Manuel Puig's The Kiss of the Spider Woman, while utilizing various registers is centered around the dialogue of the conversations between the two main characters, Molina and Valentin. We briefly discussed the idea that removing a traditional narrator from the text is somehow "liberating" and represents a movement away from more repressive structures in novels. I think that this is especially true in KOTSW because not only does Puig claim the act of narration for the people, but he gives it to marginalized groups who's voice(s) are often ignored or silenced, especially in the context of the novel. I read an interesting review of the book in the International Fiction Review that cited the dialogue structure as representative of a "binary ideological structure" where each character represents a social construct of gender. With the progression of the plot, these structures are deconstructed as the characters break cultural taboos and essentially enter into the other's world. Therefore, we can take this as a metaphor for Puig challenging the binary ideology of Western/Argentine society, and as Drozo writes, "advocates a system of infinite multiplicity, wherein the oppressor/oppressed relation is invalidated." The argument in the essay is very comprehensive*. I find it interesting that Puig studied architecture, given the fact that he employs a rather complicated structure in his novel.
Using architecture as a jumping off point for my criticism of the film, I was disappointed in some of the staging aspects of the film. For one thing, I found the dimensions of the "cell" to be disorienting and incongruent with the novel's use of the cell as a catalyst for the merging of two very different personalities. In fact, the architecture of the prison in general was a bit strange.
I did think that the characters were represented faithfully as well as the general plot of the novel. In regards to Molina's narration of the movies, I believe that the Nazi movie was most appropriate for the film, but that the intermittent telling of that one story did not sufficiently represent the extent that escapist fantasy was necessary to relieve Molina's feelings of isolation, and a bonding mechanism for Molina and Valentin. There was very little representation of the political situation in Brazil in the film making it hard to understand Valentin's position or sympathies. Finally, the physical difference and discrepancy in language and accent between the characters were distracting. The fact that Molina and Valentin share a nationality was not significant in the movie, and Molina's dialect and vocabulary almost made it seem as if he was a foreigner in an unfamiliar country.
* http://www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/IFR/bin/get.cgi?directory=Vol.26/&filename=Drozdo.htm
