Eroticized body, wounded body, body-memory: variations on the body theme in two novels by Juan Marsé, El amante bilingüe (1990) and Esta puta tan distinguida (2016)

Abstract

In both novels by Juan Marsé, El amante bilingüe (1990) and Esta puta tan distinguida (2016), we propose to study the relevance of the theme of the body and to show to what extent it is part of the author’s transgressive and committed writing. Indeed, for Marsé, who always struggled to denounce the imposture of words subjected to censorship and self-censorship during the long period of Franco’s dictatorship, body language is omnipresent in his profound intimacy, whether in its erotic aspect or in its process of degradation and decadence, as if it was the only real truth and the bearer of individual and collective memories.