The poem Migraciones by Gloria Gervitz is a postmodern feminist reconceptualization of the nature of self, time and history. The lyrical voice of the poem deconstructs and reconstructs itself, atomizing by way of semantic indeterminacy the cognitive processes used by the reader to construct the meaning of the verses. The primary goal of this thesis is to explore how this literary strategy facilitates multiple interpretations of the poem and increases the pleasure derived from the process. To this end, the thesis explores the way in which concepts such as semantic deferral and intertextuality interact with the literary space of the poem to influence the interpretation of its meaning. As a practical demonstration, three theoretical approaches for the interpretation of the poem are explored – psychological, ethnological and postmodernist. In addition, an in-depth critical analysis is provided for the lyrical motives of the poem and shows how they correlate with the feminism underlying the use of eroticism as a principal rhetorical device for the work. The thesis concludes with a comparison of the mode in which eroticism is expressed in the poetic works of other Mexican women writers of the twentieth century, pointing to their participation in the literary reconceptualization of the self, time and memory.
