"I Am My Teeth": Dental Autobiography and the Economics of Self-Fashioning in Valeria Luiselli's The Story of My Teeth.
This article closely examines the role played by teeth in processes of subjectivation as portrayed in Valeria Luiselli's novel The Story of My Teeth. While the transformations undergone by the protagonist's teeth embody his incomplete subjectivation, the teeth are also repeatedly objectified in the...
| Publicado en: | University of Toronto Quarterly Vol. 94; no. 4; pp. 674 - 690 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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University of Toronto Press
Nov2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| Sumario: | This article closely examines the role played by teeth in processes of subjectivation as portrayed in Valeria Luiselli's novel The Story of My Teeth. While the transformations undergone by the protagonist's teeth embody his incomplete subjectivation, the teeth are also repeatedly objectified in the narrative through processes of grafting and auctioning and through the fashioning of dentures. Through the possibilities offered by the notion of "heterotopia," in both its anatomical and Foucauldian conceptions, the article explores the portrayal of teeth in the novel as heterotopic sites juxtaposing at a single locus several incompatibilities. It further examines the ontological assumptions underlying the protagonist's evolving sense of objectal value and the attendant contradictions characterizing his emergent selfhood. |
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