Open AccessGossip and Vanity: Two Possible Ways of Discerning Death in Los dos retratos by Norah Lange
Author(s) -
Mariana Concolino
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
rassegna iberistica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.101
H-Index - 1
eISSN - 2037-6588
pISSN - 0392-4777
DOI - 10.30687/ri/2037-6588/2019/112/004
Subject(s) - gossip , context (archaeology) , beauty , order (exchange) , action (physics) , sociology , function (biology) , aesthetics , art , history , psychology , social psychology , physics , business , archaeology , finance , quantum mechanics , evolutionary biology , biology
In this article, death is linked to the very fleeting nature of time, and to how time has something of uncontrollable and fluid. In the context of a wealthy family, dying means that memories (as foundations of a solid family life) become distorted, and physical beauty vanishes: to die is to disfigure, dying is disfiguring oneself. In order to carry out this analysis, it will be essential to study the function of some elements that indicate permanent presence in the text such as photographs, mirrors, gossip. Thus, we will use reflections by Schnaith regarding death, Berger’s writings that allow us to meditate on the action of looking, Barthes’ text analysing photographic images and Cozarinksy’s works regarding gossip.