ABSTRACT
In El dibujante the performance of self is linked specifically to Lavater's saintly public persona contrasts sharply with his scheming, unsaintly private self. This chapter proposes that as a multi-genre text in which the dividing line between fact and fiction is blurred, El dibujante, like Los deseos. Following analysis of Lavater's incongruous character, the study presented in the chapter turns its focus to Clavel's obsession with the 'poetica de las sombras' in El dibujante, and which, as we have already seen, also permeates Los deseos, and to an extent her other works. The study also shows how the correlation between the individual and the historical becomes enmeshed as a means of queering traditional notions of 'truth'. The contrasting notion of the shadow as lack or a Duboisean luminous presence, as seen in both Los deseos and El dibujante, are also discussed.
