In this blog post, we’ll explore the literary world of Manuel Puig—who blurred the boundaries between popular and high culture—as well as the themes of female desire, sexuality, politics, the unconscious, and a dystopian future as depicted in ‘The Angel’s Vagina’.
Why Discuss Manuel Puig?
When Susan Sontag visited Mexico in 1998, reporters recalled a passage from ‘Against Interpretation’ in which she had stated that if she had to choose between Dostoevsky and Doors, she would choose Dostoevsky. They then asked her what could represent contemporary culture. Sontag replied that the dichotomy between Dostoevsky and Doers was an issue from a time when high culture and popular culture were in sharp conflict, and intellectuals were defending the legitimacy of high culture; the problem today, she said, is that people are so captivated by popular entertainment culture that they cannot conceive of the present without it. Susan Sontag’s ideas resonate with the literary world of Argentine author Manuel Puig. Puig’s works—which began to gain widespread attention among movie fans after ‘The Kiss of the Spider Woman’ was adapted into a film—are a prime example of modern Latin American fiction that demonstrates the fluid nature of the boundary between popular culture and high culture. However, at least two differences can be discerned between Puig and Sontag. First, while Puig recognized the importance of popular culture as early as the late 1960s, Susan Sontag did not fully grasp this issue until the late 1980s. Second, Puig strives to create new ways of thinking about and narrating the novel by bringing together the traditions of high culture and popular culture and challenging the hierarchy established between them. In contrast, Son-taek seems to maintain the position that, rather than breaking down these boundaries, popular culture has come to dominate high culture and must therefore be embraced. The work that elevated Puik’s reputation not only in Korea but worldwide was ‘The Kiss of the Spider Woman’ (‘El beso de la mujer araña’) (1976). However, he had already been recognized as a promising Latin American writer since publishing experimental novels in the late 1960s. Here, “experimental” does not refer to metaphysical and difficult novels—such as those exploring hidden inner worlds—but rather to adventurous works that contributed to the future direction of modern literature by breaking down the boundaries between popular and high culture. Nevertheless, his works differ significantly from typical popular literature. This is because the seriousness—which Son Taek had excluded—is employed alongside elements of entertainment and structures of comfort that resonate with the public, while being deeply imbued with the realities of Latin America and the lives of the marginalized.
Manuel Puig’s Life Journey
Manuel Puig was born in 1932 in the small Argentine town of General Viegas, where he spent his childhood. His father, Valdomero Puig, was a businessman, and his mother, María Elena Delle Donne, was a pharmacist. From the age of five, led by his mother—who had grown weary of the boring and insular town—he began going to the movies. In an interview with the magazine ‘Review’, he confessed, “I almost always went to see a movie at six o’clock in the evening.” As a child, the young Puig mainly watched Hollywood melodramas and musicals from the 1930s and 1940s, films that would later have a profound influence on his work. Meanwhile, General Villagas appears as a major setting in ‘The Betrayal of Rita Hayworth’ (1968) and ‘Painted Lips’ (1969). In 1946, Puig headed to Buenos Aires to pursue his secondary education. Puig recalls the situation at the time: “School was terrible, and the other children were cruel. I missed my mother terribly. My only consolation was going to the theater every Sunday to catch the matinee,” he recalls. In 1949, Puig’s entire family moved to Buenos Aires, but he never gave up his habit of going to the movies. After finishing high school, Puig, yielding to his parents’ insistence, briefly studied architecture in college before quickly switching his major to philosophy. However, the career Puig truly dreamed of was that of a film director. In 1956, he won a scholarship to study in Rome and attended the Center for Experimental Film there. There, he had the opportunity to work with various film directors. He also worked as a translator in London and Rome (1956–1957), as a dishwasher in Stockholm (1958–1959), and briefly returned to Argentina in 1960. He also worked as an assistant director in Europe and Argentina, and in the early 1960s, he returned to Rome to work as a film translator. In the early 1960s, he moved to the United States to work for Air France. It was during this period (1963–1967) that Puig finally began his career as a writer. Puig finished writing ‘The Betrayal of Rita Hayworth’ in February 1965, and the work was shortlisted for a literary prize organized by the Spanish publisher Seix Barral that December. Although a contract had been signed for the novel’s publication that year, it was subsequently blocked by censorship and did not see the light