Remember my fake literary anthology?
The famous dream sequence in the final pages of Ingrid Dumont's Kepala has mystified readers and critics alike since it was first published. When young, feminine Dara [1] slips into unconsciousness while scrutinizing herself in the mirror, her reflected figure becomes that of her male employer and financial protector, Haba [2]. Slowly, tube like vines [3] grow around Haba's body in "verdant sinews like women's hands" (Kepala 1894); when he opens his mouth to cry out, the vines "suffocate and penetrate" him, eventually covering him completely with their "bonda [4] bondage" (1896). Dara watches, horrified, as the female bonds of the creepers strangle and annihilate Haba. Nowhere else in the book is the inversion of patriarchal gender roles so explicit yet so perplexing.
Until Dumont's childhood diary was made public earlier this year, no adequate interpretation of this mysterious and beautiful scene was possible. Now, armed with this crucial early text, we can draw strong parallels between the dream sequence of Kepala and an experience of Dumont's early childhood: at the age of four, she was an accidental witness to her father copulating with Ah-Pei, the Dumonts' housekeeper and Ingrid's nanny. This is akin to what The Language of Psychoanalysis defines as a "primal scene," the "scene of sexual intercourse between parents which the child observes…It is generally interpreted by the child as an act of violence on the part of the father" (335). Dumont's childhood experience has one notable difference from the archetypal primal scene: young Ingrid interpreted it as an act of violence against her father, later writing that "Ah-Pei made daddy howl with her body beatings" (Journals of Ingrid Dumont 87). This voyeuristic moment inextricably linked the erotic with violence for the young Dumont [5].
But, you ask, what of the mirror? Allow me to explain: Dumont's primal scene occurred not long after the stage of child development which theorist Jacques Lacan terms the "mirror stage," that is, the when an infant first becomes self aware after recognizing its reflection. While witnessing Ah-Pei "beating" her father, Dumont saw a part of herself reflected for the first time: an inner revolt against her father's role as master in the house. Later in her childhood (Journals 374, 465), Dumont frequently rebelled against her father's authority, listening only to her mentor and guardian Ah-Pei instead (504). In Dara's dream, her reflection turns into the scene of the annihilation of the Haba; here, at last, Dumont symbolically silences and castrates her overbearing father once and for all. The moment of the patriarch's death is the moment of woman's rebirth: when Dara awakes, a desire for change awakes with her.
[1] Malay for "maiden."
[2] This is the Malay "abah," meaning "father," spelled backwards.
[3] In his excellent essay "Ingrid Dumont's Garden," Henry Thorpe suggests these are in fact Nepenthes, a vine forming carnivorous plant indigenous to Borneo.
[4] Malay for "mother."
[5] Read Cynthia Ferguson's "The Whipping Post: Phallus as Weapon in Ingrid Dumont's Work" for more on this.
Hey, I even made footnotes work in livejournal! How about that.
Until Dumont's childhood diary was made public earlier this year, no adequate interpretation of this mysterious and beautiful scene was possible. Now, armed with this crucial early text, we can draw strong parallels between the dream sequence of Kepala and an experience of Dumont's early childhood: at the age of four, she was an accidental witness to her father copulating with Ah-Pei, the Dumonts' housekeeper and Ingrid's nanny. This is akin to what The Language of Psychoanalysis defines as a "primal scene," the "scene of sexual intercourse between parents which the child observes…It is generally interpreted by the child as an act of violence on the part of the father" (335). Dumont's childhood experience has one notable difference from the archetypal primal scene: young Ingrid interpreted it as an act of violence against her father, later writing that "Ah-Pei made daddy howl with her body beatings" (Journals of Ingrid Dumont 87). This voyeuristic moment inextricably linked the erotic with violence for the young Dumont [5].
But, you ask, what of the mirror? Allow me to explain: Dumont's primal scene occurred not long after the stage of child development which theorist Jacques Lacan terms the "mirror stage," that is, the when an infant first becomes self aware after recognizing its reflection. While witnessing Ah-Pei "beating" her father, Dumont saw a part of herself reflected for the first time: an inner revolt against her father's role as master in the house. Later in her childhood (Journals 374, 465), Dumont frequently rebelled against her father's authority, listening only to her mentor and guardian Ah-Pei instead (504). In Dara's dream, her reflection turns into the scene of the annihilation of the Haba; here, at last, Dumont symbolically silences and castrates her overbearing father once and for all. The moment of the patriarch's death is the moment of woman's rebirth: when Dara awakes, a desire for change awakes with her.
[1] Malay for "maiden."
[2] This is the Malay "abah," meaning "father," spelled backwards.
[3] In his excellent essay "Ingrid Dumont's Garden," Henry Thorpe suggests these are in fact Nepenthes, a vine forming carnivorous plant indigenous to Borneo.
[4] Malay for "mother."
[5] Read Cynthia Ferguson's "The Whipping Post: Phallus as Weapon in Ingrid Dumont's Work" for more on this.
Hey, I even made footnotes work in livejournal! How about that.