Topic > Ars Erotica: Analyzing "Arcadia" and "Eva Luna"

“Language is not a neutral tool.”[1]Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Literature is never without an ideology, whether intended by the writer, interpreted by the reader, inherent in the language, or implicit in the context. Thus, an author's or playwright's particular manipulation of the medium—a particular style—always serves a purpose; of the author or the audience. The characterization of the heroine, the erotic scenes and the intertextuality in Isabel Allende's female ecritura Eva Luna (1987) show the vital potential of female sexual and creative expression. Furthermore, the novel's revision of the postcolonial genre, magical realism, for the Subaltern woman contextualizes the problematic decisions and experiences of women in Latin American society. The characterization of women, the satirical devices and the cyclical structure of Tom Stoppard's comedy of ideas Arcadia (1993) could represent the struggle for the inclusion of the female psyche and Eros in patriarchal epistemology. Although segregated by their cultural and historical context, both texts are unified by their feminist discourse on women's sexuality; in other words, they are examples of ars erotica [2]. The development of the titular character, through intertextuality and metanarrative, in Isabel Allende's magical feminist novel Eva Luna adheres to notions of female writing and celebrates the life-giving faculty of women: “Woman must write herself: she must write about women and bring women to writing, from which they have been distanced with the same violence as from their bodies"[3]. ” (9), to “disobey an order” (19) and “please” (20) a man bitten by a viper; but instead of causing mortality, Consuelo saves him from death. Furthermore, he calls their creation Eve, “so he will love life” (22) and share it, and although “his father's name is not important”, subverting the patriarchal lineage, he appropriates “Luna”, from the name of his “tribe, the Children of the Moon”, thus uniting two powerful matriarchal symbols.[4] She further empowers her daughter by transmitting to her “the idea that reality is not just what we see on the surface… it is legitimate to enhance and color it to make our journey in life less tiring” (21) and by guiding her through life, for “if [ Eva] manages to remember [her], [Consuelo] will always be with [her]” (43). Eva's sexual awakening to ars erotica, triggered by One Thousand and One Nights, is crucial to challenging phallogocentrism: "Eroticism and fantasy broke into my life with the force of a typhoon, erasing every limit and overturning the known order of things" (146). The “multiple possibilities of [her] femininity” (192) cannot be expressed by the “acuteness and singularity”[5] of male language; instead, his later writing is parler femme. Claiming “the splendid gift of [her] own sensuality,” she comes to “know [her] body,” expressing her subjective sexuality in and of itself. Eva's relationship with Riad Halabi is juxtaposed with Huberto Naranjo's suppression of her joy and creativity. Her machismo dictates silence and deception, as she “never spoke of her fantasies” and “feigned satisfaction,” to gratify her sense of entitlement to Eva's body. Her invention of rape corrupts the liberatory potential of her imagination and she is "unable to concentrate on [her] work or stories" (220). Eva realizes her ultimate being by reconciling, as Scheherazade did, sexuality, politics and narrative. His writing is “salvation through fabulation”4; gives her "the power to determine [her] destiny, or to invent a life for [herself]" (241)or to love "exactly as [she] had described... in one scene" (291) and the means to convey her nonviolent and imaginative political emancipation of prisoners like a soap opera. Isabel Allende empowers the protagonist of Eva Luna by writing about female experience and the female body in “white ink”[6] and honoring the female gift of life through intertext with the Bible and the Arabian Nights and metanarrative strategies. The problematic and ideological introduction of minors Eva Luna's characters encourage a feminist reading in the context of postcolonial and patriarchal Latin American society. Zulema is condemned for perpetuating her position – “dependent on her husband for everything” (148) – by choosing to “put up with [her husband] rather than work to support herself.” Apathy and idleness have eradicated his identity; she is, metaphorically, an “enormous toy” for her husband's lust, “a great pale fish abandoned” (149) by the patriarchal ideal of marital fulfillment. Yet she has been “educated to serve and please a man” (148) as her sole function, her worth judged as an object, on the basis of “no blemish” (141), domestic skill, and purity. While Zulema is deprived of her worth, as defined by her body, because she "could not bear body hair...offended by her own odor" (149), Madrina is "proud of her voluminous flesh...pubes shaded by a frizzy hair…a strong sweet smell” (45). She embraces her synesthetic body and enjoys her sexuality as part of her subject, while remaining devoted to Catholicism, thus challenging the archetypal virgin/whore dichotomy and empowering. to women through sacrifice. He baptizes Eve "with a thorough cleansing of the church" (46), an ironic purification; however, the binary oppositions of religious and patriarchal dogma corrupt her capacity for nourishment: "the boundaries between good and good evil were very precise, and she was ready to save [Eva] from sin if she had to beat her to do so." After "analyzing her [limited] possibilities" (118), Senora arrived at an illusion of power through "l 'imagination', 'patience and hard work' (113) and taking advantage of her sisterhood. This Janus stereotype is reinforced by his feigned submission: "It's better to say yes to everything and then do what you want." She “never batted an eye” (120) at her “distinguished clientele,” paradoxically influential and respected but, nevertheless, a prostitute, addicted to the objectification of women. Senora therefore appropriates the patriarchal aesthetics of the feminine, without deconstructing it. Melesio/Mimi complicates the conception of woman, as trans-exclusive radical feminism claims that transsexuality is a medical industry, "an institutional expression that women are defective males"[7], reflected in its hyperbolic "metamorphosis" (203) through “enough hormones to turn an elephant into a migratory bird,” or stereotypically performative, as in the case of Mimi's drag queen profession. On the one hand, she is a “divine apparition” (197) and an “Amazon” (203) , who embodies female beauty and strength, but on the other hand is a “disturbing” “monster” (204), who becomes “fanatically submissive” to conform to patriarchal expectations is “some difficulty in understanding Melesio's struggle to become [a woman]” but, ultimately, “feminism is based on supporting women's choices even if we wouldn't make them for ourselves”[8], and this respect is evident in its willingness “to go through hell to achieve it” (203). Isabel Allende's characterization in Eva Luna promotes intersectional feminism by positioning women's choices within their cultural context. In Tom Stoppard's satire of epistemology and eroticism as a feminist discourse, the characterization of the echoing structure of.