Bodies and Texts

This book considers the novels of three Latin American writers, the Argentinian Griselda Gambaro, the Colombian Albalucia ngel, and the Mexican Laura Esquivel, and examines their work in relation to the formation of feminine identity. Concentrating on two novels of each writer in turn, this book considers how their writings may be seen to engage with the production of identity in the era of transference from a modern to a postmodern aesthetic. Two broad focuses are used in the reading of these novels: the reworking of the intertext, and the crafting of the body. With relation to Gambaro, the two novels under consideration are her works "Nada que ver con otra historia" and "Dios no nos quiere contentos" which are examined in the light of their reworkings of the Frankenstein trope and representations of circus performances, and their investigation into the marking of the body by the discourse of power. With regard to ngel, her novels "Dos veces Alicia" and "Las andariegas" are used to trace the development from the space of literary play of the first novel to the space of politicized feminist play of the later, where intertextual reworking and bodily transformations come to form part of a feminist praxis. In the final chapter, Esquivel's "Como agua para chocolate" and "La ley del amor" are examined with regard to the proliferation of bodies and codes which constitute a movement towards the status of postmodern pastiche, providing an ambiguous space for the feminine subject.