Ambivalencia, Mujer y Alteridad en el Cielo a Dentelladas

Abstract

Based on the studies of 'colonial subject,' the analysis of oral enunciations, writing practices and historiography that organize the world and the alterity have permitted new approaches to social history, enriching this field with more sensitive points of view for those who have not had voice because of historical reasons. It has also contributed to relativizing many truths which have been considered ultimate in the humaniteis, social sciences and philosophical systems. In the theory of speech (enunciation) and writing practices, subjectivity is revealing itself not only as a focus or 'sameness' (corporative, national, esthetic, etc.), but also as an entity that constitutes a reordering of the world and the Other. Therefore, whether one wants or not, he / she must ultimately establish and reflect in an explicit or implicit way a sereies of power relations in the process of enunciating alterity.

In his novel El cielo a dentelladas (2000), the Mexican writer Antonio Sarabia(b. 1944) highlights critical meaning of writing and its role, which is capable of masking and breaking stereotypes and dominating systems of representation. In this work, he made a creative effort to do documentation in order to reconstruct historical moments and revive the past. This paper examines what is hidden and what is revealed in the European image of the female Caribbean slave Catalina through Sarabia's attempt to deconstruct the epic story of the novel.