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NOSTALGIA FOR THE UNKNOWN
IN ESTHER SELIGSON
J. Ann Duncan*
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24 J. Ann Duncan
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Nostalgia for the Unknown 25
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26 J. Ann Duncan
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Nostalgia for the Unknown 27
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28 J. Ann Duncan
as elucidation of a mystery
flash of brilliant light and
momentary fulfilment and
and colours, as well as the
Seligson's work, but partic
gios y otras voces, where the drama unfolds almost exclusively
through these images, rather than action or analysis of thought or
feeling, as is appropriate in the symbolical world of dreams.
However, there is slightly more surface realism in this volume than
her others; for instance we get several concrete details about the lives
and domiciles of the characters in the first three stories; they have
names, occupations, friends; there is a plot and even an element of
suspense in two and a chronological development in the first; a leg-
end is interpolated in the fourth. But the author was obviously not
setting out to write stories, however beautiful or entertaining, or to
provide psychological realism (although the book does offer shrewd
and moving studies of childhood and adolescence).
This book too is primarily about the individual's search for identi-
ty through dreams and sexuality. Then, beyond this, the individual's
discovery of a deeper personal meaning through a fusion of the self
in the timeless collectivity of the group or the couple.
The theme is differentiated in the four texts by its presentation as
the incorporation of the dreams and fantasies of childhood and the
peer group ("Por el monte hacia la mar"), the longing for love in
youth ("Distinto mundo habitual") and adolescence ("Un viento de
hojas secas"), the exploration of an adult relationship ("Luz de
dos"). In all the stories the individual is part of a landscape or an
environment, a subjectivity defined by their participation in the
world of objects and sensations, in the four elements, as well as a
psyche composed of unavowed or unfulfilled aspirations and fears.
All the stories recount an attempt to merge dream and reality, the
supernatural and the mundane, and an attempt to find a meaningful
pattern in experience felt as chaotic or enigmatic. All express a con-
flict between the wish for knowledge and annihiliation, vitality and
stasis, affirmation and negation and all express anguish at a sense of
separation or solitude and a desire for fusion and totality - the
search for the ultimate unity of the eternal androgyne: "hoy he de
buscar al ser que mi sueo ha inventado, un sueo que se opondr a
la trivialidad engaosa y violenta de la vida diaria" ( LD 38).
The first story, "Por el monte hacia la mar", is a nostalgic evoca-
tion of the world of childhood, with its rivalries and frustrations as
well as its moments of magic. Independently, the four brothers feel
drawn to return to the scene of their childhood and the text is to
some extent their collective reconstruction of the past, irredemiably
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Nostalgia for the Unknown 29
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30 J. Ann Duncan
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Nostalgia for the Unknown 3 1
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32 J. Ann Duncan
palabra, palabra-espiral, m
cuerpo" (re 4, DC 10). The creative power of language and the
importance of literature as a means of ordering chaos and giving
permanence to the ephemeral is more explicit here than in most of
Seligson's work and it is particularly crucial in the Presagios. This is
the most dense and complex section of the book, although it only
occupies about ten pages. As the titles of each section suggest ("Pre-
sagio de S. Jorge, de Orfeo y Eurydice, de Electra"), it is not the
myth itself which forms the subject, but the legendary figures' appre-
hension of their myth. Part of the charm for the reader comes from
the irony implicit in this novel viewpoint, so that the usual rles and
motives appear disquietingly different.
In the "Presagio de S. Jorge" the knight is searching for love,
awaited by the damsel, who has tamed the dragon and keeps him
under a spell, so that St. George may fulfil their destiny by endlessly
re-enacting the killing of the dragon. But none of them find fulfil-
ment in the mere repetition of this ritual action and St. George,
accompanied by the dragon, leaves the damsel so that he can break
the stasis of the spell and become a real knight errant. However,
deprived of the magical unity formed by their timeless drama, the
dragon ceases to have a rle and flies away; all three are finally left
alone and still searching for their destiny.
