Disrupting the wound, managing the suffering

Abstract

For much of the twentieth century, the field of gender dissidence remained invisible in Salvadoran literary criticism. The opening up of this field of study began at the beginning of this century. However, there is still little critical and theoretical space dedicated specifically to the lesbian discursive self-construction reflected in Salvadoran literature. Starting with the death of the composer, violinist and poet Ingrid Bolaños, the author of the article exposes the oppressive mechanisms of the ‘heteronation’ (Curiel) in El Salvador, so as to approach the poetry of Silvia Matus (1950), Kenny Rodríguez (1969) and Marielos Olivo (1977). Thus, the poem is understood as a scenario in which the wound is managed in social and political terms, becoming a transmitter of creative, individual and collective resistance.

Keywords

• poetry
• lesbian subjectivities
• El Salvador
• literary criticism