The place of the body in writing in Denise Desautels' 'Ma joie'

Written in the margins of "Ma joie," crie-t-elle, by Denise Desautels and F rancine Simonin, this study explores the body's place in writing. Desautels uses the figure of the archaeologist to define her practice as a writer, t hus identifying a path through memory's various layers, a journey in which writing is likely to break through intimacy. This practice leads one to bel ieve that what is involved in the process of digging is actually an auto-bi o-graphy of the writing of her being/body in the world. Thus, this work may be seen as an anatomy lesson in which dissection focuses on none other tha n the written body of a body-of-meaning - a body issuing, among others, fro m a certain practice of language that leads to a monocular vision, in which differences cancel each other out in a system of oppositions that sets the m in a hierarchy.