Diary Writting and Autorepresentation in Los deseos oscuros y los otros. Diarios de Nueva York, of Luisa Valenzuela

Abstract

One of the most remarkable aspects of Luisa Valenzuela’s novel Los Deseos oscuros y los otros. Cuadernos de New York (2002) is its diary-like structure. In addition to recounting a chronicle of passionate affections, Valenzuela’s diary comprises dreams, puns, humorous phrases, events, adages, summaries of lectures as well as letters, logbooks, short stories, poems and a drama. This article examines Valenzuela’s multi-level diaristic writing, her construal of gender and eroticism, and the roles she assumes as author, character and critic of her own process of autorepresentation. Comparable to Clarice Lispector’s weekly contributions to the Jornal do Brasil between 1967 and 1973, Los deseos oscuros y los otros. Cuadernos de New York is analyzed as a hybrid narrative whose resourceful ego scriptor expands the context of diaristic writing by incorporating numerous discursive configurations and valuable observations on literary authors as real and fictional subjects.