NotNormativelyHuman 171
stop at a Gaussian distribution curve; "normal" designates not what is
but what should be, an oughtness (as Hegel might have put it), and it
does so, as Canguilhem repeatedly points out, with a more or less
explicit preference or valuation in mind. Given the correlativity of
norms,itcanalsobearguedthat"polemical"alsopointstothesystemof
reciprocal dependencies at the base norms, and Canguilhem explicitly
makes this point: "norms are recognized by their divergences" (271).^18
In the analytical framework used here, I would argue that divergences
from biological norms are often embedded in a specific story type:
narratives of appearance. In such stories, the emergence of a
pathological biological feature, the malfunction of a bodily organ for
example,isaplotgeneratoraroundwhichalltherestoftheactioninthis
storyofhealing,thedoctor'sintervention,suspenseaboutthesuccessof
the therapy, and the final restoration of the patient's body to norm(al)
fall into place. Arthur Frank's Wounded Storytellerprovides a rich
inventoryofsuchillnessnarratives.
How norms, and here especially biological norms, can achieve
contours and argumentative authority at least in part by way of their
opposition to their polar opposite, the pathological, is shown for
example in Canguilhem's discussion of monstrosity, where he once
again demonstrates how any concept of the biologically normal is
dependentupontheatleastimplicitpresenceofitspathologicalother.In
formations of the normal/pathological dualism, each side of the binary
keeps invoking its opposite. Independently of Canguilhem but within a
similar conceptual framework, Rachel Adams in her study on freak
shows in the US has shown that "freak shows performed important
cultural work by allowing ordinary people to confront, and master, the
mostextremeandterrifyingformsofOthernesstheycouldimagine..."
(R. Adams,Sideshow U.S.A.2; cf. Garland-Thomson,Extraordinary
Bodies60-62). The normal and the pathological were thus aligned in a
system of mutual interrelationships, and monstrosity reinforced the
idealsofanormativemiddleclassphysiology.
(^18) Canguilhem discusses this dialectics at some length with regard to biological
normativities, as they operate for example in the conceptualizations of diseases
(181-202);cf.alsoRajanonillnessasmeasureddeviance(58).