DC00385860
Assignment 1 Part 2: Critical
Analysis
I shall critically analyse ‘The
Kiss of The Spider Woman’ , from the subjective viewpoint of Postmodernism. I
shall investigate how metanarrative and simulation
are used within the text and how this creates a deconstructive narrative. I
shall also explore Judith Butler’s theory on performative gender in relation to
this textual analysis.
Before analysing this text it is
important to understand the political implications of how and when it was
written. It is in direct relevance to Manuel Puig’s novel of ‘The Buenos Aires Affair.’
(1973) This novel critiqued Peron and the government in Argentina which led to the
expulsion of Puig from his native country. As according to Esposito;
‘
In 1976, the military deposed Isabel and proceeded to institute one of the most
disastrous, terror-ridden military dictatorships of the twentieth century: a
regime that would make torture and kidnapping into instruments of policy, and
that would reportedly kill 30,000 of its own citizens in just seven years, a
period now known in Argentina as the Dirty War. (Esposito: 2010) Explicitly, ‘The Kiss of The
Spider Woman’ therefore has elements of an autobiographical and political
context, which shall be analyzed in the deconstruction of the text.
We are first drawn to two men who have been
exiled like Puig, from mainstream society and share a cell in a jail in Argentina. Equally
as with Puig, they are ostracized from society because of their political and
sexual preference and the fear of torture like the ‘dirty war’ is real; which takes the form of food poisoning
and mutilation of Valentin within the text. Molina is a gay window dresser, who
is in prison for sexual liaisons with a minor and Valentin, who is a political
prisoner, is anti- government. By using intertextuality we can identify Puig’s
real character with Valentin as he is valorizing his political ostracism from
society by Peron and with Molina by showing the marginal’s of a patriarchal society.
It is the friendship which develops between the men which is the core theme of
the story.
There is no narrative voice and changes in
voices are highlighted by a
dash (-). Dialogism is used to create the
fluidity of the story and to demonstrate the complex personalities of the individual
characters. Yet Dialogism, also gives the effect of reading the text as a play
which is further enforced by Molina’s ‘stream of consciousness as a monologue’
(Teorey:2010)
It
is through the hyperreality of film that both men travel to an escapist ideal away
from their cell and it is here that Molina’s monologue takes over.
Molina’s
stories are filled with images of old Hollywood black and white movies, which become
fiction presented within fiction; through intertextuality these become a
metanarrative; as Molina then proceeds to deconstruct the story by embodying
himself within the female stars of Hollywood.
As according to Bayona; ‘Puig develops the
idea of the Hollywood films as a metaphorical
displacement for Valentin and Molina as they identify or reject themselves with
the film’s characters. (Bayona:2009) This then also
questions
the simulation of the perfect image of Hollywood
movie stars and gender as a performance, which I shall critically analyze next
as a deconstructive text in chapter three.
Molina tells the story of French singer Leni
and her moral and political struggle in wartime Europe.
The occupation of the Nazis and freedom fighters is highlighted and creates a
pastiche with Peron and Puig's exile. He introduces gothic melodrama by
creating the ugly character ‘clubfoot’ and creates an air of romantic mystery with
Leni and a German officer. Through intertextuality, Molina is parodied with
Leni as the fallen heroine who betrays her lover, in comparison Molina helps
Valentin by betraying him too, to the prison guard, for information .Occupied France is a historgraphic metafiction that
ironically satires Peron’s dictatorship of Argentina. The soldiers; ‘Totally blond,
marvelous to look at.’ (Puig 1979:48) Puig is deconstructing the narrative, and
is exploring the political fascist ideals of Peron as according to Pigna, Peron
valorized thee ‘perfectly ordered community, true peoples democracy, the true
social democracy. (Pigna (2008) On initial reading it is easily to candidly
view Molina’s film speak as a right wing propaganda film, but the film must be
viewed as a simulation to understand it as a metanarrative.Puig simulates the Nazi
flag and blonde white idealism, as a parody of fascism in Spain and Argentina .The
music hall again suggests the intertextuality of a gothic film.
‘They’re
all made up black and when they kick they hold onto each other around the waist
and as the camera focuses on them they look like a line of African girls, with
skirts all made out of bananas, and nothing else, but then the cymbals clang
and they turn to the other side, and suddenly they’re blonde, and instead of
bananas they’re wearing little strips.’ (Puig 1979:50)
This
text works in two ways, firstly it deconstructs the narrative as according to
Barry; it is a ‘way of describing this would be to say deconstructive reading
uncovers the unconscious rather than the conscious dimensions of the text’.
