DU MOI « CRYPTOPHORE » AU MOI IDENTITAIRE DE NADIA : L’ÉCRITURE THÉRAPEUTIQUE DANS LE ROMAN INSTRUMENTS DES TÉNÈBRES DE NANCY HUSTON
FROM “CRYPTOPHORIC” SUBJECT TO SELF-IDENTITY: THERAPEUTIC WRITING IN NANCY HUSTON’S INSTRUMENTS DES TÉNÈBRES

Summary/Abstract: From “Cryptophoric” Subject to Self-Identity: Therapeutic Writing in Nancy Huston’s Instruments des ténèbres. The rupture that occurs in the mother-daughter relationship lies at the core of the novels written by Canadian writer Nancy Huston. In this sense, the present paper aims to analyse Nadia’s identity formation, the protagonist of the novel Instruments of Darkness, who develops a series of mental traumas as a result of maternal abandonment. Starting from the filial bond and from the maternal characteristics transmitted hereditarily, but also acquired through imitation behaviour, our analysis follows the deconstruction of identity self and the consequences over the psyche of the childhood memories repressed in the Unconscious. The mutations of the psychic structures thus lead to split personality and to the configuration of the cryptophore woman’s typology that repeatedly reconstructs the lived traumas: the loss of the mother, the child and the brother. The article follows the identity crisis of the protagonist until the moment of writing, a creative act that involves the externalisation and awareness of repressed feelings and self-acceptance. Having therefore a therapeutic role, literature is analysed as a possible catalyst in the reconstruction of self-identity.

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