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Ann Aibor, MI 48106 POWER AND WOMEN'S WRITING IN CHILE: 1973-1988 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Barbara Lee Loach, B.A., M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 1990 Dissertation Committee: Approved by: J. Giordano J. Kubayanda ^ _____ ^Adviser S. Susimerhill Department of Spanish and Portuguese To Grlnor Rojo and Joe Kubayanda for their examples of excellence and perseverance XI ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would li3:e to express my gratitude to the following individuals for their assistance and support: Justo Alarcon and his staff in the Critical References Section of the National Library, Santiago, Chile; Steven Ashby, Judy Johnson, Philip Jones and Brian Kennedy for their valuable input; and Dr- Ray Bartholomew and Dr. Duane Wood for scheduling and financial arrangements. I also appreciate the direction given by the members of my committee. Dr. Jaime Giordano and Dr. Steven Summerhill, and the guidance given by Dr. Grlnor Rojo and Dr. Josaphat Kubayanda, who have served as very capable advisers. In addition, I would like to thank my students, friends and family for their patience and understanding during the completion of this project. Ill VITA December 13, 1954 ............ Born - Fostoria, Ohio 1977 ......................... B.A., Cedarville College, Cedarville, Ohio 1978 ......................... M.A., Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio 1978-1980 .................... Instructor of Spanish, Cedarville College, Cedarville, Ohio 1980-present ................. Assistant Professor of Spanish, Cedarville College, Cedarville, Ohio FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Spanish and Portuguese Minor Field: Contemporary Latin American Literature IV TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION........................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................... i ü VITA .............................................. iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................. vi INTRODUCTION ...................................... 1 CHAPTER PAGE I. POWER, GENDER AND WRITING............. 6 II. THE SOCIO-HISTORICAL CONTEXT: WOMEN AND POWER IN LATIN AMERICA AND CHILE .................. 46 III. POWER AND THE LITERARY T E X T .................. 96 IV. THE THEMES AND SPACES OF RESISTANCE.......... 166 V. THE DISCOURSE OF RESISTANCE .................. 217 CONCLUSION........................................ 272 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................... 285 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Works by or about Michel Foucault: DP Discipline and Punish HS History of Sexuality, yolume 1 P/K Power/Knowledge SP "The Subject and Power" F/F Feminism and Foucault Works by Isabel Allende: AS De amor y ^ sombra CE La casa de los espiritus ET, Eva Luna Works by Diamela Eltit: PP Por la patria Works by Elizabeth Subercaseaux: Canto El canto de la ralz leiana Works by Ana Vâsquez: AR Abel Rodriguez y sus hermanos BJH Los Bûfalos. los Jerarcas y la Huesera VI INTRODUCTION "Los procesos histôricos a veces son reflejados no por acontecimientos dramâticos, sino por la callada determinaciôn de un pueblo que, en un estado de conciencia personal, cada uno toma esa decision y al tomarla produce un acontecimiento histôrico déterminante." — Isabel Allende In December 1985 the Revista Iberoamericana published an entire volume dedicated to the status of women's writing in Latin America. According to Sharon Keefe Ugalde, this volume represented a "benchmark” in the study of female writing, reflecting the current energetic state of women's literature in Latin America (Ugalde 222). Yet even though a number of excellent studies in recent years have led the way in foregrounding the talents and contributions of Latin American women writers both past and present, the works of many women writers remain to be discovered and analyzed. This study focuses on the novels of four contemporary Latin American women authors who write within the context of post-1973 Chile. The ten novels included in this study were all published between 1977 and 1988 and encompass the 2 particular socio-political realities which impinged upon Chilean society and letters during that period. These works were selected for their historical and literary significance, as examples of the new directions in which Latin American women's narrative has been developing. In order to gain a broad perspective on the nature of these directions, it was decided to include all of the novels by these authors, rather than just selecting representative works. The fact that two of the authors reside in Chile (Subercaseaux and Eltit), while the other two have lived in exile (Vâsquez and Allende), provides an additional source of revealing comparisons and contrasts. While Isabel Allende's works have enjoyed wide circulation in a number of countries (and only belatedly in Chile) , the other three authors— Diamela Eltit, Elizabeth Subercaseaux and Ana Vâsquez— have received minimal attention outside their homelands (Vâsquez being more widely known in her adopted homeland of France than in Chile). But the works they have produced all display experiences and significances that merit close examination, particularly as they illustrate the status of women and women's writing in Latin America. The critical approach selected through which to analyze these works is the model of feminist reader-response criticism proposed by Patrocinio Schweickhart. This method is appropriate primarily because it highlights the significance of reading the texts from a feminist 3 perspective that privileges women's experience and ways of knowing. The reading process itself calls for a "dialogue" between reader and author that alternates between identifying with common themes and ideas, and distancing oneself from the text because of particular socio-cultural differences. The result in this present study is an understanding of the texts within their particular cultural circumstances, with an awareness of the significant issues and differences that exist between the author and the reader. The organizing concept used to approach the texts centers on the identification of power and its exercise in society. Traditionally, men have wielded power most overtly in society, particularly in the "public" sphere of politics. Women's domain has centered in the "private" sphere of the home and the family, and is perceived generally as power­ less. The central question of this paper regards the nature of power as force versus an alternate form of power based on knowledge, relationship and caring— a "woman-centered" theory of power. After identifying the salient features of traditional concepts of power, the discussion draws upon recent ideas by Michel Foucault in an attempt to "uncover" those unseen networks of power and resistance that oppose totalizing theories. These ideas form a starting point for the development of the concept of a moral theory of power. 4 that is, a theory that emphasizes power as the capacity to do and to enable others, rather than to dominate and coerce. With these ideas as the framework for analysis, the ten novels are examined with the goal of uncovering the presence or absence of the notion of an alternate theory of power. As will be seen in Chapters III and IV, the struggle of power and resistance lies at the heart of each of the novels. In Chapter V, the effects of censorship and exile on the literary expression of each author signals the existence of a struggle between power and resistance at the metatextual level also. As will be seen in the conclusion of this study, all four authors are engaged in the process of establishing themselves as the subjects of their discourse, breaking away from identities and modes of expression imposed by traditional androcentric society. This process is central to the creation of an authentic voice that