Latin American Women and the Literature of Madness: Narratives at the Crossroads of Gender, Politics and the Mind

by Elvira Sánchez-Blake, Laura Kanost

Overview

At the turn of the millennium, narrative works by Latin American women writers have represented madness within contexts of sociopolitical strife and gender inequality. This book explores contemporary Latin American realities through madness narratives by prominent women authors, including Cristina Peri Rossi (Uruguay), Lya Luft (Brazil), Diamela Eltit (Chile), Cristina Rivera Garza (Mexico), Laura Restrepo (Colombia) and Irene Vilar (Puerto Rico). Close reading of these works reveals a pattern of literary techniques—a "poetics of madness"—employed by the writers to represent conditions that defy language, make sociopolitical crises tangible and register cultural perceptions of mental illness through literature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786474851
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	05/14/2015
Pages:	188
Product dimensions:	8.80(w) x 6.10(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Elvira Sánchez-Blake is an associate professor of Latin American literature and culture at Michigan State University. Her publications include books, short stories, theatrical plays and poetry. She lives in Florida. Laura Kanost is an associate professor of Spanish at Kansas State University. Her studies on constructions of gender and disability in Latin American literature have appeared in various journals, including Hispanic Review and Frontiers. She is the editor of the open access journal Studies in Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Literature. She lives in Manhattan, Kansas.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Preface 1

Introduction 3

1 A Dialogical Journey: Cristina Peri Rossi's La nave de los locos Elvira Sánchez-Blake 29

2 Homesickness: Lya Luff's Exilio Laura Kanost 52

3 Dissonance on Display: Diamela Eltit and Paz Errazuriz's El infarto del alma Laura Kanost 69

4 See the World Through My Lens: Cristina Rivera Garza's Nadie me verá llorar Elvira Sánchez-Blake 82

5 A Poetics of Madness: Laura Restrepo's Delirio Elvira Sánchez-Blake 102

6 Literary Agency: Irene Vilar's Life-Writing Laura Kanost 122

Conclusions 144

Chapter Notes 157

Bibliography 163

Index 171

Editorial Reviews

valuable...essential academic resource”—Hispania; “in-depth study...impressive exploration of contemporary literary representations of madness in Latin American narratives...essential”—Letras Femininas; “an important contribution to the field of Latin American literary and women’s studies. The most outstanding contribution of this book is thorough and clear review of theoretical and critical texts regarding madness...of the utmost importance.”—Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature.

From the Publisher