Incarnated Fears: the Cultural Imaginary of the Body in the Short Stories of Mariana Enriquez

Abstract

The creative proposal of the Argentinean author Mariana Enriquez introduces new configurations of the feminine that go beyond the duality of classical Gothic literature and its representation of women between monstrosity and disempowerment. e rupture of the body –as a material and primary frontier of individuality– is one of the marks of postmodern feminine writing. In this way, the female subject imagines herself in an act of linguistic creation, transgressing the conventional boundaries of gender identities to break into the cultural imaginary with new inclusive representations of the ugly, the abnormal, the macabre, the disturbing or the terrifying. This article looks into three stories as alternative examples of the literary construction of the body. It also offers a specific territory for analyzing (in)embodied female fears through social and cultural learning processes.