Sed de Mar (Artículo en Inglés)

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1/15

Undermining the Space of the Hero: Esther Seligson's "Sed de mar"

Author(s): Mariana SolaresSource: Letras Femeninas, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Invierno 2005), pp. 139-152Published by: Asociacion Internacional de Literatura y Cultura Femenina HispanicaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23021591.

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2/15

Undermining

the

Space

of

the Hero:

Esther

Seligson's

Sed

de mar

Mariana Solares

Southern

Illinois

University

Edwardsville

In her

fiction,

Esther

Seligson

(Mexico, 1941)

creates

complex

spaces

for

her characters

in which

they

move and

speak, rarely

within a

chronological

time frame.

Her

work,

including

novels,

stories,

poetry,

and

essays,

reflects

the adventurous

bent

of the author.

Seligson

is

a

prolific

reader; teacher; practitioner of astrology and divination; speaker of several

languages;

student of

theater, art,

literature,

and

mythology;

resident

of

several countries

(including

Mexico,

Spain,

France,

Israel

and

India);

and believer

in common

spiritual patterns

that cross

cultures. The

search

( la

busqueda )

is a common

theme

in her life and

fiction,

as well

as in

mythical

stories about

heroes.1 The novels

Otros son

los

suenos,

winner

of

the Villaurrutia

Prize

in

1973,

and Sed

de mar

(1987)

both follow

women

characters

as

they

take

voyages

of

exploration

that will

carry

them

beyond

known time

and

space.

In

Sed

de

mar,2

the

classical

Penelope

undermines the

myth

of the

hero

by

leaving

home

to embark on

her own

mysterious

voyage.

After

suffering

agonizing

desire and

loneliness

while

Ulysses

is

exploring

the

world,

Penelope

abandons

her traditional

role as

guardian

of

home to

seek her

own voice. She

addresses her

husband

in her

diary:

Mariana Solares is an assistant professor of Spanish at Southern Illinois University

Edwardsville.

She received

her

PhD from the

University

of

California,

Irvine,

in 1997.

Her research

and

presentations

center

on

poetry

by contemporary

Latin American

poets,

narrative

and

poetry

written

by

women,

and

the

study

of collaborative

works

by

poets

and artists.

She has an article

in

press

on the

Mexican

poet

Coral

Bracho.

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


3/15

140

Letras Femeninas Volumen XXXI

Numero

2

Quiero

romper

las olas con

pies

de

gozo y mojarme

los

labios en la

sed de

mar,

[.

.

.]

danzar con reverente

alegria

en las celebraciones

del vivir

[...]

Olvidar tus sirenas

y

mi

tejido,

el

decreto

de

los Dioses

[..(TR 106)

The

tale that

Penelope

tells here

excludes such

mythical

elements

as an

explanation

for

life's

mysteries,

a

sense of

unity,

or a means to

return

to

origins.3 Seligson exposes

the

contradictions

inherent

in

idealized

images,

whether of

desired human

figures

or of

life

goals

sought

on

a

journey. Expressing a mix of fear, anger, and longing, Penelope writes

the

following:

Enmudece

la

voz

a fuerza de

humillarse

ruego,

el anhelo se

sonroja

...

El

tiempo

del

amor se

transforma con el

tiempo

en

sacrilegio y

exige

su

reparacion,

[...]

Pero,

tardabas, Ulises,

y

la tardanza

empezo

a

cobrar su

propia

fuerza,

a

erguirse

altiva,

a

socavar con su

sonrisa

la

imagen

de

una

espera

cimentada

solo

en

recuerdos.

(TR 97)

Because Penelope leaves home

shortly

before

Ulysses'

return, the two are

not

reunited.

Ulysses,

finding

his

wife

absent,

loses his

way

and

fails to

complete

his

mythical

trajectory.

In this

novel,

Penelope's experiences

are

chronicled

in

letters,

writ

ten in

the

first-person

voices of

Telemachus,

the

old nurse

Euricleia,

and

Ulysses,

and

in

her

own

fragmented

diary

discovered after

her

disap

pearance.

In

the

opening

Proemio,

it

appears

that both

Ulysses

and

Penelope

are now

dead as narrator

Telemachus

honors their

supposed

tombs:

Yo,

Telemacho,

he

depositado,

con

arreglo

a la

tradicion,

una

guedeja

de mis

cabellos en

cada

una de las

tumbas

[.

.

.]

y

he

rogado

porque

sus almas

se

reencuentren

en la

pradera

de

los asfodelos

[.

.

.]

{TR

93).

