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The Inarticulate Body: Demonic Conflicts in The Exorcist 157amples from the first minutes of the movie version. The demonic in TheExorcist can not be reduced to the conflict between sexes, even if the femalebody and sexuality (both male and female) play special roles in it.Statue of Pazuzu (Collections of Musée du Louvre).“THE TROUBLE WITH THE SIGNS IN THE SKY”The third part of the novel, “The Abyss,” centres around Father Karras andhis investigation. The problematic status of religion is thematised in Karras’ssearch: he has to find evidence of a demon, a bad spirit, acting in Regan, butsince he is a secularly trained scientist (a psychiatrist) as well as a priest, healways finds “natural” reasons for counterevidence. As he posits such “supernatural”phenomena as telepathy or telekinesis among “natural,” notspiritual phenomena (they are studied by scientists as expressions of “paranormal”faculty or energy), his search for “genuine signs” is in danger of be-
158Demonic Texts and Textual Demonscoming futile. The role of different signs and omens is so central in The Exorcistthat the whole work can be interpreted in those terms. Noël Carroll,in his The Philosophy of Horror, takes The Exorcist as his paradigmatic exampleof the “complex discovery plot”: the classic structure underlying manynarratives of horror (including Dracula, Jaws, Carrie, The Omen etc.). Inthis structure the opponent, such as a monster, or evil power, is assumed tobe separate from the protagonists of the story. The plot divides into fourphases or functions: onset, discovery, confirmation, and confrontation. Theonset of horror gives the first signs of evil presence to the audience. In thephase of discovery the presence of the monster is revealed to someone in thestory, but it yet has to be proved to yet another, initially sceptical party beforethe actual resistance can begin. This is what is accomplished during theconfirmation phase, and the confrontation acts out the actual fight againstthe opponent figure. 48 Carroll situates the confirmation in The Exorcist in“The Abyss”; if the Prologue and the Epilogue are merged to the first andthe last chapter, respectively, the remaining four parts of The Exorcist couldwell have functioned as the direct inspiration to Carroll’s theory, so nicelythey fit this model. The religious engagement with the opponent cannotstart before the authority figure has been convinced – even if the medical authorityin the second part had already ended up recommending the ritual ofexorcism. As Carroll writes, “an extended drama of proof preoccupies thetext.” 49Karras, the psychiatrist, is concerned with the integrity of psyche – hisgoal is to study the demonic personality as an expression of Regan’s psychicconflicts and find ways back to unity. Karras, the priest, is concerned withRegan’s soul, the immortal nucleus of her self – his goal is to face the enemyand to expel it from the body it has misappropriated. On the surface, itseems that Regan is the one with problems and the one who has an elementof her mind dissociated from its whole. Karras, however, is an equally dividedpersonality, and because he is acting as the protagonist and the exorcisingsubject (Regan as his restrained object) his dilemmas of integrity andrejection, faith and knowledge relate in important ways to the centralthemes and structures of the work. 50The “drama of proof” is not confined to the third part of the novel.From the beginning, the reader is offered signs and omens that could suggestthe presence and influence of supernatural evil. At the same time, thereader is also given contrary clues that suggest a “natural” explanation.These opposing elements in the text position reader into the divided and48 Carroll 1990, 99-103.49 Ibid., 105.50Blatty: “My typist had been working on the novel. She didn’t offer any editorialcomment, so halfway through I asked for her reaction. She said, ‘They’re after him.’ Isaid, ‘Who?’ She said, ‘You know, them. They’re after Father Karras.’ Well, she picked upon what half the readers do not – that it is Karras, not the little girl. Karras was going tobe lost forever or he was going to be saved. This is his crucible.” (Travers - Reiff 1974,15.)
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Note on this editi
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TAMPERE STUDIES INLITERATURE AND TE
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Tampere Studies in Literature and T
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ments, and also such further lines
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IllustrationsCover: “Possessed Re
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The BeginningsAnd Jesus asked him,
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The Beginnings 3mons form an import
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The Beginnings 5negative, demonic a
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The Beginnings 7chapter four), but
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The Beginnings 9scious conflict, fo
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The Beginnings 11that is produced o
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The Beginnings 13The History of the
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The Beginnings 15emphasised that su
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The Beginnings 17turalism,” but i
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The Beginnings 19the materials I ha
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1. The Ancestry of the DemonicÑH.
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 25ness
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 27scrib
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 29tic o
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 31It sh
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 33of th
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 35able
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 37The f
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 39and t
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 41- in
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 43Chris
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 45[…]
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 47of th
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 49serpe
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 51tween
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2. The Demonic in the SelfBut ancie
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The Demonic in the Self 55Individua
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The Demonic in the Self 57should be
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The Demonic in the Self 59tack in t
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The Demonic in the Self 61A number
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The Demonic in the Self 63tion. 36
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The Demonic in the Self 65the nethe
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The Demonic in the Self 67sciousnes
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The Demonic in the Self 69influence
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The Demonic in the Self 71LEADER:Yo
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The Demonic in the Self 73Particula
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The Demonic in the Self 75NIETZSCHE
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The Demonic in the Self 77ing into
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The Demonic in the Self 79Nietzsche
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3. Unravelling the Demonic TextThe
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Unravelling the Demonic Text 83in o
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Unravelling the Demonic Text 85othe
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Unravelling the Demonic Text 87stru
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Unravelling the Demonic Text 89ies,
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Unravelling the Demonic Text 91open
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Unravelling the Demonic Text 95both
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Unravelling the Demonic Text 97woul
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Unravelling the Demonic Text 99demo
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Unravelling the Demonic Text 101Thi
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Unravelling the Demonic Text 105“
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The EpilogueIf there are answers to
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BibliographyA note on this bibliogr
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Index2001: A Space Odyssey; 207abje
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