of day until 1968. Puig described this as an “adventure” undertaken by a small publishing house in Buenos Aires. However, a year later, the book became a bestseller, and the French newspaper ‘Le Monde’ named it one of the best novels of 1968–1969. In 1967, Puig returned to Argentina. There, he found inspiration for his second work, ‘Little Lips’, and published it in 1969, two years after he began writing it. While the novel received rave reviews from foreign critics, it was not well-received by the Argentine literary establishment, where freedom of expression was suppressed. Nevertheless, it became a bestseller immediately upon publication, and it seemed that Puig was on a smooth path as a writer. Subsequently, in April 1973, Puig’s third novel, ‘The Buenos Aires Affair’, was published. At this time, with Campora becoming president and freedom of expression expanding, Puig expected critics to give the book excellent reviews, but his hopes were dashed. ‘The Buenos Aires Affair’ not only failed to win over readers due to its critical assessment of Peronism and explicit depictions of sexual acts, including masturbation, but also failed to garner attention from the critical community. When President Campora resigned in July of that same year and political instability and censorship began to intensify once again, Puig left for Italy in September. In January of the following year, copies of ‘The Buenos Aires Affair’ were seized and its sale banned, prompting Puig to abandon any hope of returning home and embark on a long period of exile. He chose Mexico as his first place of exile and began writing ‘The Kiss of the Spider Woman’. Later, in the mid-1970s, he moved to New York, where he resolved his financial difficulties by teaching Spanish and creative writing at a local university. ‘The Kiss of the Spider Woman’ was published in Spain in 1976 but was banned in Argentina on the grounds that it dealt with political prisoners and homosexuality. However, it was a huge success abroad. This demonstrated not only the immense power of Puik’s prose but also proved that readers were deeply interested in the themes he chose to explore. The novel was adapted into a film directed by Héctor Babenco, and in 1983, Puik adapted it into a play, which he published under the title ‘Bajo un manto de estrellas’ (‘Under a Mantle of Stars’). Puik subsequently moved back to Mexico, then to New York, and finally to Rio de Janeiro, where he published ‘Pubis angelical’ (1979), ‘Eternal Curse Upon the Reader of These Pages’ (1980), ‘Blood of Reciprocated Love’ (1982), and ‘When the Tropical Night Falls’ (1988). Until his death from a heart attack on July 22, 1990, Puig continued his prolific creative work, writing novels and plays.
‘The Angel’s Vagina’: What Kind of Work Is It?
Published in 1979, ‘The Angel’s Vagina’ is Manuel Puig’s fifth novel. The work features Anita, who reflects on her own sexuality; her feminist friend Beatriz; and Foz, a left-wing Peronist. Through their conversations, they reconstruct not only Anita’s state of mind but also the social and political situation in Argentina under the Peron regime. Alongside this narrative, the novel includes diary entries and dreams that reveal Anita’s inner world. In particular, the “Mistress” and W218, which appear in Anita’s dreams, express her desires and unconscious anxieties. It can be said that Anita, the “Mistress,” and W218 are all spiritual “sisters” who share memories and experiences. In this work, the conversations between Anita and Fozzi, as well as the realm of the unconscious expressed through her consciousness and dreams as revealed in her diary, all depict the same reality. In other words, the work fundamentally addresses the issues of unhappy and betrayed love, and the plight of women who are exploited for the sake of such love. Intertwined with these themes are issues such as death, maternal love, women as sexual objects, and women’s desire to be beautiful. Furthermore, Anita’s psychological state merges with the world of science fiction in which the “Mistress” from 1930s films and the futuristic woman W218 are depicted. In doing so, the work reveals the complex issues faced by women in the real world—not through superficial or abstract theories, but through the clash between normative desires and feminism. First, the section featuring the “Mistress” employs the stylistic elements of 1930s and 1940s Hollywood B-movies. This section begins in 1930s Europe. The narrative centers on “the most beautiful woman in the world,” who is held captive by her wealthy husband, effectively treated as a slave. She escapes from her arms-dealer husband and goes to Hollywood, where she becomes a famous actress. However, she is once again forced to live a life akin to slavery due to the terms of her contract with Hollywood producers. She is eventually murdered by a rival who envies her. Meanwhile, Anita is a young Argentine woman who has been divorced and has taken refuge in Mexico. She is suffering from cancer and is hospitalized in Mexico in the mid-1970s. Like the “Mistress,” Anita has ended her marriage to her husband, but is currently being