In the

subsequent

three

chapters, Penelope

and

Ulysses

narrate

their

stories,

ending

in

the fifth and

final

chapter,

the

Epilogo

written

by

Penelope

in the

form of

a letter

to

Ulysses.

Here,

Penelope

describes

her

final

location as

la Isla del

Tiempo

Durable,

a

place

inaccessible

to

Ulysses

and

where she is

satisfied

to be free

from his

space:

Aqui

no

existe

huella

alguna

de

tu

presencia,

y

me veo en la

libertad de

inventarlo

todome deje tanta remembranza apretada al telar, tanta hebra trunca,

empezando

con mi

propio

destino

(TR

114).

Penelope

believes

that she

is

just

a

step

away

from

silence,

a

place

she

hopes

to enter in the

belief

that

only

there can

she find

a voice.

Although

it

is not

clear

if

she

achieves



4/15

Solares

141

this

goal,

she is transformed as

she chooses

a

different

position

in textual

space. Penelope

alters the

myth

and

effectively destroys

the hero, but her

voyages

do not

completely

break

with her

mythical

role.

As a

mythical

woman,

she has

depended

on the hero to determine

her

destiny,

and it

is

this

underlying

mythical

text

that

plays

on

her

actions and

experiences

in

this

new version.

The structure

of

Sed,

consisting

of

several

first-person

accounts,

creates

a text that

is

ambiguous

and without

closure.

Telemachus,

who

provides

the

opening

narration,

suspects

that

the nurse

may

have edited

Penelope's diary

in

order to

present

a more

favorable

image

of

Penelope:

La carta

que

Penelope

le refiere

a Ulises

llego

mutilada,

pues

el men

sajero

fue

atacado

[.

.

.]

De

los

fragmentos

del

diario,

Euriclea nunca

supo

explicar

las

omisiones

y

puntos suspensivos

(TR

93).

There

are

written

fragments

describing

Penelope's

ordeal

during

the

twenty years

that

are silent in

Homer's version.

In

Seligson's

text,

Penelope

becomes

entangled

in a confusion

of words

and memories

in which

Ulysses

remains

absent,

as she

writes,

Una

imagen, persigo

una

imagen

cuyo

numbre

no

encuentro,

persigo

un

nombre

cuyas

letras

no

conozco,

[.

.

.]

si no me

estoy enredando en las palabras a fuerza de no poder oirmelas, a fuerza

de

escucharlas s6lo

en mis

adentros,

sin

encarnarlas

[...]

(TR 94).

Desire

Although

Penelope

will remove

herself

from

her

position

of

depen

dence

on the

hero,

she becomes

divided as

she

steps

outside

her

mythical

role.

Penelope's

expressions

of

desire

suggest

that

Julia

Kristeva's

views

on

love and

psychoanalytic

discourse

are

appropriate

in

analyzing

her

dilemma.

Kristeva

proposed

that the

subject

sees the

object

of love

metaphorically

as

an

idealized,

symbolic

Other

essential

for that

subject

to exist

( Freud

and Love

247).

When such

an ideal

object

is

absent,

it

may

become

metonymic,

contiguous

to but

always separate

from the

subject.

In

either

case,

the Other

is

a

symbolic

ideal

existing prior

to

any

relationship

with

a lover

(253-54).

Penelope's

imagined

dialogues

with

Ulysses

reflect

a

complex

relation

ship

with an

Other,

in both

metonymic

and

metaphoric

terms.

During

his absence, Ulysses, functioning as ideal object of love, is metonymic in

being

remembered

but out of

Penelope's

reach.

Because its

object

remains

an

illusion,

her

years-long

voyage

of desire

is destined to

be unfulfilled.

As

Penelope

senses

Ulysses'

imminent

return,

she fears

the dark side

of

desire:

disillusion

and the confrontation

with

the

unknown:



5/15

142 Letras Femeninas Volumen

XXXI

Numero

2

Y

tengo

miedo, si,

algo

oscuro amenaza con

precipitarse

incontenible.

Me

rompere

[.

.

.]

y

lo

imaginado

pierde

su densidad de

perfeccion

para

transformarse en

algo

neutro,

brutal:

hay

que

retroceder,

hay

que

huir o

aprestarse

a

perecer

en un

grito

de avalancha.

(TR 98)

Penelope

decides to flee

by

embarking

on a

metaphoric

second

voyage

with the assistance of the

goddess Calypso.

As the

goddess

performs

in

Ulysses'

place,

Penelope

relives some of

Ulysses'

erotic

experiences;

in a

letter to him, she explains, Para entenderte yo a ti, para no devorar en

el odio

lo

que

si alcanzo su

plenitud

vivida,

decidi embarcar

y recoger

tus

pasos,

tomar el rumbo de tus aventuras

y

retrazar los escollos de tu

retraso. .

