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Abstract:

This paper is an analysis, within the limits of erotics, of the novel Sirena Selena vestida de pena, by Puerto Rican author Mayra Santos-Febres. Ideas of transvestites' and women's correct bodies are deconstructed through a language of solidarity. Selena constructs a femenine body that reaches its limit when s/he seduces the apparently macho Hugo Graubel, who insists on being penetrated by the transvestite. The main character's crisis reveals itself when s/he claims her personal erotic identity as transgender and not as a man who crossdresses. The transvestite's masculinity clashes with her vestido de pena (sorrow dress), to the point that s/he flees the narrative, the mystery of her disappearance left unresolved. In this novel, Santos-Febres advocates erotics unburdened by taboos, erotics where each person accepts breaking through the barriers imposed by society.

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Vol. 15 Issue 2, p98-105 8p; 1bw