SOURCE: "Ritual Transformations in Luisa Valenzuela's 'Rituals of Rejection,'" in Review of Contemporary Fiction, Vol. 6, No. 3, Fall, 1986, pp. 88-96.

In the following essay, Mull reviews some of Valenzuela's characteristic thematic concerns, motifs, and stylistic techniques through a close reading of "Rituals of Rejection," which demonstrates her "insistence on breaking apart, altering, and/or combining traditional words in untraditional ways."

"Rituals of Rejection" ("Ceremonias de rechazo") is the third, and thus in a sense the centerpiece, of the five stories comprising Luisa Valenzuela's highly-acclaimed collection Other Weapons (Cambio de armas, 1982). Other stories in the volume—notably the first, "Fourth Version," and the last, "Other Weapons"—have receved well-deserved critical attention as complex, suggestive narratives offering a multiplicity of interpretations. In contrast, "Rituals of Rejection" would appear to require little in the way of critical analysis. The story describes a poignant but all too familiar scenario. A woman, here...