(Barry
2009:65) On the theory of the unconscious, firstly black and blonde make us
examine binary divisions of race and the hegemonic racism of seeing and
accepting this hypereality as the norm, as the blonde as the dominant hegemonic
race. The scene is built up on the Heisenburg uncertainty principle (Waugh
1996:3) as we are observing through Molina’s eyes and his objectivity creates a
metanarrative within the film. Thus the mere fact that these binaries exist on
one person deconstructs the idea of racial difference and questions the
identity of a supreme race.
The
camera or picture is already deconstructing the narrative, therefore we are
first drawn to the binary oppositions of race within gender itself and Baudrillard’s idea of simulacra, is further heightened in the blonde white race as a mass media message
of the perfect race of Nazi Germany.
This simulated reality in opposition to the painted faces of African women
would be seen as degenerative, but ironically questions the oppression of women
by patriarchy and opens up the question of homophobia that is also present in
society.
Butler
reinforces this oppression;
“Bound
to seek recognition of its own existence in categories, terms, and names that
are not of its own making, the subject seeks the sign of its own existence
outside itself, in a discourse that is at once dominant and indifferent. Social
categories signify subordination and existence at once. In other words, within
subjection the price of existence is subordination.” (Butler :subjection)
Fundamentally
this text is not just examining race but also as a metanarrative by examining
the social subordination, of women and Puig’s own sexuality. It has absorbed a
pastiche of styles which is shown when Leni visits the German officer’s apartment. The medieval style architecture of
this scene, further creates a pastiche of a film embellished with another film,
a metanarrative. As according to Waugh it is when a text ‘poses questions about
its relationship to fiction.’ (Waugh 1996:2) By creating a gothic genre in this
scene, the text is questioning this relationship. The scene is totally gothicized
,from the white marble , to the ‘ white chiffon curtain billowing in the wind
like a ghost ,and the candles blow out, the only lighting.’
(Puig
1980:55)We are given ‘moonlight’ and the framing of Leni as a ‘Greek Amphora.’ suggesting
connotations of fecundity . (Puig 1996:55) This metanarrative is questioning
the relationship between ‘fiction and reality’ . (Waugh 1996:2) The metanarrative views the
scene as Molina as the director of a film, who valorizes Leni as tragic heroine
of gothic fiction. She has an air of mystery
and is with a German officer in Paris
at night; and the grounds around the ‘house seem silvery, black trees against
the gray sky, not blue, because the films in black and white.’(Puig 1996:55) It
is here that the metanarrative again questions what reality is and what fiction
is as we seem to be railroaded by a bad Hollywood B movie which is embellished
by Molina who sees himself as Leni. It is here that as according to Judith Butler;’
gender and sexuality are performative, rather than fixed or determined by
biology or nature: gender identity is performativeley constituted by the very
expressions that are said to be the result.’(Bennet&Royle 2009:223)It is
through the deconstruction of the narrative that Molina becomes performative as
Leni through the hypereality of film. Thus the narrative is driven back to the
cell and Molina talks of his waiter and homosexual love and desire. The importance
of the reality of the cell and Molina talking of his relationship with Valentin
is the initial setting for the footnotes.Valentin feels ‘curiosity’ and ‘I know
very little about people with your inclination .’ Puig is educating his reader into the social identity of homosexuality and when Molina says ; ‘That’s…how it is when it
comes to really deep feelings, at least I think so.’ (Puig 1996:59) He is
demonstrating his identity, as a clear
emotion and in his last interview with Ronald Christ ,Puig said ‘It does not
matter who you are but how you are.’(Christ 1977) Thus we are all human but are
driven by a desire for social and
sexual acceptance in society. The
footnotes are deconstructive ways of making the reader analyze homosexuality in
this particular chapter, a researcher; D.J.West explores the assumptions about homosexuality from the
causes, such as hormone imbalance, intersexuality, chromoseomes and finds his
research inconclusive. He analyses that homosexuality and heterosexuality are ‘roles acquired
through psychological conditioning, and not predetermined by endocrinal
factors.’ (Puig 1996:64)These footnotes create a revolutionary text as they
explore the political and social facts
of homosexuality and educate the reader .
In
conclusion, the text embodies many key theoretical devices used in
postmodernism. There is a political irony underlying the story as Puig creates ironical pastiche . It is a text
which uses hypereality, by fusing the films into reality and the footnotes
recreate the same principle later. Fundamentally it is a novel, which the
reader has to deconstruct and look closely at the
metanarratives
to understand its full meaning.
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