(TR 117).

She discovers what it would have been like to be

simultaneously

self and Other as she becomes both herself with

Ulysses

and

Ulysses

with

Calypso/Penelope/Other: Calipso desplego para

mi

todas las

transformaciones,

y por

amor a mi

amor,

revivio

conmigo

sus

enlaces

contigo

[.

.

.]

(TR

118).

She describes the

experience

in terms

reminiscent of

Spanish mystics:

Todo alrededor era luz

y

temblaba. Mis

parpados, mis brazos, mis senos, mis piernas se posesionaron de ti hasta

confundirnos con el roce del aire en la

paja

(TR 118).

Abandoning

desire

as

separation, Penelope

enters a

space

of sensual

experience

and

unity

not

possible

in

ordinary

consciousness but accessible in

imagination

and

in the text she

writes;

it

is a

metaphoric

connection

like that described

by

Kristeva in her

discussion of love as the unification of

subject

with

idealized Other.

Kristeva shows that such

unity

can be

achieved

only

in

terms of

the

metaphor

of love

(in discourse)

and with an

ideal,

not an

actual,

lover. In

Sed,

Penelope provides

the

metaphoric

textual

discourse,

and the

goddess

functions as

the ideal Other.

Given the

paradoxical

nature of love

relationships,

the close

con

nection between love

and hate makes the

lovers' encounters

inevitably

destructive. Once the Other is

perceived

as

different and

separate

from

the

self,

Kristeva finds

that it will be

hated

for

its

strangeness

(Kristeva,

Historias de amor

198).

Despite

her

longing

for

Ulysses, Penelope expresses

hate for the

man who

abandoned her:

Todavia puedo levantarme y gritar no quiero ; [. . .] puedo, a

fuerza de

amor, odiar,

y

no

perdonar

el

que

me

hayas dejado

ir

[...]

Aborrezco la

ligereza

con

que

me

abandonas a la

ausencia dfa tras

dia

como si ella

fuese

mi

verdadero

amante.

(TR 105)



6/15

Solares 143

Feeling

this slender

separation

between love and hate, Penelope dreams

of sexual encounters with

Ulysses

in

which she also inflicts

violence on

him:

Entonces

comprendi que

hubiera

querido penetrarte,

si,

herirte

en cada caricia con el mismo cristal con

que

tu heriste mi ser. No

fundirnos. No. Penetrar

y

salir,

penetrar

y dejarte

dentro un dardo

inflamado

[...]

Hacer

estallar tu ser en tu ser

[...]. (TR 118)

To free

herself,

Penelope

figuratively

destroys Ulysses:

[.

..]

liberarme

yo

misma de la

prision que

me construi

dentro

..(TR

118).

In

a

space

filled with

sensation,

where she is

independent

of her need

to be seen

by

an

Other,

Penelope gives up

desire and makes it

impossible

for

Ulysses

to

complete

his mission.

In a reversal of

roles,

Ulysses

returns to the

space

of forever-unsatisfied

desire that

Penelope

has abandoned.4

Although

the

Ulysses

of Sed does

not reunite with his

wife,

he claims

to

long

for her

despite

liaisons

with other women and

goddesses.

In

a letter

to Euricleia, Ulysses recounts his vision of returning home and finding

Penelope.

His claims of

being

misled

by goddesses

and hindered

by jeal

ous

gods

show the traditional

message

of The

Odyssey,

as he describes

overcoming

obstacles in the

exploration

of life:

[...]

buscando

la

expe

riencia

nueva

y

el conocimiento

de las

cosas,

voluptuosidad

en esa lucha

de la voluntad

por

domenar sus

limitaciones

[..

.] (TR

111).

However,

instead of

Penelope's identifying

welcome,

he is distressed

to find his

roots

destroyed

by

her

disappearance:

Estoy aqui porque

Penelope

ha sido la

guardiana

de mis rakes.

;Puede

acaso el sembrador

entregar

su semilla

sin

depositarla

en el surco

que

la

fertilice?

Yo

soy

el

que

vine a ser

nombrado

por

sus labios

[...]

el des

nudo

que

penetra

en el recinto

para

ser

purificado

.

..(TR

112-13)

Like

Penelope prior

to her

flight, Ulysses

seeks

completion

in the Other

represented

by

his wife.

In

Ulysses'

desire to

return to his

home

space,

we

see

what Luce

Irigaray

describes

as

the

positioning

and

taking

of the

woman's space by the male in his need, lacking any consideration for the

woman's

wish to

occupy

another

space

without

limits.

