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JEAN -LUC NANCY

Corpus

TRANSLATED BY RICHARD A. RAND

FORDHAM UNIVERSITY PRESSNew York 2008

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the members of the body,s of the body: the back, thegenitals, the anus, the throat.3, 1 standing for unity (onearing agitation and transfer-the body's matter, soul andtarot deck designating death,nguniversal body of mud and

th e supernum era ry, the exces-i s u nisex, a s ce rta in clo th es a rery. is also a sex through and, o va rie s; b on y, m o rp ho lo g ic al,e b od y is sexe d in esse nce. T hisn to the other essen ce. The bodyas in relation. The body is re-io n, its c or po re ality is in vo lv eddelights [jouit), m ea nin g th ato ne s, d elig htin g fo r itse lf, e mitssoul. But m ostly it stays caughtin fin ite h av e in te rs ec te d th er e,n instant. Each of the sexes can

The Intruder

There is in fact nothing so ignobly uselessand superfluous as the organcalled the heart, the filthiest invention that beings could have invented forpumping me with life.

-Antonin Arraud'

The intruder introduces himself forcefully, by surprise or by ruse, not, inany case, by right or by being admitted beforehand. Something of thestranger has to intrude, or else he loses his strangeness. If he already hasthe right to enter and stay, if he is awaited and received, no part of himbeing unexpected or unwelcome, then he is not an intruder any more, butthen neither ishe any longer a stranger. To exclude all intrusiveness fromthe stranger's coming is therefore neither logically acceptable nor ethicallyadmissible.

If, once he is there, he remains a stranger, then for as long as this re-mains so-and does not simply become "naturalized"-his coming doesnot stop: he continues to come, and his coming does not stop intrudingin some way: in other words, without right or familiarity, not accordingto custom, being, on the contrary, a disturbance, a trouble in the midstof intimacy.

We have to think this through, and therefore to put it into practice:the strangeness of the stranger would otherwise be reabsorbed-would bean issue no longer-before he even crossed the threshold. To welcome astranger, moreover, is necessarily to experience his intrusion. For the most

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