The body as a locus of the supernatural power in Guibert's de Nogent autobiography

Abstract

We propose to study Guibert's de Nogent (1053 - c.1125) Memoirs, its «heterology», i.e. the references to Jews and here
tics. Medievai bodies are texts on which cultural narratives are inscribed. One of these narratives is the obstinate idea that the
Christian world should be homogeneous. In the narrative strategy followed by Guibert, Jews although cuituraiiy central are trans
formed into marginal shadows exercising evil power. Contrary to what has been argued, the use of sexual categories has to do
less with Guibert's personality and more with the cultural categories that he disposes and needs in order to construct otherness
in a hierarchical mode. He constructs the Jew as an animal, essentially different from the Christian. He follows a double strate
gy: First he marginalizes the Jew by offering him a secondary role as a mediator for the Devil that threatens Christian bodies.
Secondly, he gives to all his sexual fantasies the appearance of supernatural expressions. In this case the supernatural functions
as an effet de reel.