Irigaray

confronts

the

male and

derides

him: You

never meet

me

except

as

your

creature

within the

horizon of

your

world

( 47).

Having

endured

twenty years



7/15

144

Letras Femeninas

Volumen

XXXI

Numero 2

of

confinement,

Penelope steps

outside

that

enclosure into a

place

not

accessible to

Ulysses,

similar to that of

Irigaray's

narrator:

Already

I am

further than the

furthest

you

could

imagine

[...]

Elsewhere,

because

I

am so

close that

you

cannot see

me,

nor hear

me,

nor even touch

me.

I live

in

a

space

and time

that are

not

yours

[...]

(Irigaray

19).

As

in

Irigaray's

text,

the male hero

will fear to move

outside his own

circle

or to

recognize

Penelope

other than

as an extension

of himself and a

means to maintain

his

roots in home

and

family

(

20).

Penelope

undergoes

transformation

as she

moves outside

the structured world of

myth

into a

space

beyond

Ulysses'

world.

However,

it is not

clear

if

she finds

the

life-giving space

of

infinite

feeling

described

by

Irigaray

( 20).

Silence, Names,

and Games

Even

as

Penelope

tries to

place

herself in the

spaces

of

silence and

absence in the

novel's final

chapter,

such an action

cannot be

compre

hended. The reader

imagines

Penelope's

final

act,

described

by

her

as

an entrance into silence, as part of an impossible text in the style of

Roland Barthes.

Barthes classified

desire and

textual

descriptions

into

two

categories:

pleasure,

which is

accessible

in

experience

and

writing,

and

bliss,

which

cannot be

described and

becomes

part

of an

impos

sible

text

(20).5

In

the

mysterious

space

from

which

Penelope

writes at

the

novel's

close,

it

does not matter

whether she is

alive;

she will

remain,

both

for

Ulysses

and

for the

reader,

in an

ambiguous

place

of

absence,

like

death

in

that it is

not knowable

and

like bliss

because

it

is

beyond

the

bounds of

language

and

description.

Accordingly,

in

the final

words

of

the

novel,

Penelope

imagines

the

irresolvable

contradiction of

silence

becoming quiet:

El

silencio

dimelo

Ulises,

.jhabla

el

silencio?

^Que

dice

el silencio

cuando calla?.

.(TR

118).

She

suggests

that

language

itself

will

disappear,

but we

as

readers know that

language

remains

in

the

form

of the

text,

even if

the

mythical

Penelope

is absent.

We can

only

imagine

the

space

of

absence,

where

bliss does not

require

language.

The

silence

preceding

all

writing

is not

achieved as the

new text

depends

on

the

other one

slipping through

to

give

it

meaning,

even in

ambiguity.

The paradox of Penelope's new, desired position is that she cannot speak

while

claiming

silence,

nor can

the

play

of

myth

be

forgotten.

For

Ulysses

and

Penelope,

there

is a common

theme that is also

found

in

Homer's

Odyssey,

that of the

trick,

el

engano.

The

play

of

appearances



8/15

Solares

145

and of

language

is also

important

in

Sed,

not

surprising

in a

contemporary

approach

to a

myth

in which the

metaphorical

is its crucial function.

The

meaning

of names as

signs

is

explored,

as it is in

The

Odyssey;

but

in Sed

Penelope

and

Ulysses

will

take

differing approaches

to the

game

of

names.

Ulysses'

heroic

identity

is maintained

through

his memories

of

home,

all means

being

justified

in the

epic

and in

Sed to enable his

return. In

Sed,

Penelope

uses a measure of

self-deception

to

escape

from

becoming

the wife of a now-altered hero.

Memory

and dream become

for her

spaces

where

language

and the

simultaneous

hope

and fear of

Ulysses'

return are confused:

Hablar

de

lo

que

no

tengo,

de lo

que

no se como decir

[...]

de mi

cuerpo

envuelto en el recuerdo de tu ultima caricia

[...]

fragmentos

de sueno

que

vienen a

irrumpir

en

plena vigilia

lacerandome

la

piel,

[.

..]

ese

juego

entre la

espera

y

el temor a

que

la

espera

termine

[...]. {TR 94)

Memory

and dream are

perceived

as

spaces

of illusion or

engano

as

Penelope repeatedly

awakens

from

sleep

or reverie to discover that she

is alone, still waiting.

Yves

Bonnefoy provides

an

interesting analysis

of the

significance

of

the

play

on the

concept nobody

in

Odysseus's

(this

spelling

is used

by

Bonnefoy)

heroic

voyages.

