ABSTRACT
I will discuss in this chapter how both Cuerpo náufrago as text but in particular as multimedia endeavour elicits the idea of disciplinary and discursive troubling. In order to discuss such troubling, I will first analyze briefly the role of the novel’s intertextuality in order then to highlight the manner in which the text’s cyber dimension expands the notion of intertextuality through hypertextual and hypermedial readings. I then turn to an examination of the other multimedia elements of the novel. Because of the similarities between Cuerpo náufrago and Las Violetas son flores del deseo in terms of their hypertextual dimension, I will provide an analysis of hypertextuality in this chapter in relation to both works of fiction. I then focus on the other multimedia elements of Clavel’s novel. Cuerpo náufrago, like Las Violetas, represented the starting point of a broader multimedia project called Proyecto multimedia spearheaded by Ana Clavel and the involvement of photographers, artists, and performers. It consisted of a mural and urban space intervention, a webpage and an exhibition which comprised a computer kiosk with access to the Cuerpo náufrago website, an art installation, a photographic display, and a performance. The overall multimedia elements were displayed in various locations in Mexico City following the novel’s publication in 2005. Proyecto multimedia positions Clavel as both writer and artist, and in particular showcases the author’s prowess in masterminding a unique artistic vision. It also suggests troubling, given that, as an extension of the novel, it disturbs, but equally complements, traditional conceptions of literature. Similarly, several of the multimedia elements serve, each in their own way, to bolster and to challenge traditional heteronormative gender roles and forms of desire. Finally, whilst the mural and urban space intervention functions to question the logic of commodity capitalism, the multimedia exhibition disturbs traditional notions of ‘high’ art by engaging audiences with ‘low’ quotidian-type experiences and fomenting their physical interaction with the artworks and the surrounding space.
