Tragic Work

Abstract

This chapter explores the narrative of the frontier, of the gendarmes' being caught between les textes and le social, between bureaucratic form and lived life—in a lack of resolution. There is nothing beyond this tension, no safe space where the gendarmes can find certainty and protection; there is no bureaucratic haven. This tension is even accentuated by the different and often conflicting expectations of civilians, prosecutors, and the gendarmes' superiors. The gendarmes' mandate is ultimately unaccomplishable, their task impossible. The bureaucratic drama thus created both communitas and isolation at the same time. It created communitas among the gendarmes through their shared sense of frustration. But it also caused a sense of isolation as tragic creatures, with neither catastrophe nor catharsis in sight. Indeed, the gendarme is a bureaucratic Sisyphus: a frontier figure tasked with the impossible project of closing the frontier.