Rosa Bok: “The Year in the Life of the Infanta”

‘The Year in the Life of an Infanta’ is a journal of 366 daily entries which at first glance appears to be a diary, but upon closer examination turns out to be an intensely precious collection of thoughts.

These relate to language itself and deal with an abstract, self-explanatory exterior. The volume collects the first part, published in 1995 under the title Half a Year in the Life of an Infanta, and continues 20 years later, illustrating the ego’s path from silence to speech, from a speaking machine to writing. The ego is called Infanta because it “does not want to be expressed.” It is no coincidence that one thinks of Kaspar Hauser, so the terms “dress test”, “ordeal”, “nudity” and “nothing” also refer to the careful appropriation of foreign language material. In general, individual terms are subjected to stress testing and critical examination through language games.

In the middle is a female subject whose reflections seem to refer only to herself: “Asking why I exist is redundant. If I were not me, I would be someone else.” Although the notes are based on personal encounters and observations, they focus on the specific involvement of this ego in the course of time and thus point to something much larger than this ego.