Invasive nature in Guadalupe Nettel’s El matrimonio de los peces rojos

Abstract

In literature, nature is often associated with notions of fertility, beauty, and stability. But the natural world can also be portrayed as an untamed place, full of paradox, mystery and horror. To illustrate this point, this article analyzes the metaphorical elaboration of the human-nature link in the short story collection El matrimonio de los peces rojos by Mexican writer Guadalupe Nettel, with an emphasis on the short story “Hongos”. This metaphorical elaboration, besides unifying the structural and thematic levels, groups the stories into two kinds: those that suggest a link with a domesticated and contained nature, as in “El matrimonio de los peces rojos”, “Felina”, and “La serpiente de Beijín”; and those stories that propose a link with a wild and invading nature, as suggested in “Guerra en los basureros”, but this is fully developed in “Hongos”.