courted—not only sexually but also politically—by a man named Fozzi. Pozzi is an Argentine left-wing Peronist and lawyer who seeks to use her to fulfill his own personal desires and goals. Beyond broadening the focus on sexuality, the conversations between Anita and Pozzi also address Lacanian psychoanalytic theory and contemporary Argentine politics as key themes. This section, the most realistic of the three, concludes with the implication that after Anita rejects Fozzi’s proposal to kidnap Alejandro, Fozzi—who has returned to Argentina—is murdered, and Anita subsequently undergoes a successful surgery that restores her emotional and psychological well-being. Meanwhile, the “Future” section presents a bleak and somber fantastical narrative reminiscent of modern dystopian novels such as Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ or Orwell’s ‘1984’. The central character of this section, W218, lives in a totalitarian society of the future where sexual enslavement is institutionalized. She works as a kind of public prostitute, mechanically having sex with anonymous men as required by the government. Furthermore, she carries a portable computer that helps her solve personal problems. W218’s world is an extension of “The Mistress,” set in the 1930s, and Anita’s world, set in the 1970s. Furthermore, W218 is filled with perspectives similar to the dreams and worlds of previous characters in the story. She, too, dreams of the “perfect man.” And just when she thinks she has found such a man, he betrays her. She then attempts to kill him and is consequently sentenced to life imprisonment, but at her own request, she is sent to the “Eternal Ice” infectious disease hospital. Ironically, however, it is there that she sees hope of escaping the gender norms that had denied her identity as an actress and as Anita through the lens of others. ‘The Angel’s Vagina’ reveals the meaning of becoming a woman through the “Mistress,” demonstrates through Anita that she is a product of a male-dominated society, and, through W218, offers a pessimistic prophecy of what gender will look like in a future society. In this way, the novel more directly explores the themes of politics, history, psychology, and gender that were present in ‘The Kiss of the Spider Woman’. At the same time, it draws on models from popular culture and attempts to reconfigure them. In an interview, Manuel Puig revealed that while writing this novel, he was interested in the conflict between political ideals and personal desires. “Even if there were a perfect Marxist society where everything is shared through the highest human spirit, there would still be one form of capital: physical and sexual beauty. These are not things that can be shared……. There are many kinds of hunger in life, and we are aware of our needs for food, clothing, and shelter. However, due to social oppression, the need for sex has not been clearly articulated.”
In ‘The Angel’s Vagina’, this conflict is clearly evident in Anita’s consciousness regarding sex. She is a woman who has lived according to the oppressive middle-class norms that view a woman’s destiny solely as that of a sexual object. Having left her homeland and facing a fate of dying from cancer, she rejects feminist ideology, yet she cannot completely break away from the feminist movement either. This is precisely because traditional norms regarding what it means to be a woman and feminist ideology are in conflict within her. Thus, the protagonist, Anita, appears as a vulnerable character who desires to enjoy herself with men but does not know how to go about it. Meanwhile, regarding the relationship between Anita—a vulnerable female character—and W218, which unfolds in the form of science fiction, the author explains as follows.
“I introduced science fiction elements to illustrate the nature of the female protagonist’s nightmares. The protagonist is a very beautiful woman, but she was raised to be nothing more than a sexual object meant to please men. In other words, men satisfy her extravagant desires, and she was raised to obey their commands. Although she grew up this way, she rebels against these social norms. However, it is not her consciousness that rebels, but her genitals. She marries a man who treats her according to tradition, but at some point, she suffers from anorgasmia—an inability to feel sexual pleasure. And one of the fears she could not bring herself to voice was the fact that even in a socialist state, she would still be treated solely as a sexual object. This was one of the fears the heroine could not confess.”
In this way, the “lady” appearing in 1930s films, the psychological and physical state of the present-day Anita, and the use of science fiction reveal their true value even more when intertwined with the issues of powerless women conditioned by popular culture rather than high culture. In other words, rather than relying on superficial and abstract theories, the work successfully reveals the complex issues faced by ordinary women in the real world through the clash between the normative desires that dominate the majority of women and feminist thought.