In Homer's version of the

epic, trickery

enables

the

taking

of

Troy

as well

as

Odysseus's

narrow

escape

from the

Cyclops,

during

which he claimed

to be called No

Man. In the course of his

journey

he

pretends

to be a

stranger,

and he arrives home

disguised

as a

beggar.

On his

travels,

Odysseus

acquires

a false

identity,

appropriate

in

a

deceptive

world maintained

that

way

by

the

gods

themselves.

However,

to return home he

will need to rediscover his true

identity

as a

hero,

not as

Nobody,

and to

merge

the

conflicting

inner

and

outer worlds in

order to take

up

an authentic

inner

place. Bonnefoy

shows

how,

upon

his

return,

Homer's

Ulysses

will oscillate

back and forth

between the

sign

of the

beggar

and that of

the

hero,

depending

on whether

memory

or

trickery

is

required

to

achieve

recognition

at a

particular

moment. He

reveals

himself to the nurse

Euricleia

by exposing

the scar

he received

from

a wild boar

years

before,

thus

playing

on

memory.

Bonnefoy

shows

that it is through the body and memory that Ulysses will prove himself

to his

wife,

first in a show

of

strength

in

killing

the suitors

and then

in

knowing

the secret of the

bed he built around

a tree: The

name,

which

had become

Nobody through

a

cunning

trick,

must

find its final basis in



9/15

146

Letras

Femeninas Volumen

XXXI Numero 2

a

genealogy

by finding

evidence

right

in the hero's

body,

[. ..]

the

solid

body

of the craftsman who no

longer

needs to use tricks but can now

construct

(Bonnefoy

497).

Reference to that

special

inner

space

connects

past

and

present

and enables the

Ulysses

of

The

Odyssey

to take on his own

name,

centered

through

the

body

in

time

and

place

(497).

In

Seligson's

version,

Ulysses

is unable to return to his

roots,

symbolically preserved

in

the

body

of his wife.

Finding Penelope gone,

he

writes,

La inalterable

presencia

de

Penelope

ocupaba

en mi un

espacio

[...]

ningun

otro

gesto

alterabala

imagen

de surostro trasmis

pupilas

[...] (TR 112).The

hero

has lost

everything

that anchored him.

If

Ulysses'

return is

seen,

in

Bonnefoy's

terms,

as a

retiring

from

exterior

deception

in

the world to interior

authenticity

at

home,

Penelope

turns the

signs

around in Sed and moves into an exterior

space

to

escape

dependence

and discover herself. The call that motivates her to flee

is,

like

Ulysses'

connection with

home,

a

physical

one that

opens up

her

emotional horizons: Y me toco el

llamado,

Ulises

[...]

es como un

ansia

de

apertura,

de abrir el horizonte hasta el limite de su latir

profundo

[...]

(TR 116).

Her

journey

is more difficult because it is

open-ended

in

space

and time, having no destination other than to move away and to retrace

Ulysses' steps.

She does not find a

name,

an

identity,

or the words to

describe her

experience.

In

Sed,

there

is no

word that could return to the

speaker

the

power

and

unity

of

original

creation.

Rather,

words and names are

deceptive

and

in

need of

interpretation.

Both

Ulysses

and

Penelope

will end

up

nameless at the novel's

closeUlysses

for lack of an Other to name him

and

Penelope by

her own choice

as she

steps

outside the

myth. Ulysses

remains

Nobody,

stuck in a textual

space

constructed of

pieces

of his

own

myth,

and

Penelope accepts

any

name because she has not been

Someone from the

start:

Penelope

ha

quedado

atras. Para la

que hoy

te habla da

igual

el

nombre con

que

la

nombren:

Cora, Circe,

Nadie.

^No

fue asf

como te

nombraste?Nadie

[...] (TR 114).Because

the

myth

cannot

speak

without

its

symbols, Penelope

creates an

ambiguous

text

that

undermines the

earlier one.

Although Penelope

as fictional

character

and

voice

suggests

that the

myth

of

the hero

may

be

altered,

it

becomes

evident that for the

reader,

this is

impossible.

The

underlying presence

of the traditional myth remains, preventing Penelope from occupying

the

space

she

desires.6

In her

own

writings,

such as

Didlogos

con

el

cuerpo

(1981),

Seligson

provides

clues to

Penelope's

voyage

and

the limitations in

achieving



10/15

Solares

147

transformation

in

language.

In

Dialogos,

she

argues

that the

word/lan

guage

comes from the

body

in contact with another: Recorrer un

cuerpo

como

quien

remonta la corriente de un rio

hasta su

origen,

[...]

el barro

al

que

la

palabra

dara

forma,

[.

