(Im)material Language: Revealing the Body through Metaphor

When Roman Jakobson, based on his exploration of the problem of aphasia, distinguishes two aspects that characterize language – metaphoricity and metonymy – he touches on an important issue that will become a central theme for some of his followers. This question is the materiality of language. From the point of view of the aphatic himself, metaphoricity and metonymy express two extreme ways of relating to the material of language. A productive elaboration of this thesis in the history of semiotics has been provided by Julia Kristeva, who radicalizes Jakobson’s conclusions by working with the fundamental concepts of Freudian psychoanalysis. In the paper, I will compare Kristeva’s approach to that of Jacques Lacan and attempt to reconstruct the theoretical assumptions that allow Kristeva to ascribe to metaphor a privileged role that consists of the constant opening of the sphere of the sign towards the body of the subject. To illustrate some important aspects, I will turn to Vítězslav Nezval’s novella Sexual Nocturne (1931), where the connection between language and body plays a central role.