FROM ANGELS TO AGENTS: WOMEN, TRAVEL, AND NATION-BUILDING IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY ARGENTINE LITERATURE by ELIZABETH GRASSMANN SARAH MOODY, COMMITTEE CHAIR ANA CORBALÁN CONSTANCE JANIGA-PERKINS JENNIFER PURVIS WILLIAM WORDEN A DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Modern Languages and Classics in the Graduate School of The University of Alabama TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA 2015 Copyright Elizabeth Grassmann 2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT This dissertation examines how women were represented in nineteenth-century Argentine literature through the evaluation of the societal functions of women in literary texts and by investigating what power women employed in these writings. I explore what challenges were made toward traditional female characterizations and gender roles to analyze what advancements occurred for women of this time period as reflected in the literature. I also investigate if this literature contributes to a feminist perspective. The main objectives of this study are to further develop our understanding of women as active participants in the public/private sphere, to demonstrate how literature of this time period can be a tool to exercise female agency, and to explore how these literary works contribute to the renegotiation of traditional binaries such as public/private and male/female. I study antirrosista texts and travel narratives to assert that some women authors employed these genres to destabilize conventional gender roles and identities to rebel against patriarchal attempts to restrict and control female identity and positions in society. The findings of this research offer insight into how female agency was established in nineteenth-century Argentine literature through the position of heroine and the construction of alternative female models of identity through gender inversion, blurring gender lines, or, in some cases, directly contesting gender divisions. This research also affirms that antirrosista literature and travel narratives are mutually informing and co-implicating due to their status as resistance literature. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am pleased to have this opportunity to thank the many colleagues and faculty members who have helped me with this research project. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Sarah Moody, my dissertation advisor, for her excellent guidance, patience, and for sharing her research expertise and wisdom in the field of nineteenth-century Argentine literature. I would also like to thank all of my committee members, Dr. Ana Corbalán, Dr. Constance Janiga- Perkins, Dr. Jennifer Purvis, and Dr. William Worden for their invaluable input, inspiring questions, and support of both the dissertation and my academic progress. This research would not have been possible without my friends and family who never stopped encouraging me throughout the dissertation process. Finally, I would like to thank my parents, Forrest and Nancy Grassmann, who always supported and believed in me and in all of my endeavors. iii CONTENTS ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………………ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS……………………………………………………………………......iii INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………...1 CHAPTER ONE “FROM CAPTIVE ANGEL TO AGENT OF CHANGE: THE FEMALE PROTAGONISTS OF LA CAUTIVA AND AMALIA ” ..................................................................14 CHAPTER TWO “FROM CAPTIVE TO LIBERATOR: THE FEMALE PROTAGONIST AS HEROINE IN JUANA MANSO’S LOS MISTERIOS DEL PLATA ” ...........................................61 CHAPTER THREE “THE FANTASTIC TRANSGRESSIONS OF WOMEN: JUANA MANUELA GORRITI’S “EL GUANTE NEGRO” AND EL POZO DEL YOCCI ” .................100 CHAPTER FOUR “WOMEN, TRAVEL, AND REBELLION AGAINST PATRIARCHY: FEMALE AGENCY IN PEREGRINACIONES DE UNA ALMA TRISTE AND LA TIERRA NATAL ” ........................................................................................................................................129 CONCLUSIONS..........................................................................................................................161 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................167 iv Introduction Throughout literary history, many writers have explored women’s roles in society and female identity. However, the characterization of women in literature has historically contributed to the establishment and reinforcement of traditional gender roles for females that restrict their identity to being wife and mother. Indeed, much literature confines women’s positions and limits their personal agency based upon gender. Nonetheless, nineteenth-century Argentine literature offers a variety of texts that challenge these limitations and restrictions through the assertion of personal agency. I will examine Argentine literature from 1837-1889 due to the abundance in this period of “antirrosista”1 literature and travel narratives, both of which display unconventional and to some extent liberating roles for women throughout this time period. I intend to address this issue by examining one epic poem, one short story and five novels from nineteenth-century Argentina with the purpose of demonstrating how authors prescribe a variety of non-traditional female characterizations. In some cases representations of women promote patriarchal political ideals while others advocate for capable and intelligent women who exercise agency and their free will. In order to address these concerns I must evaluate several questions in regards to women, starting with the following: how are they represented in nineteenth-century Argentine literature, what are their societal functions in literary texts, and what power do they employ in these 1 “Antirrosista” is a term that describes the literary works written in opposition to the dictatorship of the nineteenth-century dictatorship of Juan Manuel de Rosas. See Halperín Donghi’s Historia contemporánea de America latina (198-203). 1 writings? After considering answers to these questions, I will analyze the implications of women’s representation in nineteenth-century Argentine literature, asking: what challenges are made toward traditional characterization and gender roles, are there any advancements made for women of this time period as reflected in the literature, and does this literature contribute to promoting and circulating feminist perspectives? We must remember that during the nineteenth century, traditional roles were confined to daughter, wife, or mother of a male, but some authors nonetheless challenge these conventional roles through their literature by creating strong and capable female protagonists who assert their agency both within and outside of the family unit. Therefore, while promoting these typically domestic roles authors also depict women as non- traditional heroine figures. These questions draw attention to the exploration of how gender roles were changing throughout nineteenth-century Argentina. This work is significant because it will reveal how particular authors used literature to establish and exemplify alternative models that promotes female empowerment. This dissertation will examine the work of both men and women authors. Although nineteenth-century Latin American literature is male dominated (Davies, Brewster, and Owen) many women were writing in this period. This work will also further our understanding of women as active writers, showing their literature as a tool for exercising agency, and modeling new female characterizations that were empowering and contributed to feminist thought. My original contribution to the critical/theoretical field of nineteenth-century Argentine literature is the proposal that “antirrosista” literature and travel narratives are mutually informing and co-implicating, a thesis I will demonstrate by exploring the negotiation between the public and private spheres, examining personal agency through the position of heroine, and analyzing 2 alternative female models of identity through gender inversion, blurred gender lines, or, in some cases, directly contested gender divisions, in which protagonists’ depictions blend masculine and feminine characteristics. The analysis of literature produced by various nineteenth-century authors will allow for investigating the foundation and construction of varying levels of individual agency and alternative female representations. Resistance literature and travel narratives are interrelated in that both literary genres promote the freedom of expression and personal emancipation. These types of writings address diverse topics and disciplines due to the complex nature of their subject matter. Peter Hulme and Tim Youngs explain that in travel writing “[t]he subjects of ‘race’, colonialism, and gender cut across any single discipline, and within the academy evidence of the centrality of travel is the spread of its study across several fields” (9). These examples of common themes found in travel literature are also prevalent historical issues that connect travel narratives and resistance literature. Barbara Harlow states that “[t]he resistance novels seek different historical endings and these endings are already implicit, contained within the narrative analysis and construction of the conditions and problematic of the historical situation itself” (79). The subversive nature of particular travel writings produces the bond between resistance and travel literature. While both male and female authors produce these types