Lovers, Mothers and Lamias in Cocinar hombres by Carmen Boullosa

Abstract

Carmen Boullosa’s mid-1980s play Cocinar hombres deconstructs the discursive conscriptions of "femininity" via the dialogic mediation and, ultimately, dispersal of the extremes of the "good" and "bad" woman, effected through its exploration of both the celebrated and negated female body and social roles. While both the content of characters Ufe and Wine’s dialogue and poetic intertexts suggested by details such as red shoes invoke the Hélène Cixousian imperative that women write through their bodies ("The Laugh of the Medusa"), the play also unravels syntactical speech and memory by culminating in the inverted sentence "Ya no recuerdas nada." This creates space in which the reader may feel inspired to experience both the solidarity and new language that Luce Irigaray imagines could exist prior to normative language ("When Our Lips Speak Together"). (JAK)