Untitled - Centre for Comparative Literature - University of Toronto

56 transverse
the pathos of lau’s persona
Persona... is the person we are in public,
the person our culture or society wants us to be.
– Thomas Larson
Further refl ection on Lau’s persona can be gathered from her relation to
the media—her constant public disclosure of personal, intimate information—which
destabilizes reading strategies based on authorial intention. Lau’s work—every word she
makes public, in the broadest sense: either spoken or written—has the potential of placing
her readers into a virtually interminable mise en abyme, as they stand fascinated between
knowledge of her life—the spoken words she publicizes—and the meanings to give to
her texts—the written words she publishes. Sturgess remarks on the very same element
in Lau’s reception: “[...] her ongoing self-reconstruction through the media, contributes
to the confusion between textual and self-representation” (79). However, in reference
to the narcissistic self-involvement that some fi nd in Lau’s books, it strikes me as quite
interesting that people who have met her say how outgoing she is:
When the camera comes out, it’s like a curtain drops. Gone is the engaging
woman-child that I’ve feel I’ve come to know a little bit over the two-odd hours
we’ve been talking. She has been replaced with the pouting artiste. Is it a
pose or just protectiveness? I’m not sure. I only know that it prevents me from
sharing her smile with you. And I’m a little sad about that: Evelyn Lau has a
wonderful smile. (Richards, my italics)
If anything, this testimony suggests that Lau’s apathetic pose is an act for her audience
and would best be described as happening when the curtain comes up. This insight into
the workings of media further entertains the fantasy of authorial intent by implying that
even when Lau seemingly reveals part of herself, part of that same revealed self still
remains hidden behind yet another dropped curtain. Nonetheless, we should keep in mind
that an artist’s public involvement with his or her work, whether it is self-refl exive or not,
is still in and of itself a social activity. In other words, to suggest that Lau is narcissistic
because of her self-refl exive work misses the point that she is not self-refl exive to the