.

.]

la indeleble

marca

de

la

vida,

fluir

incontenible de la voz emitiendo

signos que

son la

piel

misma,

[.

.

.]

(TR 67).

The

body

of

the

Other,

as

object

of

search,

offers the

potential

for

language

and adventure:

Mirar, tocar, escuchar,

nombrar: recorrer un

cuerpo

es realizar un

acto de

palabras [.

.

.] Porque

se

sale hacia un

cuerpo

como

quien

parte

de

viaje

por

desconocida

ruta,

hinchadas las velas

por

azarosos

vientos

[...].

( Dialogos

67-68)

From this

perspective,

the lack of another's

body

as the

necessary

space

for the creation of words could

explain Penelope's difficulty

in

creating

a

voice. She

gives

up

the

body

to free herself from

desire,

but she also needs

the

body

to

create

a voice.

As

Ulysses

returns from the

world,

Penelope

flees

potential

intimacy

and enters another undefined and limitless space she has constructed for

herself.

The

mythical space

of

origins, including

the

body

as the source

of

language,

cannot connect with the

ambiguous spaces suggested

in

Sed

as the

mythical

text is deconstructed.

Penelope

and

Ulysses interchange

multiple positions

without

meeting

in

any

of

them. In

Sed,

the sea

repre

sents a

boundless

space

for

Penelope,

and thus she launches herself into

it as a

potential

means to

escape

the interior

prison

of desire. In

contrast,

Ulysses

moves about

in

the sea to

prove

himself but

always longs

to return

to the

interior,

bounded

space

of home.

Penelope

remains

within

spaces

of

imagination, initially

that of

desire

for the absent

Ulysses

within the

myth

that created her and then

that of a

voyage

to

a

mysterious

space

from

which she writes at the close

of the novel. She

moves from

communing

with absence

to

stepping

into

silence,

from the

space

without the

body

to

the

space

without

language.

Although

Penelope's

insatiable desire

tears her

apart

in the absence of its

object,

in this novel

she has the final

word.

By giving

up

desire,

she makes

it

impossible

for

Ulysses

to fulfill

his mission.

In

a reversal

of

roles,

Ulysses

will now take his place in the space of desire forever unsatisfiedthat

position

abandoned

by

Penelope.

Although

Penelope

and

Ulysses

will

no

longer

fulfill

their roles as

symbols

within the

myth,

their

positions

remain determined

by

their



11/15

148

Letras Femeninas Volumen

XXXI Numero

2

relationship

to each

other,

even

as the

story changes

in

this revised

text.

In

studying

the

paradoxes

of Sed,

Jacques

Derrida's concept of the

key

word reveals how a text

may

be deconstructed rather

than unified.

Gyatri

Spivak,

in her introduction to

Of Grammatology,

defines

key

words

in

this

way:

If in the

process

of

deciphering

a text

in

the traditional

way

we come

across a word that seems to harbor an irresolvable

contradiction,

and

by

virtue of

being

one word is made

sometimes to work in one

way

and sometimes

in

another

and

thus is

made to

point away

from the

absence of a unified

meaning,

we shall catch at that word,

(lxxv)

The most

contradictory

of terms for

Penelope

is

that

of silence. As she

writes her

story,

she

speaks

of

stepping

into

silence,

an

unimaginable

place

for her. The

painful ambiguity (key

word)

for

Ulysses

is

absence,

for the absence of

Penelope

undermines his

mythical

role and forces him

to

take

another

position

that will

involve neither

presence

nor absence.

In the

cases

of

Ulysses

and

Penelope,

each moves

away

from

completing

the unified symbol: Penelope + Ulysses = the hero's voyage and return

home.

Instead,

they

become

potentially

separate

signs

of No One and

of Silence

in

a written text that cannot be silent. Rather than

acquiring

different

identities,

the

positions

of the new

characters

appear

to

be

interchangeable

and to

prevent any

outcome in closure.

Penelope

will not

actually

become a

sign

of

silence,

only

its

possibility

as a textual

layer

erased and

written over. Reminders of the earlier

mythical

text make Sed

readable and

prevent

it from

being

silent. Silence as a

sign

is thus

not

what it seems

when both

Penelope

and

Ulysses speak

of

existing

in

it once

each has lost its Other.

Both

figures

will alter their

positions

with

respect

to the

concept

of

names and

naming,

traditional elements in

language

and creation. Whereas in the

myth

Ulysses

was No

Man

needing

to

prove

himself,

here he

remains forever in

an

ambiguous space,

lacking

the

unity provided

by mythic

identity. Penelope occupies

a similar

position

with

respect

to a

name,

but she

accepts

that she will have

none. She

does,

however,

take

up

a new

position by

writing

and

speaking, giving up

the

place

of the

passive

object

of

desire

incarnate.

