Mixing Exile and Desire: the Imperfect Paradise of Cristina Peri Rossi

Abstract

This article proposes an overall reading of Cristina Peri Rossi's work that highlights the combination of exile and desire as one of its defining features. Through an exploration of her literary production –focusing in particular on three works spanning three decades: the memoir La insumisa (2020), the poetry collection Babel bárbara (1991) and the novel La nave de los locos (1984)– I examine its links to the exilic tradition of modern literature and what I see as its major achievement: rewriting that tradition in terms of “exilic desire” –an “expatriate” desire through which exile is positivized and through which a lesbian desire and a queer discourse emerge that unsettle the foundations of heteropatriarchy, allying her literary project with feminist and LGTBIQ+ activism. Drawing on the notion of “exilic desire” I also examine in detail the rewriting of two biblical myths –the myth of Paradise and the myth of Babel­– that serves this author to articulate consistently throughout her work a sharp critique of heteronormative fantasies of totality and a vindication of “other” desires and sexualities.