Sentient Analysis: Collective Investigation Through Sporadic and Shifting Writings in Cristina Rivera Garza’s “Interpretaciones Catastróficas De Los Signos Del Cuerpo” (2015)

Abstract

Much like the correlation of spores, Cristina Rivera Garza has produced a multifaceted, communal body of writing that functions as a network of textual sensors. Her work with the practices of linguistic materiality transforms the rewriting, intervention, and blending of texts into gestures of critical inquiry in the face of environments compromised by the logic of capital; in this way, she enables the production of alternative, non-hegemonic knowledge that transcends localized perspectives. This proposal, developed from a research-oriented perspective, demonstrates an interest in the materiality of language and in the efficacy of that presence for examining the multiple voices and temporalities that structure a narrative, as well as functioning as a device that engages the participants in the observation. In this way, the study will demonstrate the alignment of her writing project with this practice from its inception and will argue that the textuality of La imaginación pública (2015) and, in particular, of “Interpretaciones catastróficas de los signos del cuerpo”, problematizes the processes of writing and imagination through their inscription, recording, and analysis within the text itself.