. Brute. I have to go away, now.
ANNA. (paying no attention to any of this) First, Nicholas, not a word . . . He must have come to a bad . . . Too many anarchists in the house. It’s a bad influence on children.
ISABELLE. Oh yes, let’s go away. We’re in Siberia. The snow is up to our knees, so hard to move. Suddenly, look, shining in the dark, a pair of yellow eyes.
ANTOINE. I have no choice. I’ll have to run away and join the army.
(New Anatomies 9)
The conversation is made up of daydreaming, but it reveals that in their teens, Isabelle and Antoine already dream of leaving home. To both Isabelle and Antoine, traveling is an approach to leave behind the past and to greet new lives. The imaginary voyage to Siberia brings Isabelle and Antoine a sense of freedom. In the end of the scene, Antoine leaves home decisively and joins the army so as to escape from his father. Though Isabelle does not leave home immediately, she sets out a voyage later on with her sister, Natalie. Both Isabelle and Antoine leave home, but they have different intentions. On the surface, Antoine “[a]bandoned” home and family in the first place, but he actually leaves one home for another (New Anatomies 15). Few years after Antoine leaves home, he creates
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
his home and family in Algeria where he has a wife and a child. In fact, Antoine never intends to abandon his homeland, either. Antoine’s wife once declares that she and Antoine intend to “go back” to their homeland, Switzerland in the future (New Anatomies 21). It appears that the concept of home(land) still exists in Antoine’s mind. The idea of leaving home/original family is just a temporary escape to Antoine. On the contrary, at least in New Anatomies, Isabelle leaves home and never intends to return home. If there is a home that Isabelle is in search of, it is the desert that she longs for. To Antoine, he is in quest of an ideal family of his own; where there is family, there is home. Evidence is that when Isabelle asks Antoine to wander with her at night, Antoine chooses to stay with his wife out of her quest.
As far as Isabelle is concerned, where there is freedom, there is home; nothing can stop her from traveling. Throughout her life, Isabelle is always in search of freedom.
Therefore, “the desert” where there is no rain and requires no “roof” becomes the ideal place for her to visit (New Anatomies 17). To Isabelle, the roof may imply order and constraint, which reminds her of the negative force: home. What Isabelle plans to do is to
“gallop over the desert”; this is the freedom she wants to embrace (New Anatomies 18).
Besides freedom, voyage provides Isabelle an opportunity to acquire knowledge. In North Africa, Isabelle’s local friend Saleh knows that Isabelle is in thirst for knowledge and therefore, suggests that she should seek “wisdom” by paying a visit to the local monasteries (New Anatomies 28). A more direct example appears in the first conversation between Isabelle and Colonel Lyautey, who later on supports her to embark on another voyage to Morocco.
LYAUTEY. They say, Si Mahmoud, you’re a young man in search of
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
knowledge.
ISABELLE. Was.
(New Anatomies 53)
If it is not for the political force, Isabelle will have the chance to continue her voyage, and to absorb knowledge from diverse cultures apart from her own. To be optimistic, the knowledge that Isabelle gains will always be her own treasure that can never be deprived of. Isabelle manages to realize her dream through lifelong pursuit of ceaseless journey;
though Isabelle confronts difficulties and her wish of gaining freedom is never really fulfilled, she still gains optimistic hope through traveling. Traveling becomes her
supportive belief that offers her a way out of the life struggle. Isabelle would rather go on a voyage and meet the possible loss of life and property than stay at home.