Performing Women and Modern Literary Culture in Latin America: Intervening Acts

Vicky Unruh

Published by University of Texas Press 2006

Performing Women and Modern Literary Culture in Latin America

Intervening Acts

Vicky Unruh

https://doi.org/10.7560/709454

Overview
Contents

About this book

Women have always been the muses who inspire the creativity of men, but how do women become the creators of art themselves? This was the challenge faced by Latin American women who aspired to write in the 1920s and 1930s. Though women's roles were opening up during this time, women writers were not automatically welcomed by the Latin American literary avant-gardes, whose male members viewed women's participation in tertulias (literary gatherings) and publications as uncommon and even forbidding. How did Latin American women writers, celebrated by male writers as the "New Eve" but distrusted as fellow creators, find their intellectual homes and fashion their artistic missions?

In this innovative book, Vicky Unruh explores how women writers of the vanguard period often gained access to literary life as public performers. Using a novel, interdisciplinary synthesis of performance theory, she shows how Latin American women's work in theatre, poetry declamation, song, dance, oration, witty display, and bold journalistic self-portraiture helped them craft their public personas as writers and shaped their singular forms of analytical thought, cultural critique, and literary style. Concentrating on eleven writers from Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela, Unruh demonstrates that, as these women identified themselves as instigators of change rather than as passive muses, they unleashed penetrating critiques of projects for social and artistic modernization in Latin America.

Author / Editor information

Vicky Unruh is Professor of Latin American Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Kansas.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction: The “Fatal Fact” of the New Woman Writer in Latin America, 1920s–1930s Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 1 Alfonsina Storni’s Misfits: A Critical Refashioning of Poetisa Aesthetics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	30
Chapter 2 Walking Backwards: Victoria Ocampo’s Scenes of Intrusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	52
Chapter 3 No Place Like Home: Norah Lange’s Art of Anatomy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	72
Chapter 4 Choreography with Words: Nellie Campobello’s Search for a Writer’s Pose Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	92
Chapter 5 “Dressing and Undressing the Mind”: Antonieta Rivas Mercado’s Unfi nished Performance Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
Chapter 6 Acts of Literary Privilege in Havana: Mariblanca Sabas Alomá and Ofelia Rodríguez Acosta Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
Chapter 7 Ad-libs by the Women of Amauta: Magda Portal and María Wiesse Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
Chapter 8 A Refusal to Perform: Patrícia Galvão’s Spy on the Wall Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	222
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	246
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	267

Language: English
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 288

eBook

Published: June 3, 2009
ISBN: 9780292796164