ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author presents some ideas on how melodramatic representation and identification plays out in the work of Manuel Puig. He choses Puig because a signature of his oeuvre has been the masterfully crafted literary adaptation of cinematic melodrama forms into his narrative. As with most of Puig's works, Boquitas pintadas plays with narrative form, which makes it difficult to present a linear narrative of the sequence of events. The melodramatic text's expressed desire for a "fuller" expression promoted the pleasure of and in contradiction. The author discusses the contradictory logic adds a crucial and critical element to the discursive power of melodrama, that is, pedagogy. Melodrama instructs its readers, often times of the most conservative lessons, such as "it is okay to be in an unhappy marriage," "you shouldn't complain for having a life of misery," "not being sexually satisfied is really not a problem," "use and abuse women: they'll like it" and so fort.
