SOURCE: Maloof, Judy. “La vida breve: The Death of a Prostitute and Male Authorship in La vida breve.” In Over Her Dead Body: The Construction of Male Subjectivity in Onetti, pp. 57-92. New York: Peter Lang, 1995.

In the following essay, Maloof argues that male freedom and subjectivity are entirely dependent on the elimination of the female in La vida breve.

Onetti's fourth novel, La vida breve, is considered by most critics to be his masterpiece. It was published in 1950 after a gestation period of about seven years. This multifaceted and well-crafted work is the first in a series of novels sometimes referred to by Onettian scholars as the Santa María Saga.¹ La vida breve recounts the founding of Santa María, the mythical town where most of Onetti's subsequent novels and short stories take place. Although Santa María is an imaginary town, it is representative—geographically...