ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relationship between lesbian eroticism and the act of writing in Sylvia Molloy's novel En breve carcel. While Molloy's novel indeed belongs to the literary traditions of the "nouveau roman" and the writings of the River Plate region, the lesbian themes articulated give the novel a space of its own within Latin American letters. Even though loneliness and emptiness are requirements for the protagonist's writing, writing and lesbian love and desire are inextricably intertwined. The words "forgetting" and "remembering" underline the ambiguity of the woman's feelings. "Forgetting" connotes abandonment and lack of feeling, while "remembering" connotes establishment, affirmation, and reassurance. In Certificate lesbian love and desire have an ambiguous and mimetic nature that is elaborated through the abundance of love triangles. Molloy's strategy of introducing and privileging triangular relationships challenges and threatens the gendered system of binary oppositions.
