Un rastro de sombras: deseo, cuerpos y memoria en Corazón tan blanco

Abstract

This article analyses how Corazón tan blanco, by the Spanish writer Javier Marías, exposes the importance of desire to articulate an open narrative about the past. Instead of arguing in favour of a transparent language to reconstruct the past, Marías's narrator is conscious of the need to preserve what he terms areas of shadow inside his tale. Through his depiction of the male and female bodies of his story, his narrative introduces ambiguity and creates empty zones in which desire emerges. The parallels that the protagonist weaves between the bodies he describes are fundamental to create an alternative story in which the past loosens its grip on his life. After reaching a dead point in his life, the narrator realizes that the empty areas that the bodies produce prevent the past from becoming a mere anecdote and thus losing relevance, and for overcoming the traumatic irruption of the past into the present. The ambivalence these shadowy areas create is necessary to maintain the narrator's ability to engage creatively with both his past and his future.