Body, Writing, and Violence in The Love of Singular Men

Abstract

The text re-reads the construction of the novel The Love of Singular Men through the marking of the colonial heritage in the division and segregation of the characters. By analyzing passages from Camilo’s narrative and his interactions with Cosmim and Renato, we focus on Cosmim in order to support an argument in which the past marks the present as a myth of formation that is structured below and beyond the logocentric presence. Renato, the third character, appears as a counterpoint at the end of the text just like in the novel, in other words, as a kind of venir for the future that could contradict all the logic established by the narrative until then. By leaving the conclusions open, the doubt that remains is the exact formulation of the future itself in its possibility of change, but not in its certainty. By balancing the hope of this with the immeasurability of Cosmim’s murder, what we end up with is perhaps a more negative assertiveness than a positive one.