Manifestations of the contemporary chronicle's subjectivity and the customized body in “Yo fui una freak (pero me operé)” by Gabriela Wiener

Abstract

This article develops an analysis of the autobiographical chronicle “Yo fui una freak (pero me operé)”, by Gabriela Wiener, based on studies on literary journalism and the philosophy of the body in the age of technoscience. To this end, the text is contextualized in terms of the characteristic elements of the chronicle, the gonzo style adopted by the author, and the autobiographical turn that has taken place in contemporary literary journalism. With this, it is identified that the narrative subjectivity present in her work is part of a trend that takes resources from autobiographical writings to enunciate freak issues, whose representation is transgressive in relation to traditional journalism. Likewise, the notion of the «customized body» is proposed to examine the way in which Wiener sheds light on the bodily dilemmas of our time and lets us see the relationship between body and chronicle.