Representing bodies in selected stories of Julio Cortazar and Luisa Valenzuela

• Main Author: Fulks, Barbara P
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-1993
• Subjects: Latin American literature; Womens studies
• ISBN: 9798208300411

This study examines the difference gender produces in four theoretical constructs: mind/body, time/space, the political body, and the postmodern body. In Chapter One I analyze Valenzuela's "Ceremonias de rechazo" and Cortazar's "Anillo de Moebius" in order to see how the traditional philosophical binarism of mind and body functions in two contemporary narratives. In Chapter Two I discuss the impact of scientific theory dealing with time and space on contemporary literary theory. Gaps, repetition, and the space from which discourse emanates assume critical importance along with the process of reading as a filling in of gaps. The representation of the gendered body in Cortazar's "Las armas secretas" and Valenzuela's "Cambio de armas" relies on an assumed difference in the masculine and feminine apprehension of time and space. The political body is the theme of Chapter Three. In the masculine realm being a political writer entails the representation of a national space. The political female, however, is an advocate for her gender. In "Recortes de prensa" Cortazar fictionalizes the dilemma of the moral imperative to write about a homeland gone awry. Valenzuela's "Cuarta version" illustrates the marginalized female caught up in a national disaster that envelopes both public and private space. In Chapter Four I discuss critical opinions on the relationship between postmodernism, feminism, and the so-called third world. I then examine one of postmodernism's primary characteristics, the decentered body, and its application to Valenzuela's "La palabra asesino" and Cortazar's "Las babas del diablo." Both Cortazar and Valenzuela write about the difficulty of the male/female relationship, violence as a predominant characteristic in both private and public life, a sense of the space between reader and writer, and the world and text as open for interpretation. The difference between them is body. Valenzuela writes the female body--one that is trapped in desire and threatened on all sides by male violence. Cortazar writes the male body, also trapped in desire and threatened on all sides by female victimization.