ABSTRACT
Addie is "mater sacer". Drawing on how Addie's body functions as an object of speculation in the novel, this chapter explores how the violence inflicted upon Addie's corpse (her dead, physical body) metaphorically shows the violence inflicted upon her ideological body throughout her life. Expanding upon Ladd's argument, the chapter explores how the text constructs Addie (her body and self) as a "sublime object" related through violence and the failure of language (a trope of the sublime) yet distanced from the issue of authorship. It argues that Addie creates tension between being the object of others' desires and the subject of her own desires by functioning as both "homo sacer" and "sublime object". As "homo sacer", Addie is a "sublime object" for the community. In As I Lay Dying, Addie's corpse is threatened with and subjected to multiple violent acts: holes drilled into her face, decay through long travel, drowning in a river, and almost incineration by fire.
