Women, Memory and Dictatorship in Recent Chilean Fiction: Palabra de Mujer (Iberian and Latin American Studies)

217 Pages·2022·2.996 MB·English

by  Gustavo Carvajal

‘Drawing on an impressive selection of texts that offer insight into
the gendered nature of memory politics in post-dictatorship Chile,
Palabra de Mujer explores and challenges the boundaries between
dictatorship and post-dictatorship, fact and fiction, perpetrator and
victim, offering a nuanced portrayal of the ways in which literary
voices engage with the past.’ W
Dr Cara Levey, University College Cork, Ireland o
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ne
‘A powerful exploration of the gendered dimensions of subjugation n
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,
and the many ways such violence has been rendered visible through e M
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literature. By bringing together post-dictatorial Chilean fiction, feminist
ee
theory and historical analysis, Carvajal prompts us to think in new nm
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ways about patriarchal control, militaristic culture, and how writing lab Cr
can become a tool of dissent.’ ra hy
Dr Lisa Renee DiGiovanni, Keene State College, New Hampshire d ia
e ln
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In what ways do the politics of memory perpetuate gendered images of je n D
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those directly affected by political violence in Chile? Can the literary Fi
ic
rewriting of painful experiences contest existing interpretations of national ct
ta
trauma and the portrayal of women in such discourses? How do women it
oo
participate in the production of collective narratives of the past in the nr
aftermath of violence? This book discusses the literary representation of s
h
women and their memory practices in the recent work of seven i
p
contemporary Chilean authors: Diamela Eltit, Carlos Franz, Pía González,

Fátima Sime, Arturo Fontaine, Pía Barros and Nona Fernández. It locates
their works in the context of a patriarchal politics of memory and
commemorative culture in Chile, and as part of a wider body of contested
interpretations of General Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship
(1973–90). By an analysis of novels that depict the dictatorial past through
Women, Memory and
the memories of women, it is argued that these texts understand and explore
G
remembrance as a process by which the patriarchal co-option of women’s
u Dictatorship in Recent
memories can be exposed and even contested in the aftermath of violence. s
t
a
GUSTAVO CARVAJAL is Lecturer in Latin American Literature and vo Chilean Fiction
Cultural Studies at the Universidad Finis Terrae, Chile. C
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v Palabra de Mujer
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Cover image: Monument to the victims of the Pinochet l
dictatorship at Cementerio General, Santiago. www.uwp.co.uk
Cattallina/Shutterstock.com.
ISBN 978-1-78683-803-2
Gustavo Carvajal
GWASG PRIFYSGOL CYMRU
UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS 9 781786 838032
IBERIAN AND LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES
Women, Memory and Dictatorship
in Recent Chilean Fiction
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Series Editors
Professor David George (Swansea University)
Professor Paul Garner (University of Leeds)
Editorial Board
Samuel Amago (University of Virginia)
Roger Bartra (Universidad Autónoma de México)
Paul Castro (University of Glasgow)
Richard Cleminson (University of Leeds)
Catherine Davies (University of London)
Luisa- Elena Delgado (University of Illinois)
Maria Delgado (Central School of Speech and Drama, London)
Will Fowler (University of St Andrews)
David Gies (University of Virginia)
Gareth Walters (Swansea University)
Duncan Wheeler (University of Leeds)
Other titles in the series
Doña Bárbara Unleashed: From Venezuelan
Plains to International Screen
Jenni M. Lehtinen
Ophelia: Shakespeare and Gender in Contemporary S pain
Sharon Keefe Ugalde
Madness and Irrationality in Spanish and Latin American
Literature and C ulture
Lloyd Hughes D avies
Fantastic Short Stories by Women Authors from
Spain and Latin America: A Critical Anthology
Patricia Gracía and Teresa López- Pellisa
Carmen Martín Gaite: Poetics, Visual Elements and S pace
Ester Bautista B otello
The Spanish Anarchists of Northern Australia:
Revolution in the Sugar Cane F ields
Robert Mason
Paulo Emilio Salles Gomes: On Brazil and Global Cinema
Maite Conde and Stephanie Dennison
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IBERIAN AND LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES
Women, Memory and
Dictatorship in Recent
Chilean Fiction
Palabra de Mujer

GUSTAVO CARVAJAL
UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS
2021
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© Gustavo Carvajal, 2 021
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any mate-
rial form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by
electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some
other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copy-
right owner. Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to
reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the
University of Wales Press, University of Wales Registry, King Edward VII
Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3NS.
www.uwp.co.uk
British Library CIP
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-78683-803-2
e-ISBN 978-1-78683-804-9
The right of Gustavo Carvajal to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 79 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1 988.
Typeset by Mark Heslington Ltd, Scarborough, North Yorkshire
Printed by CPI Antony Rowe, Melksham, United Kingdom
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Contents
Series Editors’ Foreword vii
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction 1
Patriarchy and memory 4
Remembering dictatorial C hile 8
Women’s memories in the public sphere 10
Chilean fictions of the traumatic past 14
1 Violence and Women’s Memories in El D esierto 21
Rituals of violence and m emory 25
Understanding the traumatic p ast 36
Victims and perpetrators 46
2 Militants, Wives and Mothers in Jamás el Fuego Nunca
and Libreta de Familia 56
The Chilean novel, the dictatorship and the left 58
The gendered construction of militants and w ives 61
The gendered construction of a mother 76
3 Female Collaboration in Carne de Perra and La Vida Doble 88
The Bachelet government 94
Confessions and c onversions 98
Collaborators in democracy 108
Telling stories 113
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vi Women, Memory and Dictatorship
4 Daughters Rewriting Legacies in ‘El lugar del otro’ and
F uenzalida 123
Inherited memories 128
Family albums 134
Daughters of the d ictatorship 139
Rewriting legacies 148
Conclusion 156
Notes 162
Bibliography 187
Index 199
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Series Editors’ Foreword
Over recent decades the traditional ‘languages and literatures’
model in Spanish departments in universities in the United
Kingdom has been superseded by a contextual, interdisciplinary
and ‘area studies’ approach to the study of the culture, history,
society and politics of the Hispanic and Lusophone worlds – cate-
gories that extend far beyond the confines of the Iberian Peninsula,
not only in Latin America but also to Spanish-speaking and
Lusophone Africa.
In response to these dynamic trends in research priorities and
curriculum development, this series is designed to present both
disciplinary and interdisciplinary research within the general field
of Iberian and Latin American Studies, particularly studies that
explore all aspects of Cultural Production (inter alia literature,
film, music, dance, sport) in Spanish, Portuguese, Basque, Catalan,
Galician and indigenous languages of Latin America. The series
also aims to publish research in the History and Politics of the
Hispanic and Lusophone worlds, at the level of both the region
and the nation-state, as well as on Cultural Studies that explore the
shifting terrains of gender, sexual, racial and postcolonial identi-
ties in those same regions.
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For Alejandra and Rafael, with much l ove
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