This paper aims to discuss some ambivalent relations between cinema, politics and gender performativity in El beso de la mujer arena [The Kiss of The Spider Woman], an Argentinian novel written by Manuel Puig and first published in 1976. Although this novel was not the first one to discuss gender and homosexuality in the context of Latin American literature, it presents a narrative plot particularly subversive when it comes to the representation of ruptures into the heteronormative beliefs.
Gender; Performativity; Manuel Puig; Cinema; Latin American Literature