“She Exists Me”: An Ontology of Embodiment in Tomás Eloy Martínez’s Santa Evita

Öz

I argue that Tomás Eloy Martínez’s Santa Evita develops an ontology of embodiment in which the gendered body is not a fixed biological entity awaiting representation but a generative force that produces the very relations, narratives, and language through which it persists. I trace this across encounters with Eva Perón’s corpse: the anatomist who embalms her; the military officers who seek to erase her; the girl who mistakes her body for a doll; the officer whose fixation on Eva leads him to kill his own wife; and the narrator himself. Each encounter transforms both the body’s meaning and the person who touches it. Embodiment persists not because the corpse resists biological decay but because it continues to generate encounters and meanings that exceed inherited categories of life, death, and language, culminating in a final narrative innovation that makes existence itself something enacted between beings rather than possessed individually. Drawing on Judith Butler, Karen Barad, Giorgio Agamben, Idelber Avelar, and recent studies of disappearance, I contend that writing is neither external to embodiment nor a substitute for it. Instead, it is one of the relations through which embodied existence continues to unfold beyond biological death.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Embodiment
• Santa Evita
• bare life
• biopolitics
• relational ontology
• Tomás Eloy Martínez

Destekleyen Kurum

This research received no specific grant or financial support from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Teşekkür

An AI language model was used in the preparation of this manuscript in the following capacities: formatting the manuscript to the journal’s specifications (typography, spacing, citation style); converting in-text citations to the Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition, Notes-Bibliography system; drafting English translations of primary-source quotations from the Spanish; and providing editing and revision across multiple rounds of author feedback. All interpretive claims, the selection and analysis of primary-source evidence, and the overall argument of the article are the author’s own. The author reviewed, verified, and takes full responsibility for all content in the manuscript.

“O Beni Var Eder”: Tomás Eloy Martínez’in Santa Evita Romanında Bedenselliğin Ontolojisi

Öz

Bu makalede, Tomás Eloy Martínez’in Santa Evita romanının, toplumsal cinsiyetle belirlenmiş bedeni temsil edilmeyi bekleyen sabit bir biyolojik varlık olarak değil, varlığını sürdürmesini sağlayan ilişkileri, anlatıları ve dili bizzat üreten bir güç olarak kavrayan bir bedensellik ontolojisi geliştirdiğini ileri sürüyorum. Bu yaklaşımı, Eva Perón’un naaşıyla gerçekleşen bir dizi karşılaşma üzerinden izliyorum: Naaşı mumyalayan anatomistin, onu ortadan kaldırmaya çalışan askerî görevlilerin, bedeni oyuncak bebek sanan küçük kızın, Eva’ya duyduğu saplantı nedeniyle kendi karısını öldüren subayın ve nihayet anlatıcının karşılaşmaları. Bu karşılaşmaların her biri hem bedenin anlamını hem de ona dokunan kişiyi dönüştürür. Bedensel varoluşun sürekliliği, naaşın biyolojik çürümeye direnmesinden değil, yaşam, ölüm ve dile ilişkin yerleşik kategorileri aşan karşılaşmalar ve anlamlar üretmeye devam etmesinden kaynaklanır. Bu süreç, varoluşun bireylerin kendi başlarına sahip oldukları bir şey olmaktan ziyade, varlıklar arasındaki ilişkilerde gerçekleşen bir olgu hâline geldiği son bir anlatısal yenilikle doruk noktasına ulaşır. Judith Butler, Karen Barad, Giorgio Agamben, Idelber Avelar ve kaybedilme olgusuna ilişkin güncel çalışmalardan hareketle, yazının bedenselliğe dışsal olmadığını ve onun yerine geçen bir unsur olarak da görülemeyeceğini savunuyorum. Aksine yazı, bedensel varoluşun biyolojik ölümün ötesinde sürüp gelişmesini sağlayan ilişkilerden biridir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Bedensellik
• Santa Evita
• çıplak hayat
• biyopolitika
• ilişkisel ontoloji
• Tomás Eloy Martínez

Kaynakça

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