Abstract:
In this work, the text by Cristina Corea Marcas y cicatrices. Sobre las operatorias de los chicos en el desfondamiento is examined. From a series of interviews, this author analyzes and interprets the “Game of the Alphabet”. It is a play where children hurt one another’s hands causing themselves wounds. Due to the reiteration of this practice, these slight lacerations, scars, generate a type of wound-scar called keloid which produces constant pain. This play and similar ones take place in Argentina which can be culturally defined as a Western country. In this context, this work attempts to trace the place of the body in the thought and daily life of modern West. The theoretical perspective is based on critical semiotics. Within this framework, two interpretations are put forward. The first is called homo mæroris – homo pasionis (suffering human being-passionate human being), while the second is homo dolori (human being to feel pain).