Gendering the suicidal body: Male translation of female death in Javier Marías' Corazón tan Bianco

Abstract

Juan, the protagonist of Corazón tan bianco (1992) by Javier Marias, examines his identity through an investigation of his father's marriages, which are shrouded in secrets and suicide. A critical analysis based on Elizabeth Grosz's Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism (1994) shows how instances of suicide in the novel connect the female body to violent suffering while also serving as a liberating experience for the validation of masculinity. In search of a self-interested narrative of masculine identity, Juan becomes a voyeuristic translator of the inscriptions of suicide on women's bodies.