Kristevian semiotic disruption of physical and textual bodies in El orden alfabético by Juan José Millás

Using a theoretical framework offered by Kristeva, this study explores the erosion of physical and textual bodies in Millás's 1998 novel El orden alfabético. I analyze the processes of constructing text and of manipulating his physical body that the protagonist carries out as he seeks to find his self. Both attempts to create text-written and physical-fail, which reminds us that our system of language and our physical bodies, even though they are our main modes of perceiving the world around us, are often unreliable.