Silence, Articulation, Textuality (The Return of the Words by Goce Smilevski)
Silence, Articulation, Textuality (The Return of the Words by Goce Smilevski)

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this article is to offer one of the many potential readings of the novel The Return of the Words by the Macedonian writer Goce Smilevski. The main object of the analysis is the female character named Héloïse as a fictional character based on a real person. In order to analyze the character we compare Smilevski’s novel with another source of information, the autobiographical prose Historia Calamitatum, which happens to be written by the lover of the real Héloïse – the famous Catholic theologian and philosopher Abelard. We interpret the novel from two aspects: as a work of literature which is close to the model of historiographic metafiction and as a discourse written by a male author who offers his (subjective) representation of one particular woman from the past. We explore the relationship between the dominant male and the subordinated female, as well as the relationship between Héloïse and her own words. As an oppressed woman who in many ways depends on the dominant man in her life, she is not allowed to verbally express herself, until her words finally return. The novel is read as a fictional autobiography of Héloïse. The fact that Smilevski allows her to tell the story form her point of view is interpreted as an attempt of a marginalized woman to use the language of the dominant group and the autobiography as a form of expression reserved for men exclusively. The analysis, however, shows that the novel is not completely discharged from patriarchal ideology.

• Details
• Contents