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Bellmer's Argentine Doll: Alejandra Pizarnik And The Dis¬Articulation Of The Self , Melanie Nicholson

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

This essay argues that Alejandra Pizarnik (Buenos Aires, 1936-72), widely recognized as one of the most important figures of twentieth-century Spanish-American poetry, constructs a poetic self that bears a remarkable resemblance to the dolls of German surrealist sculptor and photographer Hans Bellmer. Both poet and artist portray the doll as a passive and melancholy figure, an object that is often dismembered and otherwise stripped of agency. I examine the distinct implications of such a figure for a male surrealist photographer and a female post-surrealist writer. By means of this comparison—admittedly complicated by vast differences in artistic medium and historical context—I …