BODY, WRITING, AND SILENCE: LETTER AS A REFUGE IN LOURDES MERAZ’S LOS ABISMOS DE LA PIEL, AND VERTEDERO —O LA SUMA DE TODAS LAS COSAS—

Abstract

This paper presents the short novel Los abismos de la piel, written by the young Mexican author Lourdes Meraz. This analysis is based on the connection between sick body and personal identity. The novel represents the journey of a female body, from the brightness that it gains after love encounters, to the breach between corporality and consciousness that the character suffers because of its illness. The use of language, rich in images and figures, intends to show, textually, how memory is erased, and how language starts becoming more fundamental. At this point, establishing a dialogue with a collection of poems by this same author, Vertedero —o la suma de todas las cosas—, has emphasized the importance of writing as a theme in both texts.