TESTAMENTARY AND CAREFREE WRITING

Abstract

The text offers an analysis of the so-called “insouciant writing”, the concept framed by the tenets of post-structuralist theory which postulates that the text cannot perform as the site of subject expression, which in turn divorces the writing subject from the body perceived as the metaphor of the decaying nature of the subject. disregardful of the voice of the other in the text, in furtherance of the text itself, the prevailing “insouciant writing”, complemented by the “insouciant reading”, is opposed by the concept of testamentary writing. The line of argument behind it states that when the writing subject is faced with death – writing his last will and testament – the idea of a decentered subject becomes an illusion as the subject is united with his body. The scene from The Book of Job where job wishes to write his afflictions down for eternity is taken as an example of testamentary writing. This jobian writing is understood as a likely response in the face of impending death. it symbolizes a kind of writing that escapes the power of discourse, allowing the subject of such writing to express his self and his body. The paper, then, focuses on two features of testamentary writing: the intelligibility of such writing and the level of closeness between the writing subject and his target readership.