Trascending the boundaries of the body: memory, homosexuality and anorexia in the work of Olga Grjasnowa

Abstract

A constant in Olga Grjasnowa’s work is the representation of female figures who struggle between the vital need for points of reference and the desire to transcend limits, whether geographical, cultural or sexual. In her novel Die juristische Unschärfe einer Ehe (2014), which will be the main object of analysis, Grjasnowa presents a protagonist with principles and habits related to her body. These are the imprint of an insurmountable cultural memory, despite the displacement to a new spatial and cultural framework. Likewise, Grjasnowa shows how there are categories in the places of departure, but also in those of arrival, which limit the capacity of the subjects to create new spaces for hybridization and definition of their identity.