Writing subjectivity without subjecthood: the machinic unconscious of Nathalie Sarraute’s Tropisms

ABSTRACT

In the context of endeavors within social and cultural geography to conceive new models of subjectivity outside the classical model of the subject, this paper explores the possibility of a writing of subjectivity outside of the anthropocentric grammars that centralize the human subject as the locus of thought and action. To do so, we turn to the literary work Tropisms by French author Nathalie Sarraute for its expression of unconscious and impersonal ‘micromovements’ that evoke a mode of subjectivity that is no longer that of a given human individual. Sarraute’s work, with its attentiveness to and amplification of surreptitious yet forceful events that influence how we think and how we act, its rejection of individualized psychological ideas about human experience and its experimentation with what literature can do, creates singular portraits of socio-spatial life in its unfolding and thus evokes different kinds of subjectivities – what we term a ‘subjectivity without subjecthood’. To extrapolate from Sarraute’s writing, we turn to Félix Guattari’s theorization of subjectivity through a ‘machinic’ unconscious. In doing so, we draw out three dimensions of subjectivity as portrayed in Sarraute’s work: its collective, asignifying and non-linear character.

RÉSUMÉ

En el contexto de los esfuerzos dentro de la geografía social y cultural por concebir nuevos modelos de subjetividad fuera del modelo clásico del sujeto, este artículo explora la posibilidad de una escritura de la subjetividad fuera de las gramáticas antropocéntricas que centralizan al sujeto humano como el lugar del pensamiento y acción. Para ello recurrimos a la obra literaria Tropismos de la autora francesa Nathalie Sarraute por su expresión de ‘‘micro movimientos’ inconscientes e impersonales que evocan un modo de subjetividad que ya no es la de un individuo humano dado. El trabajo de Sarraute, con su atención y amplificación de eventos subrepticios pero contundentes que influyen en cómo pensamos y actuamos, su rechazo de las ideas psicológicas individualizadas sobre la experiencia humana y su experimentación con lo que la literatura puede hacer, crea retratos singulares de la vida socioespacial en su desarrollo y, por lo tanto, evoca diferentes tipos de subjetividades, lo que llamamos una ‘subjetividad sin subjetividad’. Para extrapolar del escrito de Sarraute, recurrimos a la teorización de la subjetividad de Félix Guattari a través de un inconsciente ‘maquinal’. Al hacerlo, sacamos a relucir tres dimensiones de la subjetividad tal como se retrata en la obra de Sarraute: su carácter colectivo, no significativo y no lineal.

RÉSUMÉ

Dans le cadre des initiatives au sein des géographies sociale et culturelle pour conceptualiser de nouveaux modèles de subjectivité en dehors de la forme traditionnelle du sujet, cet article explore la possibilité d’une écriture de la subjectivité à l’extérieur des grammaires anthropocentriques qui centralisent le sujet humain comme le rôle central de pensée et d’action. Pour ce faire, nous nous tournons vers Tropismes, le recueil de récits de l’écrivaine française Nathalie Sarraute, pour son expression des « micromouvements » inconscients et impersonnels qui évoquent un mode de subjectivité qui n’est plus celui d’une personne humaine concrète. Le livre de Sarraute, avec l’attention et l’amplification qu’il accorde aux événements subreptices, mais puissants qui influencent la manière dont nous pensons et celle dont nous agissions, son refus des idées psychologiques individualisées concernant l’expérience humaine et son expérimentation avec ce dont la littérature est capable, crée des portraits de vie sociospatiale en développement et donc évoque différentes sortes de subjectivités — ce qu’on appelle « une subjectivité sans subjectivation ». Pour extrapoler à partir du livre de Sarraute, nous nous tournons vers Félix Guattari et sa théorie de la subjectivité à travers un inconscient « machinique ». Ce faisant, nous dégageons trois dimensions de la subjectivité comme Sarraute la représente dans son livre: son caractère collectif, asignifiant et non linéaire.

KEYWORDS:

• Guattari
• literature
• Sarraute
• subjectivity
• unconscious
• writing

PALABRAS CLAVE:

• Guattari
• Literatura
• Sarraute
• Subjetividad
• Inconsciente
• Escritura

KEYWORDS:

• Mots clefsGuattari
• littérature
• Sarraute
• subjectivité
• inconscient
• écriture

Acknowledgments

Nina would like to thank Tony Williams for introducing her to the writings of Nathalie Sarraute. Both the authors are also grateful to Andrew Lapworth for the encouragement to pursue this paper, David Bissell for his careful editorial feedback and support and two anonymous referees for their close engagement with the paper and for stirring exciting new directions that have shaped the ideas presented here.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. This claim is common to various writers of poststructuralism (see, Butler, 1997; Derrida, 1976; Foucault, 1982).

2. Sartre wrote the preface to Sarraute’s second novel, Portrait of a Man Unknown (Sarraute, 1958), labelling it an ‘anti-novel’ whose ‘aim is to make use of the novel in order to challenge the novel, to destroy it before our very eyes while seeming to construct it, to write the novel of a novel unwritten and unwritable…’ (p. viii). As Barbour discusses, however, Sarraute herself disagreed with the label ‘because it comes from the idea that Sartre had about what the novel must be’ (Barbour, 1993, p. 16).

3. Sauvagnargues (2016) writes that ritornello is a term Guattari borrows from Jacques Lacan. Whilst Guattari distinguishes his machinic unconscious from Lacan’s mathematical approach (Guattari, 2009b), both writers use the notion of ritornello to resist ‘thinking of time in general for man in general’ (Sauvagnargues, 2016, p. 215). We are drawing on the concept, then, to account for the more singular effects of rhythms, rather than to gesture toward a universal concept of time.