The Representations of the Self in El viaje inútil by Camila Sosa Villada and Un año sin amor by Pablo Pérez

Abstract

Writing, usually, becomes not only a practice of resistance but also of vindication, since certain groups make use of it in order to speak and create their own narrative, in opposition to the wider world that rejects and oppresses them. Therefore, it enables another space, a peripheral space which becomes central and functions as the active back of their lives. The objective of this analysis is, then, to observe how this occurs in two argentine novels: El viaje inútil (2018) by Camila Sosa Villada and Un año sin amor (1998) by Pablo Pérez. To address this matter, we will take into consideration the strategies of the representation of the self and the construction of a certain image by means of writing. In addition, we will emphasize those social representations that revolve around transvestism and AIDS, and the relationship between writing, the body and disease. This way, we will see how this practice allows the appropriation of the aforementioned representations in order to rename them, without euphemisms and without shame, and, hence, claim their own situations.