The Disappearing Body

Abstract

Although Chile was the first country in Latin America to report cases of anorexia nervosa in 1982, the issue had already gained notoriety during the 1970s, the decade when North American policies and the United States capitalist economy began to infiltrate Chilean society. The category of eating disorders, which may be manifested in a variety of diseases (such as anorexia, bulimia, and compulsory overeating), has only recently become the focus of Chilean literature and, in turn, literary criticism, which has primarily focused on the metaphorical interpretations of these illnesses. One novel that treats the multifaceted manifestations of eating disorders, not merely the metaphorical representations, is Marcela Serrano's Antigua vida mía (1995). The societal demands of unhealthy body images have been the concern of feminist criticism such as Susan Bordo's Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body (1993). In Marcela Serrano's novel the treatment of eating disorders reflects the evolving expectations on women in contemporary Chilean culture. Through the application of Bordo's analysis of the cultural pressures and significances of body expectations, this article delves into the various manifestations of unhealthy eating practices in Serrano's Antigua vida mía and reveals the self-destructive and self-isolating consequences of an often-occulted illness while also recognizing that by treating body image and illness, the author engages in a cultural discourse regarding the expectations and repercussions of cultural demands.

Keywords:

• body
• Chile
• eating disorders
• Marcela Serrano

Notes

1. Gálvez-Carlisle explores these themes in the narratives of Ana María Del Río and Andrea Maturana while recognizing eating disorders as potential outlets for social commentary. Gálvez-Carlisle identifies anorexia and bulimia in Ana María Del Río's novel Óxido de Carmen (1986), in which the young protagonist refuses to eat after she is isolated from her cousin with whom she was involved romantically. I would argue, however, that the character's alimentary practices in that novel might be seen as a protest, an instance of fasting, instead of an eating disorder linked to body image and illness. It is not until the postdictatorship texts, such as Andrea Maturana's short story “Verde en el borde” (1993), that we may recognize clear cases of eating disorders in Chilean literature.

2. Cuadra analyzes the role of popular culture in the novel. As she recognizes, the book is dedicated to the Chilean folk singer Violeta Parra; however, ironically, the singer in the novel is Josefa, whose best friend, Violeta, does participate in popular culture through her creation of arpilleras. During the years of the military regime, many Chilean women met to create handicraft works, arpilleras, which were known for their elaborate tapestry design. These pieces told stories and were a resistive tool for women whose loved one's had disappeared. At the time, they were seen as women's mere handicraft. Nevertheless, these artistic mediums have since been recognized for their important role as an outlet for sociohistorical commentary and resistance. See Agosín.

3. Radical diets have been a trend in Chilean women's magazines. During its first years, YA included a weekly segment “dato-dieta,” which promoted such diets as “juice diets” (13 Sept. 1983: 25) and “dieta cosmonautas” (8 Nov. 1983: 25), for example. These diets often promised that one would lose more than a pound a day through sometimes poorly balanced nutrition and immobility of the participant, who on such small alimentation should “Aproveche ese día para estar relajada, y no emprenda grandes jornadas de trabajo para no correr el riesgo de agotarse excesivamente” (8 Nov. 1983: 25).