Eros and Writing in Tununa Mercado's "Canon de alcoba"

Abstract

In his provocative essay, Que sepa abrir la puerta para ir a jugar, published in 1969 in Ultimo round, Julio Cort?zar laments the absence of eroticism in Latin American literature, particularly, in the narrative fiction of his native country. Writing in the late sixties, when, for the most part, the erotic literature published and read in Argentina was imported from the United States and Europe, Cort?zar posed the question: ?cu?ndo nos vamos a animar a hacer del caste? llano un instrumento er?tico propio? (82). In the name of freedom, Cort?zar challenged his fellow writers to overcome fear and verbalize desire in a way that would liberate sex from the confines of the bedroom, and situate the erotic act m?s arriba del ombligo (78). Cort?zar's appeal to eliminate the taboo in writing and legitimize the language of desire would have to wait for the return of democracy to Argentina before it could be answered with the liberty he envisioned. Manuel Puig also recognized the connection between eroticism and freedom when he declared in an interview: sexual oppression is the school of all the other oppressions (Bacarisse 219). Given the close ties between sexuality and politics, it is not surpri? sing that erotic works, such as Reina Roff?'s Monte de Venus (1976), or Griselda Gambaro's Lo impenetrable (1984), were prohibited by the military junta of the Proceso de Reorganizaci?n Nacional. During the years of the dictatorship, writers defied authority and subverted the establis? hed order by incorporating eroticism in texts written and published in exile. Those who remained behind resorted to the art of allusion and euphemism to circumvent censorship, while still others wrote in silence, preserving their manuscripts for the day when they could be retrieved from boxes and closets. Since the restoration of democracy in 1983, there has been a veritable explosion of erotic literature in Argentina, especially on the part of women writers who have entered the garden of erotic delights without closing the door entirely on the painful memory of the recent past. In his article, Espejismos er?ticos, David William Foster conjectures about the treatment of erotic themes by Latin American women writers: hay que insistir en la hip?tesis de que las escritoras puedan desafiar mucho m?s eficazmente los tab?es y las restricciones porque ?stos no han sido creados por ellas mismas, sino, por el contrario, han sido impuestos sobre ellas por una socie? dad controlada por el hombre. (658) Evidence that erotic literature is gaining prestige and popularity in Argentina are the national publication and distribution of books and magazines which focus on the subject, and the increa? sing number of Argentine manuscripts submitted to Editorial Tusquets' collection of erotic literature, La Sonrisa Vertical, and to the Barcelona publisher's annual international contest for