Beyond Essence: Performing Gender and Sexuality in Ena Lucía Portela's Cien botellas en una pared
Set against a backdrop of the chaotic, crumbling Cuban capital and the multiple crises of the Special Period, Ena Lucía Portela's 2002 novel Cien botellas en una pared portrays both consequences of economic collapse and the breakdown of traditional paradigms of gender and sexuality. In the te...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Pluto Journals
2013-09-01
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| Series: | International Journal of Cuban Studies |
| Online Access: | https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.13169/intejcubastud.5.2.0184 |
| Summary: | Set against a backdrop of the chaotic, crumbling Cuban capital and the multiple crises of the Special Period, Ena Lucía Portela's 2002 novel Cien botellas en una pared portrays both consequences of economic collapse and the breakdown of traditional paradigms of gender and sexuality. In the text, the connection between biological sex and gender performance appears to be arbitrary; virtually all of the female characters are lesbians, while the male characters are either gay or emasculated heterosexuals. This essay argues that Portela's novel problematises the (hetero)sexist norms that have persisted in Cuban society, dismantling patriarchy in favour of a fluid, amorphous social structure in which power itself becomes ephemeral. While the image of La Habana presented in Cien botellas en una pared is far from utopian, the text nonetheless questions rigid hierarchies of gender and sexuality to a degree that is trailblazing in Cuban fiction of the Período especial . |
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| ISSN: | 1756-3461 1756-347X |