‘The Vagina of an Angel’ and Hedy Lamarr
Both the “mistress” and W218 in ‘The Vagina of an Angel’ are connected to the figure of Hedy Lamarr. In fact, Hedy Lamarr’s biography bears striking similarities to these characters. Originally named Hedwig Kiesler, Hedy Lamarr grew up in a family in Vienna. She rose to fame in 1932 with her role in the film ‘Ecstasy’, gaining attention for a controversial scene in the film. She later moved to Hollywood, signed a contract with MGM, and made her Hollywood debut in the 1938 film ‘Algiers’. She married the Austrian arms dealer Fritz Mandl and was subject to his strict control throughout their marriage. Her autobiography, ‘Ecstasy and Me’, written by a ghostwriter, states:
“I had everything I wanted—clothes, jewelry, seven private cars. I had everything except freedom. So why is Mandl keeping me as a virtual prisoner! … He didn’t marry me. To be precise, he acquired me as a byproduct of his business.”
After drugging a maid who bore a striking resemblance to her, she dramatically escaped to Paris and then went on to Hollywood. With her captivating, exotic beauty and overflowing sex appeal, Hedy caught the eye of Russian-born American film producer Louis Burt Mayer, who gave her the name “Lama.” She went on to establish herself as one of Hollywood’s leading stars and became one of the era’s most iconic sex symbols. In her 1938 Hollywood debut, ‘Algeria’, she played the role of Pepe Le Moco’s enchanting lover. Manuel Puig is said to have particularly loved the scene in which the prisoner Pepe Le Moco decides to leave his safe haven in Algeria to search for her. Pepe knows that this means certain death. Manuel Puig lamented that Hedda’s mystique was not fully understood during her time. Although she worked in various parts of Europe alongside figures such as Max Reinhardt, her allure gradually faded with the advent of traditional realism after the war. In films produced in the mid-1940s, she tried to portray herself as a more traditional woman, but ultimately came across as stiff and cold. And after 1945, the influence her perfect beauty had held in popular culture gradually waned. The story of Hedy Lamarr, whom Manuel Puig loved so dearly, ultimately led to ‘The Angel’s Vagina’. It is said that Puig wrote this work after being captivated by Hedy Lamarr’s mysterious beauty following the death in Mexico of his close friend and journalist, the Argentine Silvia Rudni, and the fall of the Héctor Campora government. ‘The Vagina of an Angel’ begins with what appears to be a stage set from the past, but in reality, it is Anita’s dream of a past life. In this dream, the “mistress” is not only held captive—much like Hedy Lamarr—by her wealthy and jealous husband in Vienna, but the wealthy man also collaborates with the Nazis, much like Fritz Mante. Furthermore, the film ‘Algeria’, in which Hedy Lamarr starred, is reborn in a future totalitarian society. As can be seen here, Manuel Puig uses the Hollywood star Hedy Lamarr and the films in which she appeared as the foundation for his work.
In this way, he consistently explores, through his work, the possibility that popular culture can be reproduced through the author’s new consciousness. Here, we must recognize that the term “reproduction” carries profound significance. It suggests that when an author uncovers hidden meanings in popular culture, transforms them according to his own intentions, and utilizes them, he can reveal an entirely new aesthetic of the novel. In other words, unlike the modernists, who viewed the novel as “creation,” Puig succeeds in artistically sublimating popular culture through the process of reproduction—that is, transformation. Furthermore, while modernist novels faced criticism for “art for art’s sake” by depicting complex inner worlds through imagination—thereby creating a distance from the reader—Puig’s novels entice the reader into the text, introducing them to a new aesthetic. In this regard, his novels demonstrate how literary production can take place in a late-capitalist society. In this way, he challenges traditional literature and examines the cultural norms that shape modern society. In doing so, he not only suggests to us how to interpret popular culture but also opens up new horizons regarding the nature of contemporary writing. His works transform the way people think about popular literature and popular culture. In this sense, it can be said that his writing foretells how the modern novel can maintain its vitality and what its future will look like.
