Potwór, nie abiekt. Performowanie ciała-horroru w „Substancji” Coralie Fargeat
Monster, Not Abject. Performing Body Horror in Coralie Fargeat's ‘Substance’

Summary/Abstract: The text is an attempt at an unorthodox analysis of the film The Substance directed by Coralie Fargeat, primarily the central figure of the monster in it. The main themes of the film are read in confrontation with several cultural and philosophical texts selected in such a way as to bring out from Fargeat's work elements that have been poorly noticed so far, but are – it seems – crucial. The first point of reference is the work of Paul B. Preciado, especially the lecture Can The Monster Speak?. Through it, the rich tradition of écriture féminine is evoked, within which the category of monstrosity is consistently associated with the notions of abjection. The ideas of Catherine Malabou (the concept of plasticity) and Peter Sloterdijk (the concept of anthropotechnics) are indicated in the text as more interesting in reading The Substance. The text proposes a reinterpretation of the concept of body horror (so far the name of the film subgenre to which The Substance is assigned) and the introduction of the category of body-horror as a term helpful in describing a particular formula of modern subjectivity – built around the renewed, repeatedly worked through experience of trauma. This trauma affects not only the deep layers of the psyche, but first of all the body (Malabou, who emphasizes this issue, uses the findings of contemporary cognitive scientists), and the way to work through it turns out to be performative activities (Sloterdijkian anthropotechnics).

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