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Sylvia Molloy From Sappho to Baffo Diverting th e Sexua l in Alejandr a Pizarni k Escribir un solo libro en prosa en lugar de poemas o fragmentos. Un libro o una morada en la cual refugiarme. [To write only one book of proseinstead of poemsor fragments. A book or a home where I could findshelter.] —Alejandra Pizarnik, diary entry, 28 September 1962 In a mock table of contents for her La bucanem de Pernambuco, o Hilda la poligrafa (Th e pirat e o f Pernambuco , o r Hild a th e polygraph) , Alejandra Pizarni k cite s a sectio n o f tha t tex t a s dedicate d " A Saf o y a Baffo" (T o Sapph o an d Baffo). 1 Lik e Murie l Rukeyser' s hortator y "No t Sappho, Sacco," in "Poem Out of Childhood,"2 Pizarnik's mock dedication swerves from Sappho through phonetic repetition and distortion, even as it names her. Rukeyser's swerve points to the political; in effect, her full declaration reads: "Not Sappho, Sacco. / Rebellion pioneering among our lives." No less rebellious, Pizarnik chooses, however, the farcical gesture: in bringing together Baffo an d Sappho, she is performing a n act of literary vandalism , both honoring and defacing th e sapphic monument (an d the comple x narratives it stands for), calling attention to the lady as she literally draws a mustache ("Baffo" i s "whiskers" in Italian) on her face. Susan Gubar interprets swerves such as Rukeyser's; (observable in othe r poets, from Amy Lowell to Robin Morgan) as gestures of distrust; distrust, in general terms, of Sappho as a (poetic/lesbian) precursor and (poetic/lesbian ) collaborator, but also distrust of "a single standard for writers definin g 250 * 16 From Sappho to Baffo » 251 themselves b y thei r sexua l difference." 3 I n suc h a spirit, I firs t though t I would approac h lesbian sexuality in Pizarnik's work throug h sapphi c distrust , as manifested throug h parody and the grotesque, and then connect it to the ambiguous statu s of the sexual, as a decisive element o f self-figura tion , i n Pizarnik' s work . Yet naggingly, a s I trie d t o pursu e thi s slipper y construct, no w a s Sappho-Baff o th e mustachioe d lady , no w a s Sapph o and Baffo , a Beckettian collaborativ e pair, in the most obviou s place, that is, in the verbal vertigo of Losposeidos entre lilas and La bucanera de Pernambuco , I was reminded o f another sapphic pair or, rather, of other sapphic crisscrossings , wher e Sapph o an d Baff o migh t fin d a mor e fruitfu l incarnation. I refer , o f course , t o Pizarnik' s La condesa sangrienta (Th e bloody countess) , the tex t a t onc e dazzlin g an d elusiv e o n whic h I hav e chosen to focus my commentary.4 The mentio n o f parod y migh t see m unexpecte d i n connectio n wit h a text that, in chronicling one long obsessive act of cruelty, seems unlikely to sustain the destabilizing reading that parody demands. I want to argue that, although no t overtl y parodic, La condesa sangrienta, a s a borderline tex t constantly staging its own liminality, open s itself to such a reading. By liminality I do not mean the "experience of limits," conventionally or morally speaking tha t La condesa sangrienta relate s o n a n anecdotal leve l but th e instances of textual, perceptual, and ideological friction, th e constant blur ring an d resettin g o f boundaries , put int o practice b y th e text . On e suc h instance of friction i s to be found i n the preface itself, where, as in all prefaces , the enunciation o f the text is negotiated. The understated, rigorousl y economical tone of this preface, so reminiscent of the Borges of mock book reviews an d o f Historia universal de la infamia, doe s no t appea r t o b e coincidental. Mimicking Borges, Pizarnik presents her text as a review of Valentine Penrose' s biograph y o f th e blood y countess. 5 I n s o doing , sh e seems to reclaim the narrator's stanc e in Historia universal de la infamia, that of a...

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