Grasping at the Tendrils of a Slipping Dream: The Connotations of Ephemerality in Anaïs Nin's A Spy in the House of Love

Developing upon José Esteban Muñoz's theorisation of the "ephemera", this paper seeks to repurpose the same, in order to identify an adoption of the ephemerality principle in Anaïs Nin's A Spy in the House of Love. Identifying three branches of this principle, namely textual ephemerality, material ephemerality and ephemerality of identity, this paper undertakes a close study of the novella to deepen literary understanding of Nin's conscious adoption of a gendered aesthetics. Furthermore, it seeks to understand how Nin, through the adoption of the ephemerality principle, tries to give voice to suppressed female sexuality, something that she felt could not be holistically explored through a male model of writing. It is only by consciously eluding any and all attempts at delineation that Nin provides clues to unravel the character of Sabina, and therefore, her stylistic rebellion that sought to embody female subjectivity through literary ambiguity.