School for Corpses (L'École des cadavres)

Description

Ecole Des Cadavres is not just informative and polemic, but it is also a means by which Céline can vent his anger andfrustration. The style of language is very similar to Guignol’s Band: the sentences are fractured, paratactical and there is frequent use of the ellipsis and the exclamation mark. It would therefore be much easier to imagine this text being read (or shouted) aloud to a group of people than read out of a paperback in silence. The use of gross sexual imagery, excessivebloody imagery and brutal personal attacks are all supposed to make the reader laugh: when someone finds himself in such ahopeless situation as Céline did, the only things he can laugh at are the baseness and the suffering of his fellow men. Ecole Des Cadavres is the laughing, raging, isolated, fearful and nihilistic voice of Céline, screaming out at a population who cannot understand his words. Ecole Des Cadavres is a snapshot of Céline’s desperation. We look through the eyes of a fear-stricken individual who struggles to find a way out of his situation, he clings onto any explanation for the suffering around him and only has literature as a means of expressing his emotions. We get the highly personal and graphic account of an isolated artist, who is crying out for attention, notoriety, or anything that will alleviate him from his solitude and fear.