"Impuesto a la carne" de Diamela Eltit : el cuerpo testigo y el contagio de lo común

With the novel Impuesto a la carne, published in 2010, the chilean writer Diamela Eltit analyses the history of Chile (y Latin America) through the powerful image of an hospital that shapes a series of allegorical sketches. The purpose of this study is to analyse the construction of the protagonists and their meta-testimonial function; examine the relationship between the two women and the clinical space; investigate their forms of resistance and mechanisms of evasion. The concepts of expropriation and gift (from the latin munus) and the loss of the subject integrity enable the liberation of the women’s bodies and lift them out of their condition. The symbolism of the community represents a new possibility for the Chilean Nation, through the rediscovery of alterity.