Likewise Orpheus and Eurydice have fulfilled their dream and
perfection leads to stasis, so it is only through the destruction of the
lovers that their love can be preserved from the ravages of time,
intact: "el amor es la nostalgia de una forma desaparecida"
(PSOV 54) they realise. Again the lovers are condemned to be eter-
nally separated and eternally seeking for reunion.
These themes of searching for identity, interrogation of memory
and yearning for love are similarly fundamental to the "Presagio de
Electra". The Electra myth is even less important here than the
myths alluded to in the previous presagios; what is significant is
Electra's awareness of having a preordained rle to fulfil, which she
cannot escape and in which an act of destruction is both necessary as
a purification of her father's memory and as fulfilment of her desti-
ny. Seligson's Electra, not unlike Giraudoux's, is an idealist, with an
overwhelming urge for life, love and integrity (a "loco deseo de luz y
de vida" (PSOV 64), which is fated to destroy those around her,
who have made compromises with an imperfect existence.
The three presagios differ in tone and do not at first reading seem
to have much in common with each other or the rest of the volume,
yet on closer examination they can be seen to occupy a central
position in Seligson's work. Beneath the irony provided by the unex-
pected angle from which a familiar myth is considered, the character-
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Nostalgia for the Unknown 33
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34 J. Ann Duncan
"su tarea es odiar, rechazar con violencia cualquier signo de amor y vengar,
en ese cuerpo an vivo, no tanto el crimen contra el padre, como la
insaciable necesidad de gozo que todo l irrada, al igual que el de la
hermana, y que l de ella misma. Esa era su herencia, esa la voz que habra
de acallar" (PSOV 63).
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Nostalgia for the Unknown 35
The beauty of the present and of the world of the senses are never
denied or minimised; the protagonist of Otros son los sueos , for
instance, insists on their charm and validity, and on the conviction
they inspire that our experience is unique
But this affirmation of the worth of the individual entails the accept-
ance of one's antecedents and in giving roots to one's present by
exploring a past that goes back further than one's own life and
memories
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36 J. Ann Duncan
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Nostalgia for the Unknown 37
Electra is pursuing "un destino que tal vez no sea el tuyo, ni siquiera
el mo, sino el de toda nuestra estirpe" ( SPOV 57), and this is why
she must accomplish her task of vengeance and abolish nostalgia
through a reunion with the past of her inheritance, beyond that of
her own memories
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38 J. Ann Duncan
"En ese presente nada est por descifrar y todo vibra colmado en la prome-
sa de su realizacin: el deseo y el sueo de la vida forman una imgen
nica" (SPOV 45).
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Nostalgia for the Unknown 39
The mirror here is not just a passive reflector; it contains the past and
the future; the mirror image duplicates us, could not exist without us
and yet does exist separately, since we are not the image; the mirror
is therefore like the complementary half of ourselves, for which we
are anxiously seeking: "lo desconocido y no obstante intudo, refle-
jado" (SPOV 25). Our duty is to uncover this lost knowledge
through receptivity to signs and relationships
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40 J. Ann Duncan
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Nostalgia for the Unknown 41
"comunin del sabio silencio sin palabras. Slo luz, vida que se derrama y
nos abre, resumidos en un gesto, en una imagen, resumen tambin de todos
los instantes [...] algo de rito y magia hay en la repeticin de ciertos
gestos" C LD 92).
The lovers are all reenacting rituals, personifying the force of love
and the search for the meaning of the world, rather than merely
exchanging pleasure. For the Cabala the sign of man's Fall, of sin, is
the differentiation of the sexes, the fragmentation of the world
which was originally complete. So the attempt by the couple to
abolish contradictions, to re-form a synthesis, represents an attempt
to transcend the human and recreate the divine
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42 J. Ann Duncan
RESUMEN
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Nostalgia for the Unknown 43
ABBREVIATIONS
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