The female corporeality as a territory of resistance: a semiotic analysis of the poetic work "Cuerpo Presente" by Siomara España

Abstract

This article analyzes female corporeality as a territory of resistance in Siomara España’s poetry collection Cuerpo Presente (2022), using a semiotic-discursive approach grounded in Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity. The study demonstrates that the author transforms journalistic chronicles and testimonies of femicides and transfemicides into a poetic archive that subverts the structural violence exerted upon women’s bodies. Through three analytical axes performativity and norm, subversive reiteration, and the reconstruction of subjectivities the work reveals how the collection makes visible the social sanctions imposed on those who break gender mandates, converts the repetition of violent scenes into an act of collective memory, and recovers the voice and dignity of the victims through the symbolic resignification of the body. Likewise, the article examines the intermedial dimension of the book, where the juxtaposition of poetry and journalistic chronicle configures a counter-archive that denounces impunity and calls for political action. The study concludes that Cuerpo Presente constitutes a literary and performative project that transforms pain into resistance and contributes to understanding the female body as a political, ethical, and aesthetic sign within contemporary feminist literature in Ecuador and Latin America.