Gravy Bones: Ego and Audience in Coming Through Slaughter

Résumé En Fr

This essay examines the interplay of ego and audience in Michael Ondaatje's Coming Through Slaughter with the aim of illuminating the book's capacity to offer metaphors for its own reception. Implicit in Buddy Bolden's relationships with his various "audiences" are comments on representation and reception -- writing and reading -- and on the epistemological authority of discourse. Bolden is divided between the dictates of his ego (which craves authority, clarity, closure) and his desire to be free of ego (which is necessary if he wishes to realize the boundary-crossing ambiguity of his art). Bolden's "success" -- defined by his inability to provide a stable authoritative "ego" for his music or his life's story -- strengthens his identification with author and reader. In this way, the book coalesces (in a kind of jazz "fusion") author, reader and character in the communal performance of Coming Through Slaughter.

Cet article étudie le jeu entre le moi et le public dans Coming Through Slaughter. Dans les relations de Buddy Bolden avec ses divers publics, implicites sont les commentaires sur la représentation et la réception (l’écriture et la lecture) et sur l’autorité épistémologique du discours. Bolden est divisé entre les pulsions tyranniques de son ego et son désir d’en être libéré. Le “succès” de Bolden renforce son identification avec l’auteur et le lecteur. A l’instar de la “fusion” d’une séance de jazz, le livre unit auteur, lecteur et personnage dans une représentation commune.