Gender and metaphorization of literary creation in two works by Ricardo Piglia

The reflection on language and on the experience of limits which characterizes modern literature has in literary worksoften taken the form of a contradictory debate over the female figure and gender. La ciudad ausente explores the imaginary of the (im) possible sex and of the journey of the female other with an original device in which the allegorization of the textual functioning and the fictionalization of a subversive femininity converge, apart from the evocation of some important models in the author's literary canon. This article analyzes the meaning of gender myths (the marginal and rebel woman) and the variants in the narrative of origins of the literary creation, as well as the representation of the phantasmal artist- work couple in the novel, concluding with an evaluation of the same issue in the opera script and performance.