A paper bird: the materiality of the book in "The weight of the dead bird", by Aline Bei

Abstract

Published in 2017, Aline Bei's The Weight of the Dead Bird quickly became a best-seller, as well as drawing the attention of critics and becoming the subject of academic papers. The novel tells the story of a woman aging from 8 to 52 years old who, in her lifetime, experiences countless losses and suffers from the trauma of sexual violence. In addition to these themes, what stands out is the way in which formally the novel is constantly permeated by a certain lyricism, defining the novel as a lyrical novel. Thus, this paper intends to analyze The Weight of the Dead Bird in order to demonstrate to what extent the lyrical genre endues the narrative and how the materialities of the book - the paratexts, the typography, the use of italics, etc. – contribute to informing such lyricism. Therefore, theoretical contributions are sought mainly in studies on the lyrical novel and on the materialities of literature.