doxa.comunicación | nº 31, pp. 187-205 | 195
July-December of 2020
Marta del Riego Anta
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
–When I was in the workshop, using cocaine and painting, something happened that did not happen in other circumstances. I worked on the TV series Siete últimas canciones (The Last Seven Songs) completely doped up. The thing about cocaine was not what it let you do, but what it did not let you to do...
The paintings entitled Tres días y Tres noches (Three Days and Three Nights): couples united in dry mating, a milky mist most apparent. A violent trace of happiness when it finishes.
–I’m sure that’s how long those days lasted. Three days and three nights (Guerriero, 2013: 84-85).
Leila Guerriero also achieves rhythm by alternating the frequency relationship between storytelling and diegesis, but not only the singulative and the iterative narration, or in other words, narrating once what happened only once, and relating once or in a single time what has happened n number of times, but also by telling n number of times what has happened n times, and by telling n times what has happened only once. In the extensive profile on Bruno Gelber (2019), she uses this literary resource constantly. For example, every time she visits the protagonist in his home she narrates her arrival, which takes place in the same way with slight variations: she narrates n times a scene that happens n times. Furthermore, after going innumerable times, Guerriero plays with this resource: she narrates it in a simplified way, pausing the narrative to introduce a prolepsis that announces that the visits to Bruno Gelber will be repeated over a long period of time, “over a period of months”, and she adds that the fact that he calls her a “wonder” means an important step in the relationship that is established between the two of them.
Let us compare how it is narrated the first time she arrives at the house and how it is narrated successively. The first time there is a detailed description of the building and the doorway before arriving at the scene that is repeated throughout the book
In flat number 12, Juana waits. She holds open one of the very tall double doors, two metres of fine wood. To open them from inside or outside, the alarm must be disconnected from the flat, as it is active at all times. Juana is short and petite, with a discreet yet robust appearance: well-defined breasts, narrow hips, lean thighs. Her tied back hair is dark and straight...
-Hello. It’s nice to meet you. Leila.
-I’m pleased to meet you too. How are you? Juana
And for the first time, she says something that she will repeat for months:
-“Come in, come in. Mr. Gelber is expecting you”.
She always says “come in” two times (Guerriero, 2019: 15-16).
In the subsequent narrations of the arrival, there is no need to describe the building or the portal: Guerriero goes straight to the scene, which is repeated throughout the book.
On Friday the 5th of May at six o’clock in the evening I have to ring the bell several times in flat no. 12. The weather is cold. The city looks sad and gloomy. Juana answers and tells me she is coming down, but then a neighbour opens the door and lets me in.
My steps in the hall, the lift, the doorbell, Juana.
- “Come in, come in. Mr. Gelber is expecting you”.
In the living room, in front of an oversized cup of tea, he performs the same pushing movement to get up.
- Hello Bruno
-Hello wonderful! How are you? (2019: 116).