The Overflows of the Humankind: the Configuration of the Body in the Literary Works of Maria Luisa Bombal and Diamela Eltit.

• Published in: Catedral Tomada: Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana
• Main Author: Mario Federico Cabrera
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University Library System, University of Pittsburgh 2017-07-01
• Subjects: María Luisa Bombal; Diamela Eltit; Cuerpo; Disidencia
• Online Access: http://catedraltomada.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/catedraltomada/article/view/226

The article compares the construction of the female body representations in two novels of Chilean writers who go through the 20th century: La amortajada (1938) by Maria Luisa Bombal, and Lumpérica (1983) by Diamel Eltit. The exposition is organized around a question due to the manner in which both authors explore the limits of the human and the non-human, and the way those limits are inscribed and debated with the orders around the symbolic production of a normative corporeality. The hypothesis of this work holds that the authors present a critical stance towards the development of the nation, the community, the humankind and the subjectivity, which are inscribed on the materiality of the female body.