SOURCE: Ibsen, Kristine. “Self-Representation, Silence, and the Discourse of Madness in Testimonios sobre Mariana.” Confluencia 14, no. 2 (spring 1999): 93-102.

In the following essay, Ibsen examines the meaning of Mariana's silence in Testimonios sobre Mariana.

Not with a Club, the Heart is broken Nor with a Stone— A Whip so small you could not see it. 

—Emily Dickinson

In societies where the female subject has traditionally been more closely affiliated with the private, rather than the public, sphere, the act of writing itself may suggest a transgression of authority. The integration of autobiographical elements in female-authored texts violates cultural boundaries twice over: not merely by writing, but by making public details of a private life. In her controversial novel, Testimonios sobre Mariana (1981), Mexican author Elena Garro (1920-1998) simultaneously diverts and subverts this impasse by presenting the life-story of her protagonist, Mariana, through three conflicting narrative perspectives, or “testimonies.” Although the...