Saturday, October 9, 2010
about pizarnik and horror
I highly doubt that Pizarnik wrote "the Bloody Countess" to express her fear of her own lesbianism. I also doubt that people watch and read horror to quell their "internal tortures." Perhaps she was like all other people who go into a horror film today. We go and see scary movies because we are fascinated with death. Nobody goes to see SAW or Hostel just to help themselves feel better about themselves. It is the same thing with Friday the 13th, we all know people are going to die, but we are curious as to how. Even those who shield their eyes at the death scenes eventually peek out from between their fingers. This comes back to a fascination with death. Perhaps Pizarnik was just fascinated with what the countess did and decided to document it. Just something to think about...not everything has to have an exceedingly deep meaning.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I respectfully disagree. I think that the theory that Pizarnik wrote The Bloody Countess with some of her fears of being a lesbian in mind is very acceptable. After all Pizarnik was so mentally troubled that she resorted to committing suicide to relief her mental anguish. During the time that Pizarnik lived, in the mid 1900’s, people frowned upon homosexuality even more than they do today.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Luis, on the fact that Pizarnik wrote "The Bloody Countess" to express her lesbianism. It is definitely an intriguing and graphic way to express her feelings through the tortures of 600 virgin girls. Pizarnik expressed the feelings she carried about lesbianism, which were frowned upon and unaccepted in the mid 1990's. She did this by telling readers about details on how these girls were tortured which could allude to her hate towards people who do not accept homosexuality.
ReplyDeleteYay! Finally some engagement!
ReplyDeleteBut, don't forget the idea of "the gaze." She watches, but she doesn't really participate. Nor do we really see her enjoy what's going on. The text doesn't bring in any sort of pleasure, but with the mirror passage in particular, we do get a very melancholic picture of her. And, look at how/where on the body she tortures her victims--it's often in sexual ways/places.
There's a Greek concept called "catharsis," that I believe comes from Aristotle in Poetics. Essentially, it's a quality (in Aristotle's context, within a tragedy) that something bad happens on stage/in the text in order to purge the audience of something. Writers are notorious for using writing as their own catharsis too.
So, thinking of catharsis, does it make sense that she could be purging herself (or her readers) of something? Is it homosexuality, or could it be something else? What in the text would suggest that? Each specific act of torture (where on the body it is, how it's done, when it's done, etc) has an implication to what might be happening. What do they suggest?
^ (Possible paper topic. *nudge*nudge*)