The Disappearing Body

Although Chile was the first country in Latin America to report cases of anorexia nervosa in 1982, the issue had already gained notoriety during the 1970s, the decade when North American policies and the United States capitalist economy began to infiltrate Chilean society. The category of eating disorders, which may be manifested in a variety of diseases (such as anorexia, bulimia, and compulsory overeating), has only recently become the focus of Chilean literature and, in turn, literary criticism, which has primarily focused on the metaphorical interpretations of these illnesses. One novel that treats the multifaceted manifestations of eating disorders, not merely the metaphorical representations, is Marcela Serrano's Antigua vida mía (1995). The societal demands of unhealthy body images have been the concern of feminist criticism such as Susan Bordo's Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body (1993). In Marcela Serrano's novel the treatment of eating disorders reflects the evolving expectations on women in contemporary Chilean culture. Through the application of Bordo's analysis of the cultural pressures and significances of body expectations, this article delves into the various manifestations of unhealthy eating practices in Serrano's Antigua vida mía and reveals the self-destructive and self-isolating consequences of an often-occulted illness while also recognizing that by treating body image and illness, the author engages in a cultural discourse regarding the expectations and repercussions of cultural demands.