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Certificate of Absence
Originally published in 1981 as En breve cárcel, Certificate of Absence is the first novel of the Argentinian scholar-critic Sylvia Molloy. Innovative in its treatment of women's relationships and in its assertion of woman's right to author her own text, the novel has won wide approval in Latin America and the United States.
The novel centers around a woman writing in a small room. As she writes, remembering a past relationship and anticipating a future one, the room becomes a repository for nostalgia, violence, and desire, a space in which writing and remembering become life-sustaining ceremonies. The narrator reflects on the power of love to both shelter and destroy. She meditates on the act of writing, specifically on writing as a woman, in a voice that goes against the grain of established, canonical voices.
Latin American male writers are prone to self-portrayal in their texts. Certifcate of Absence is one of the few novels by Latin American women that successfully use this technique to open new windows on women's experiences.
The novel centers around a woman writing in a small room. As she writes, remembering a past relationship and anticipating a future one, the room becomes a repository for nostalgia, violence, and desire, a space in which writing and remembering become life-sustaining ceremonies. The narrator reflects on the power of love to both shelter and destroy. She meditates on the act of writing, specifically on writing as a woman, in a voice that goes against the grain of established, canonical voices.
Latin American male writers are prone to self-portrayal in their texts. Certifcate of Absence is one of the few novels by Latin American women that successfully use this technique to open new windows on women's experiences.
- GenresFiction
131 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1981
5 people are currently reading
78 people want to read
About the author
Sylvia Molloy
31 books101 followersSylvia Molloy is an Argentine writer and critic who has taught at Princeton, Yale and NYU, from where she retired in 2010. At NYU she held the Albert Schweitzer Chair in the Humanities. She is the author of two novels: En común olvido (2002). She has also written two short prose pieces, Varia imaginación (2003) and Desarticulaciones (2010). Her critical work includes La Diffusion de la littérature hispano-américaine en France au XXe siècle (1972), Las letras de Borges (1979), At Face Value: Autobiographical Writing in Spanish America (1991), Poses de fin de siglo. Desbordes del género en la modernidad (2013), and edited volumes such as Hispanisms and Homosexualities (1998) and Poéticas de la distancia. Adentro y afuera de la literatura argentina (2006). She has been a fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Social Science Research Council, and the Civitella Ranieri Foundation. She has served as President of the Modern Language Association of America and of the Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana and holds an honorary degree in humane letters from Tulane University.
In 2007 she created the MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish, with the collaboration of Lila Zemborain and Mariela Dreyfus. The MFA is the first program of its kind in the United States. It is modeled along the lines of the NYU MFA in Creative Writing in English, taking advantage as well of a similar, bilingual Program, at University of Texas at El Paso. Classes and workshops are taught in Spanish and students are mostly Spanish, Latin American or Latino.
In 2007 she created the MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish, with the collaboration of Lila Zemborain and Mariela Dreyfus. The MFA is the first program of its kind in the United States. It is modeled along the lines of the NYU MFA in Creative Writing in English, taking advantage as well of a similar, bilingual Program, at University of Texas at El Paso. Classes and workshops are taught in Spanish and students are mostly Spanish, Latin American or Latino.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 14, 2023
beautifully poignant. think this is best read in a more concise amount of time, so a reread is in order.
she writes of ache and longing, love and fear, desire and disdain in such a raw way.
I definitely liked and disliked it, a difficult unrewarding piece that is simultaneously immersive and intuitive.
she writes of ache and longing, love and fear, desire and disdain in such a raw way.
I definitely liked and disliked it, a difficult unrewarding piece that is simultaneously immersive and intuitive.
December 28, 2024
Pfft!! Been there!!! Five stars! !!!
March 31, 2020
I read this book as an assignment for a course on queer cultures and democracy where we discuss how queer/gay/lesbian/trans actors and movements have been integral in historical and political processes, rather than incorrectly assigning them a tangential, almost elective, if you will, role in formations of democracies around the world. First and foremost, Molloy created this work from a place of diaspora-- through Argentine by nationality, she wrote the novel in upstate New York. She published the book both in Spanish (En breve carcel) and in English.
The novel begins in a room with a third person narrator that describes a certain woman in a room in a nameless city. This woman, we learn, is the protagonist of the novel, however she remains unnamed. The woman is a writer who relies on the process of writing in order to make sense of the world around her, past lovers, her families, and most importantly, herself and her experience as a woman who loves other women. Though obviously a novel on the subject, not once in the text is the word "lesbian" used.
We learn that this woman uses writing as a tool for reflection, and upon reflection on her memories of her sister, Clara, and two lovers, Renata and Vera (both of who have been, at one time, in a relationship with the woman, but also with each other), and her childhood, she fashions her own understanding of herself. It is writing that allows her to plunge herself deep into exploration that physical means, with her own body, would be impossible. On the other hand, the woman uses writing to with haste and desperation sew together and morph to her liking fragments of memories and voices to create a beautiful piece of writing that explores the interiority of lesbian sociability that is perhaps inexpressible except through writing. Far from an uplifting read, (for she writes on dreams of being flayed) the novel beckons for a curious reader into the private mind of a woman in pain who loves deeply other women. The ending is up for interpretation. The entirety of the text is written and told from within one room (that belonged to her previous lover) and at last in the last chapter the woman finds herself at an airport having left the room, as if she had completed her project of locking away, at least for the moment, the memories and the person she had become in that room, in the papers that she clutches soberly at the airport. I found it a rather optimistic ending. I also think I need to journal more.
The novel begins in a room with a third person narrator that describes a certain woman in a room in a nameless city. This woman, we learn, is the protagonist of the novel, however she remains unnamed. The woman is a writer who relies on the process of writing in order to make sense of the world around her, past lovers, her families, and most importantly, herself and her experience as a woman who loves other women. Though obviously a novel on the subject, not once in the text is the word "lesbian" used.
We learn that this woman uses writing as a tool for reflection, and upon reflection on her memories of her sister, Clara, and two lovers, Renata and Vera (both of who have been, at one time, in a relationship with the woman, but also with each other), and her childhood, she fashions her own understanding of herself. It is writing that allows her to plunge herself deep into exploration that physical means, with her own body, would be impossible. On the other hand, the woman uses writing to with haste and desperation sew together and morph to her liking fragments of memories and voices to create a beautiful piece of writing that explores the interiority of lesbian sociability that is perhaps inexpressible except through writing. Far from an uplifting read, (for she writes on dreams of being flayed) the novel beckons for a curious reader into the private mind of a woman in pain who loves deeply other women. The ending is up for interpretation. The entirety of the text is written and told from within one room (that belonged to her previous lover) and at last in the last chapter the woman finds herself at an airport having left the room, as if she had completed her project of locking away, at least for the moment, the memories and the person she had become in that room, in the papers that she clutches soberly at the airport. I found it a rather optimistic ending. I also think I need to journal more.
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April 12, 2020Very interesting book, but not one you would read casually. The author challenges you to piece together the story with all the main character's memory fragments. And keep your queer theory handy to guide you through the concepts. Still, a lot of interesting ideas and a useful ending message about dealing with your past before trying to move forward into a scary, uncertain future that is life.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews