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Chapter Three
Encountering the Other10
3.1 The Foreigner
Traveling abroad, we meet foreigners from the other countries. The foreigners, who are those we do not know, are also strangers to us. Traveling is perhaps the most common approach that connects people from different parts of the world, and further leads to the issues on foreigners and strangers. From a positive perspective, traveling triggers interaction between one and the other by bridging people from diverse countries and cultures together; however, the physical and the psychological conflicts turn out to be the undercurrent as a result of the elimination of distance. According to Julia Kristeva, when one senses the differences of the confronted others, one may feel emotionally disturbed either in a positive or a negative way. To the locals, the confronted others refer to
foreigners, who come from another countries. In fact, the psychological conflict does not work in a one-way direction from the locals to the foreigners, or from the foreigners to the locals; it functions with both directions instead. The locals suffer from psychological disturbance; meanwhile, the foreigners are able to detect detestation from the locals. The
10 Bernhard Waldenfels in “Response to the Other” manages to deal with the issues on the other.
Waldenfels introduces a German word fremdheit and talks of its ambiguous meanings. To translate the word into English, Waldenfels states that “[t]here is the ‘alien’ that belongs to the other; there is the ‘foreign’ that comes from the outside; and there is the ‘strange’, which looks or sounds curious” and it can “simply speak of the ‘other’” (Waldenfels 36). According to Waldenfels, there is no specific English word that can present the exact meaning of fremdheit.
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inner struggle of both the locals and the foreigners will only be intensified through continuous interaction if not being properly coped with.
In New Anatomies, the word foreign is first mentioned as Natalie announces her forthcoming marriage with Stéphane. In response to Natalie, Isabelle questions immediately the color and the race of Natalie’s fiancé, and later on, she fantasizes romantically that their romance is perhaps the happy union of Eros and Psyche:
ISABELLE. A husband, Natalie. That’s different. Is he dark? Is he foreign?
Does he visit you only at night and wrap you in a blinding veil of torrid passion? A secret husband, how wonderful, like Eros and Psyche. Does he let you look at him?
NATALIE. What are you talking about? I’m marrying Stéphane.
(New Anatomies 13)
Isabelle is not interested in getting married, but the idea of meeting a foreigner excites her. Isabelle imagines that Natalie and Stéphane’s union can be the acquaintance of two foreigners. The association of Greek mythology with marriage romanticizes the possible conflict of the encounter with the foreigners and endows the foreigners with the mystic image. Furthermore, the love story of Eros and Psyche itself slips in the issue about the mistrust of the other, which often occurs when one encounters the foreigners.11 In a romantic way of thinking, the lovers are able to surmount whatever obstacle sets between
11 Eros’s name in Roman translation is Cupid. Eros and Psyche own a happy marriage but Eros tells Psyche that their marriage can carry on only if she promises that she shall meet him in the dark and never see his actual appearance. Being jealous of Psyche’s happy marriage, Psyche’s sisters persuade Psyche that Eros must be tremendous monster who will kill her eventually. Psyche is told that she must kill Eros in advance so she peeks at Eros one night but only to find that he is an attractive man. Psyche mistrusts Eros and breaks the promise; thus, Eros leaves Psyche out of disappointment. Psyche makes a great effort trying to
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them because love surpasses all. Romance and marriage eliminate and veil the conflict that might arise between one and a foreigner and make the conflict a trivial issue. The conflict is, nevertheless, eliminated rather than eradicated; it is veiled but not wiped out.
In the following sequence, Natalie’s confession to her mother Anna draws the readers back to reality. In reality, Stéphane’s parents do not think of Natalie and Stéphane as a perfect match due to her “foreign” identity (New Anatomies 14). Stéphane’s family is actually “upset” about Natalie’s foreignness (New Anatomies 14). It is easy to perceive the contrast between Stéphane’s family and Isabelle’s attitude toward foreigners. The previous is distraught with foreigners, while the latter welcomes them. The different attitudes already hint that conflict between one and the other, especially strangers, does exist. The sense of otherness still hinders people from embracing one and the other.
Natalie’s marriage is a trifled incident that brings about the issue of foreigners. The question of otherness is further manifested as Isabelle begins her voyage to North Africa.
The interaction among all characters within New Anatomies exemplifies the complexity of human interrelation. Originally, the characters in New Anatomies can be roughly divided into two groups, which are the Europeans and the Africans. The former represent the foreigners, while the latter appear as the locals. However, when observing the conflict that arises between the two groups, we may notice that the classification lacks its fidelity. As a matter of fact, unlike most of the Europeans who merely want to take advantage of the locals, Isabelle is willing to get acquainted with the locals.12 Human beings possess diverse nature and distinguishing characteristics; therefore, interaction between one and the other leads to multiple communication circumstances that can never
12 Séverine claims that Colonel Lyautey is also “an exception” among the Europeans because the “Arabs like him” (New Anatomies 51).
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be generalized. The brief categorization of the characters provides only a glimpse of immeasurable samples that are presented in the play.