A “terrible shadow”: illness and death or the unsaid in the letters of Julián del Casal

Abstract

Our work addresses a paradox that crosses the letters of Julián del Casal (1889-1893), in which he inscribes, profusely, the psychic malaise, the spleen, as required at the time to compose the figure of decadent artist, while simultaneously denies or minimizes the devastating power of the physical illness that would interrupt his life at the age of 33. Considering these conditions of stating and not stating the anguish, we ask ourselves: What can be heard - or not - in a supposedly intimate genre in the late 19th Century in Hispanic America? What can be said - or not - at that particular moment on the threat and the ignorance concerning one’s own body, and concerning the social body as well? Where to find words to express the unspeakable about the young death?

Keywords: Body; Death; Julián del Casal; Letters