Maggie Kilgour, "From Communion to Cannibalism: An Anatomy of Metaphors of Incorporation"(Book Note)

 

From Communion to Cannibalism undertakes an exploration of metaphors of incorporation across various Western literary traditions, drawing on psychoanalysis, literary criticism, and religious studies. Starting with the binary oppositions emphasized in structuralist and post-structuralist frameworks, she particularly delves into the inside/outside antithesis and its totalizing tendency to transform outsiders into insiders in Western thought. Kilgour analyzes the metaphor of the host, uncovering the potential for cannibalism in the Eucharist sacrament.

 

In the first chapter, titled "Classical Incremental Visions," Kilgour examines metaphors of consumption in the Odyssey and Ovid's Metamorphoses, tracing the transformation of the Golden Age from Homer's depiction to Ovid's vision of dismembered individual identity. Moving to Christian metaphors, the second chapter, "The Word and Flesh," explores the concept of incarnation in Augustine and Dante, mediating oppositions between letter/flesh and spirit, inside/outside. The third chapter, "The Reformation of the Host," analyzes the unsettling of this delicate balance by Rabelais, Ben Jonson, and Milton, with Milton embodying a form of cannibalism where ultimate authority shifts from outside to inside.

 

Chapter four, "Under the Sign of Saturn," explores the transition from medieval communion to modern individualism, focusing on Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy. Kilgour argues that the modern individual is a fractured melancholic, differentiating identity from various others while nostalgically hoping for an unassimilable outside. This understanding informs chapter five, "The Reformed Deformed," examining the Gothic novel and the works of Coleridge and Melville.

 

The book, titled "From Communion to Cannibalism," concludes ironically with "In Which Everything Is Included and Nothing Concluded," echoing the introduction's "The Text That Ate the World." Kilgour turns to theorists Freud and Frye to explore the structured opposition between inside and outside in texts and the methods of approaching texts. The conclusion suggests avenues for further study, including cross-cultural examinations of metaphors of consumption in various cultural contexts, such as Indian literature. The book is praised for its insightful analysis and saucy sense of humor.