Geosoma Articulation: Territorialities, Citizenship, and Corporeality in Latin American Literature of the 1960’s: Levinson, Codina and Plá

Abstract

In this article, I revisit some literary scenes surrounding the 1960s that intersect territorialities, citizenships and corporalities, articulated through the theoretical concept of the "geosoma", and which were produced by three Latin American writers: Luisa Mercedes Levinson, Iverna Codina and Josefina Plá. In the novels and short stories selected for this work, I explore ways of inhabiting and being inhabited by territories nestled in harsh topographical zones linked to inhospitable climate conditions, and the affections generated by belonging and the right to reside, along with displacement and uprooting, fundamental to these fictions designed between borders. The landscapes as narrative opening devices merge with the architectures of the infernal ideal amalgamated with open spaces, implying a reading that twists common areas through fictions that strain the almost impossible habitability in Detrás del grito (1962) by Chilean writer Iverna Codina, “El abra” (1955) by Argentine Luisa Mercedes Levinson, “La pierna de Severina” (1954) and “Sisé” (1958) by Canarian-Paraguayan Josefina Plá.