Literatura femenina en el Peru decimononico. La cuestion del naturalismo y el feminismo en la obra de Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera

Women writers in the nineteenth century were often underestimated and in some cases completely ignored. At the end of that century, a considerable group of Peruvian women writers had a significant influence in the development of Lima's cultural life. Either together in the “veladas literarias” or individually in their own work, they showed a common interest in women's concerns and especially in the problems regarding women education or, better to say, the lack of it. Although frequently these writers just followed the paths men have marked for them, they often tried to find their own ways of expression in their works. ^ This dissertation examined the cultural life in Lima at the end of the century and concentrated in one of these writers, Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera (1845–1909), whose work was analyzed from a feminist point of view. American critics had been chosen for the analysis and especially the feminist theories of Sandra Gilbert, Susan Gubar and Elaine Showalter. They were applied to three of Cabello de Carbonera's novels: Sacrificio y recompensa, Las consecuencias and Blanca Sol. ^ The study attempted to prove how often women opinions were distorted by the male tradition and how they tried a different way of expression through the metaphors and symbols referring to the state of repression women were in. Beneath the surface of their work lies a determined feminine consciousness. ^

Inmanencia mistica en la obra de Federico Garcia Lorca

The purpose of this dissertation was to analyze the works of Federico García Lorca within the mystic context that dominates their very genesis. The problematic definition of mysticism was explored lest it be confused with traditional mysticism, which implies union with the divine. The historiography of literature speaks of the Mystic Genre, yet it does not address the mystic mode of artistic creation due to its inability to adhere to rational measure. This mode of conception was explored through Lorca's poetic discourse: ‘Lorquian mysticism’ is the result of the poet's cultivation of an innate spiritual potential enhanced by external influences and technical mastery. ^ There is visible influence of Fray Luis of León in Lorca's early Libro de poemas and El maleficio de la mariposa, as well as of Saint John of the Cross in the later Diván del Tamarit, Sonetos de amor and Yerma. However, definitive echoes of poets from the Sufi and other Eastern mystic traditions were also illustrated in these late works. A persistent longing to elide the physical condition, the greatest obstacle of the transcendental quest, is the essence of Lorca's poetic voice. ^ The object of this analysis was Lorca's language, which reaches levels removed from conventional thought. His dazzling metaphors and his particular use of symbols and of paradox compare equitably with those of great mystic poets. Like them, Lorca was faced with the same limitations of language to describe an ineffable experience; he embraced what Octavio Paz describes as ‘sacred language’: there is a linguistic frugality as well as an ambiguity in Lorca's poetic art that result from his realization of supercognitive states. Yet such an interpretation is rejected by the rationalist approach, invoking the age-old debate between faith and reason and signaling the application of psychoanalytical theory. This limited approach was disputed on the basis of reader-response theory. Lorca was truly an eclectic and a modification of the conventional reader's preestablished horizon of expectations is essential in order to seal the gaps in his late works. This innovative perspective placed Lorca within the framework of a new mysticism in the modern world. ^

Latinoamericanismo y modernidad en la obra ensayistica de Arturo Uslar Pietri

This dissertation follows the political and literary ideas of the late Venezuelan writer Arturo Úslar Pietri. Analysis of his essayistic production focuses on his reflections on three major topics: universality, Latin Americanism, and Venezuelan national identity. By "universality" I refer to Úslar's reflections on general human culture and the way in which the crises of many ethical, philosophical, and scientific postulates of modernity are felt and expressed by this author through his critical appraisal of 20th-century history and culture. His most extensive and controversial reflections are those on Latin American identity, historical, socio-cultural and political processes, and philosophical thought, configuring what might be called a Latin American "rationality." National reflections follow the author's ideas on three topics: oil and its (mostly negative) impact on all aspects of Venezuelan life, the rescue of national history as a means to construct a Venezuelan identity, and the quest to identify/configure a national "subject" akin to the new rationality. My conclusion examines the essay-novel relationship as a compendium of Úslar's ideas and public political practices, as illustrated in his novels, where changing global realities are reflected in the most concrete aspects of Venezuelan daily life.^

La represión sexual como tema recurrente en la obra de Federico García Lorca

The purpose of this dissertation is to demonstrate that sexual repression is a recurring theme throughout a selection of works by Federico García Lorca. The introductory chapter focuses on the sexual theories of Sigmund Freud and Michel Foucault in setting the foundation for an analysis of sexually frustrated characters. In chapter two, an analysis of Lorca's rural trilogy reveals how marginalized female characters struggle to preserve societal customs that subjugate them to the patriarchal hegemony by limiting their free will and their sexual freedom. The subsequent chapter elaborates on the theme of repression in poems where the oppressed voice expresses and denounces the intolerance and persecution of those who condemn homosexuality through metaphors of darkness, impurity, and barren love. Chapter four analyzes two avant-garde plays where the underlying message is that of a society that hampers the expression of homosexual love by silencing desire and forcing individuals to mask their identities. The conclusion demonstrates once more the effects of society on sexual freedom, as well as explaining that the recurrence of repressed women is not a pretext in portraying the homosexual saga, but a pre-text in presenting them as an equally marginalized group.