Together

these two

words,

absence and silence, combine as another impossible sign that erases that

of

Ulysses

and

Penelope.

It is

the reader's sense of the

previous mythical

values that

lends some

meaning

to their new

positions.



12/15

Solares 149

Penelope's apparent

transformation becomes more

ambiguous

because we, as readers, cannot entirely separate the old and the new texts.

Both silence and absence

are

impossible spaces

for characters

depending

on

myth

and

textuality.

In

apparent

silence,

Penelope

will write

herself,

becoming

No

One

as she

replaces

the

myth

of

Ulysses

and

Penelope

with

the

possibility

that neither hero nor home

were other than

writings

from

another

space

of

absence,

that of desire and

language.

The

reader,

how

ever,

will

not

forget

the

original Odyssey

as a

journey

completed, making

a

silent

voice from nowhere

impossible

at the same time that the

myth

has been undermined.

NOTES

'Discussion

of Esther

Seligson's background

and interests

comes

from

an

interview

published by

Miguel

Angel

Quemain

in

Reverso de la

palabra.

This

is an informative collection

of interviews with

many

Mexican

writers,

freely

pursuing their opinions on life and literature. Additional information also comes

from

my

personal

conversations

with

the author.

2Sed

de

mar will be abbreviated

as

Sed.

All of

Seligson's

works

referenced

in

this article

can be found

in

the

collection

Trtptico,

bbreviated as TR.

3For

a discussion of the uses

of

myth

in

literature,

including

the

voyage

of

the

hero,

refer to works

by

Juan

Villegas,

such as

La estructura

mitica del

heroe.

In

Mythical

Intentions in

Literature,

Eric Gould describes

myth

as an

intention

to confront

the unanswerable

in

terms of

multiple possibilities

in

language

that transform

meaning

into

form

(178).

Other

contemporary approaches

to

myth

and

literature

appear

in works

by

Colin Falck

and Milton

Scarborough.

4The novel

introduces the

theme of unsatisfied

desire

in

the title as

well as

the

epigraphs,

all

referring

to thirst

and

introducing

the

metaphorical

nature

of the

language

anticipated

in the

novel. The first

epigraph

is from the

poem

Cuarto

solo

by Alejandra

Pizarnik:

Seguramente

vendra

/

una

presencia

para

tu sed

/

probablemente partira

/

esta ausencia

que

te bebe

(TR

91).

This

poem

reflects

the

ambiguity

of the novel's title

as

presence

and

absence

are

personified,

the

presence being

the unrealizable

quencher

of thirst at the

same

time absence drinks its object dry. In Sed, Penelope occasionally feels that her

imagined

lover is absence

itself,

as she

writes to

Ulysses,

Aborrezco

la

ligereza

con

que

me

abandonas a la

ausencia,

dia tras

dia,

como

si

ella fuese mi verdadero

amante

(TR 105).

Pizarnik's

poem

sums

up

the

nature of desire as

longing



13/15

Letras Femeninas Volumen XXXI Numero 2

for an

object

that exists

only

in

language.

The

second

epigraph

is from Suite

del insomnio

by

Xavier Villaurrutia:

Tengo

sed. /

^De que agua?

/

^Agua

de

sueno?

No,

/

de amanecer

(TR

91).

Thirst

implies

a desire for a

change

that

might

reduce the

suffering

of the

existing

state,

but it

may

not mean

possession

of the

object

of

longing.

The title

of the

novel,

Sed de

mar,

suggests

a

boundless

desire,

like a

thirst

unquenchable

because

slaked

on

salt water. Ocean and water

imagery

appear

often in the

language

of

Penelope

as she tells

Ulysses

he will

forget

her:

Olvidaras,

sin

mar,

sin

isla,

sin

balsa

[...]

libre de esa sed insaciable

..(TR

117).

To describe her immense

longing,

she

writes, Quiero romper

las

olas

con

pies

de

gozo

y mojarme

los

labios en la sed de

mar,

olvidar la

lugubre

cosecha de

vigilias

inclementes

(TR

106).

Penelope metaphorically

satisfies her thirst but

not in a

reunion with

Ulysses;

rather,

Calypso

acts

in

his

place

in an encounter

both erotic and

violent. The reader

understands

that,

for

Penelope,

the unwritten

space

may

be the

silence and

eternity

of

deathdesired but

beyond

conscious

experience.

