El cos entre néixer, desnéixer i morir a Mercè Rodoreda, Maria-Mercè Marçal i Imma Monsó

Abstract

This article brings together the first chapter of La placa del Diamant by Merce Rodoreda; the poems which deal with the mother figure in Maria-Merce Marcal’s posthumous collection Rao del cos; and a key part of Imma Monso’s novel Un home de paraula, in which the narrator’s beloved husband suddenly dies in front of her eyes. The three texts are analyzed through meaningful intertextual connections regarding the representation of the body and the problematic space for the maternal in Western culture. Moreover, they are identified as narratives of mourning in a way that problematizes the Freudian distinction between the supposedly healthy process of mourning and the allegedly pathological process of melancholia.