“Una tercera lectura”: the cinematic reader and the cult of virility in Manuel Puig's El beso de la mujer araña (1976)

• Thakkar, Amit ^[1]
  1. [1] Lancaster University

     Lancaster University

     Lancaster, Reino Unido

     
• Localización: Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies, ISSN-e 1469-9524, ISSN 1470-1847, Vol. 20, Nº. 1, 2014 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Men, Power and Liberation: Readings of Masculinities in Spanish American Literatures), págs. 7-29
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • In El beso de la mujer araña, Manuel Puig encourages a “tercera lectura,” informed by both cinema and literature. He creates a cinematic language reinforced by the spirit of “synthesis” and then incorporates a conceptual discourse which is beyond cinema because of the “límites de atención” of a “lector cinematográfico.” Puig expects readers to draw their own conclusions about the themes which emerge. I argue here that both the themes and aesthetic of the novel can be read as a challenge to the form and content of a literary and filmic “cult of virility.”