Body of Writing: Figuring Desire in Spanish American Literature

This study focuses on the traces that an author’s body leaves on a work of fiction. Drawing on the work of six important Spanish American writers of the 20th century, Rene Prieto examines narratives that reflect - in differing yet ultimately complementary ways - the imprint of the author’s body, thereby disclosing insights about power, aggression, transgression and eroticism. The six writers studied are Julio Cortazar, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Severo Sarduy, Rosario Castellanos, and Tununa Mercado. Claiming that an author’s intentions can be uncovered by analyzing the topography of a text , Prieto pays particular attention not to the actions or plots of these writers’ fiction but rather to their settings and characterizations. Along the way he reaches unexpected conclusions regarding topics that include the relationship of the female body to power, male and female transgressive impulses, and the connection between aggression, the idealization of women, and anal eroticism in men.