The

novel's title

appears

also to be an

intertextual reference to a

poem

pub

lished

by

Ramon

Lopez

Velarde

in

1909, Hermana,

hazme llorar. In

directing

himself to the beloved sister Fuensanta, the

lyric

voice asks the

following:

Fuensanta:

tu

conoces el

mar?

Dicen

que

es menos

grande y

menos hondo

que

el

pesar.

Yo no se

por

que quiero

llorar:

serd tal vez

por

el

pesar

que

escondo,

tal vez

por

mi

infinita sed de amar.

Hermana:

dame todas las

lagrimas

del

mar ...

(Obras

106)

If

Penelope's

thirst is as

boundless as

the ocean in the

sense of desire

unsat

isfied,

in

Lopez

Velarde's

poem

it is

love that

is limitless in the

suffering

of the

lover.

Lopez

Velarde's lover

accepts

his

situation of

separation

from the

beloved,

whereas

Penelope

seeks

to

bridge

the

gap

with her

absent lover

by

entering

another

space

and

constructing

herself.

5In describing the pleasure of the text, Barthes finds that pleasure can be

expressed

in

words and

logic,

whereas

bliss involves

the

split

subject

and cannot

be

directly explained

(20-22).



14/15

Solares

6In her

analysis

of

Sed,

Aralia

Lopez

Gonzalez

discusses

Penelope's

need

to

find

her

own

name as

part

of a search for

identity

apart

from that of

Ulysses.

Lopez

Gonzalez

finds that the act of

negating

her

relationship

with

the

hero

is

sufficient to

provide Penelope

a

subject

voice:

Se trata

de un

nombre

indepen

diente de la mediaci6n del

hombre

y

su

espejismo. Penelope

dice

'no',

se

niega

a ser asumida

[.

.

.]

como

una

abstraction;

es

decir,

como una

mujer

ideal

(471).

This action and the

independent

decision to leave home are sufficient

for

Lopez

Gonzalez to conclude that

Penelope

has

succeeded.

However,

I find

that the new character

will remain without an

identity

because of her existence

in textual ambiguity.

If

acquiring a name is part of the formation of the male

hero,

then it is not

surprising

that

Penelope

would

give up having

a name as

she refuses that

path.

WORKS CITED

Barthes,

Roland. The Pleasure

of

the Text. New York:

Hill

and

Wang,

1975.

Bonnefoy,

Yves.

Mythologies.

Vol. 1.

Chicago:

U

of

Chicago

P,

1991.

Derrida,

Jacques. Of Grammatology.

Trans.

Gayatri Spivak.

Baltimore:

Johns

Hopkins

UP,

1976.

Falck,

Colin.

Myth,

Truth and Literature:

Towards a True Post-Modernism.

Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge

UP,

1994

Gould,

Eric.

Mythical

Intentions

in Literature. Princeton:

Princeton

UP,

1981.

Homer. The

Odyssey.

Trans. Albert Cook.

New York:

Norton,

1977.

Irigaray,

Luce. Elemental

Passions.

New York:

Routledge,

1992.

Kristeva,

Julia.

Freud and

Love: Treatment

and Its Discontents.

The Kristeva

Reader.

Ed. Toril Moi.

New York: Columbia

UP,

1986. 238-71.

. Historias

de amor. Mexico:

Siglo

Veintiuno,

1987.



15/15

Letras Femeninas Volumen XXXI

Numero 2

Lopez

Gonzalez,

Aralia. La

otra etica:

reinterpretacion

femenina

de

mujeres

miticas. Sin

imageries falsas

sin

falsos

espejos.

Coord. A.

Lopez

Gonzalez.

Mexico:

El

Colegio

de

Mexico,

1995. 465-75.

Lopez

Velarde,

Ramon. Obras.

Mexico: Fondo de Cultura

Economica,

1971.

Quemain,

Miguel

Angel.

Reverso de

lapalabra.

Mexico: La memoria del

Tlacuilo,

1996.

Scarborough, Milton. Myth and Modernity: Post-critical Reflections. Albany:

State U of New

York,

1994.

Seligson,

Esther.

Triptico.

Presentacion de

Jose

Maria

Espinasa.

Mexico:

Consejo

Nacional

para

la Cultura

y

las

Artes,

1993.

.

Dialogos

con el

cuerpo. Seligson

61-87.

. Otros son los

suenos.

Seligson

19-55.

. Sed

de mar.

Seligson

91-118.

Spivak,

Gayatri.

Translators

Preface. Derrida

ix-lxxxvii.

Villegas,

Juan.

La

estructura mitica

del heroe.

Barcelona:

Planeta,

1973.

Documents

Sed de Mar (Artículo en Inglés)