Feminist Consciousness in Latin America - Term Paper Example

Full Submitted Women and Narrative Literature has always been one of the ways by which consciousness is shaped. Such has been the case, even for the awakening of feminist consciousness in Latin America. As Jehenson describes: Latin American literature, which has almost defined the second half of the twentieth century (Caillois) with a plethora of critically acclaimed Latin American authored books, plays, short stories, and poetry is noted by post-modern critics – Michael Collins, Ihab Hassan, and Linda Hutcheon – an embodiment of post-modern experimentation, and is epitomized by French feminists, like Héléne Cixous models of “écriture feminine” (Feminine Writing). However, what makes American literature during this period remarkable are those written by Latin women authors, who have crossed bravely the boundaries of a well-established masculine culture not only by engaging into the literary world believed worthy only for men, but more so for what they write – “... their transgressive and contestatorial nature, and their critical reconsideration of hierarchical opposition, that make their texts revolutionary, conflictual, and dialectical...” (xi). Two Latin women authors worth of critical attention are Maria Lusia Bombal (1910-1980) – a Chilean fiction writer, who towed the dangerous literary path of revealing women’s innermost desires and power defiant of the realistic tradition in Latin America (Maria Luisa Bombal, par. 1), and Maria Luisa Bemberg (1922-1995) – an Argentinian self-professed feminist, whose critically acclaimed films had consistently depicted untraditional women, making her one of Latin America’s most significant female filmmakers (Maria Luisa Bemberg, par. 1). Though both writers tackled femininity from entirely different angles, indeed, both have contributed to a better understanding of women, as they have shaped a new consciousness that brings readers to confront long-ignored problems confronting women, such as ‘sexual abuse, abandonment, oppressive marriages, and the pressure of new-found independence’ (Mujica 44). To which Griselda Gambaro remarks, “... a work is feminist insofar as it attempts to explain the mechanics of cruelty, oppression and violence through a story that is developed in a world in which men and women exists” (qtd. in Jehenson xiii). But more than this, they were able “to change taken-for-granted views” (xiii). Shrouded Feminism in Maria Lusia Bombal’s The Shrouded Woman (1938) Silence is consent to abuse, as the famous saying goes. However, this is not the case in Bombal’s second novel The Shrouded Woman originally titled La amortajada , which just like her first novel House of Mist originally titled La última niebla (1935), utilizes silence as one of women’s strong weapon against patriarchal oppression and domination (Weldt-Basson 68). If in the House of Mist, Bombal “… reveals a repressed, melancholic woman who buries her past in the deepest recesses of her mind in order to survive in a hypocritical, class-conscious society” (Mujica, The Shrouded Woman 1); in The Shrouded Woman, she reveals the duplicity of silence in her protagonist. Ana Maria, whose failed attempt to regain Antonio’s lost love suffered in silence: “In vain she had used up all the unconscious method of passion to reconquer Antonio; tenderness, violence, reproaches, mutism, amorous assault” (Bombal 142-143), has learned to use the power of silence to her advantage. In silence she takes refuge, shrouding her vulnerabilities: “… he used to sink himself into the contemplation of that silent girl who knitted while stretched out on a long straw rocking chair…” (133); in silence she finds her strength, keeping herself intact: “… a silent hate that instead of consuming her fortified her” (145); in silence she contemplates and questions women’s relegated destiny – domesticated and inferior to men: “Why, why must the nature of woman, be such that a man always has to be the axis of her life? Men, they succeeded in putting their passion in to her things. But the destiny of women is to stir up the pain of love in an ordered house, in front of an unfinished tapestry” (143); in silent knitting, she finds her effective weapon against Antonio’s indifference and womanizing: “If only you had pulled on the thread of my wool, if you had undone my fabric, mesh by mesh… entangled in each one was temptuous thought and a name I will never forget” (133); and it was in her final silence that Ana Maria reveals her all. The shrouded woman in her death is no longer shrouded, yet remains unknown; in the silence of death she became free, yet remains imprisoned in her longing to be truly loved. Observably, in The Shrouded Woman Bombal depicts women not as the expected vigilant and aggressively feminist fighter women, but a simple domesticated woman who defies norms in search of her happiness. What she explores here though is the strong weapon entangled in women’s domesticity that women unknowingly inherently possess – “the subversive and communicative role of weaving and knitting” (Vallejos-Ramirez, qtd. in Weldt-Basson 70). Using thematic silence in her novel, Bombal compel readers to view as a social problem the socially accepted day-to-day domestic roles confronting women. Hence, the formerly unquestioned socially determined roles of women are viewed from an entirely different perspective – a feminist perspective. But aside from this, Bombal also implicitly condemns patriarchal authority which she expresses in the actions and thoughts of her male characters: (1) Ricardo – Ana Maria’s first love, who abandoned her in her distress and misery. This imply man’s treatment of women as mere sexual objects; (2) Ana Maria’s sons, who accept her only as a mother, which sole existence is relegated only to her family and nothing more. Never had her sons bother to understand and accept her as a woman. In fact, they loathed her youthful escapades as she searches for her longed happiness as a woman. As her sons’ gestures in her wake suggest: They “seemed not to wish to recognize any right for her to live anymore” (96); (3) Alberto, whose possessive and insecure love of his wife, María Griselda, imprisons her to his world: “How is it possible that she too calls her son: María Griselda’s husband! Why? Because he is jealously watchful of his beautiful wife! Because he keeps her isolated and far away at the southern estate!” (117); and (4) Ana Maria’s lawyer who denied her of the new life she longed, betraying her to Antonio – her unfaithful husband – all for the sake of a double-standard paternalistic society: Maria’s plan to divorce Antonio is a disgrace to her and not to Antonio: “Consider that there are measures that a lady cannot take without lowering herself” (144); but Antonio’s infidelity and womanizing is never condemned at all. Maria Luisa Bemberg’s Critical Path in I, the Worst of All (1990) If Bombal took up women issues in the context of domestic and sexual relations, Bemberg took it up in a more direct, more political, and more dangerous manner, by attacking the all-too powerful theocracy in defense of women. Her critically acclaimed film, I, the Worst of All, set in Mexico in the 17th century, illustrates the different aspects of women oppression by the hierarchical church. Thematically, the film centers on the Catholic Church’s misogyny as embodied by the fanatical Archbishop of Mexico (Lautaro Murua) whose hatred of women made him aptly described as, "Satan found a refuge in the printed word" (Holden, par. 7). Centering on misogyny, Bemberg vividly depicts the infuriating truth that even within the walls of the church, which claims to be the refuge of humanity, women oppression is in fact deeply imbedded in the tyrannically patriarchal organization and culture of the church. The nuns are forced to hide their faces with their long veils and are not permitted to sit with the Archbishop at a table. Such emphasize the unequal position of the clergymen and the nuns in the church. The clergymen are the masters that nuns should serve; while the nuns are essentially slaves who in all aspect have no right to regard themselves of equal stature with their master. Thus unlike clergymen, nuns have no life except for what the church tells them. Moreover, in this film, Bemberg also exposes the institutional church’s obsession and insecurity for power. It is power that blinds the church to truth; it is power that threatens the church of any new ideas. Instead of welcoming new ideas to better understand the truth, new ideas are equated to heresy. To terminate that threat of disempowering the church of its authority for truth, heretics are burned to die, like Giordano Bruno. This inquisition makes the liberal Spanish Viceroy (Hector Alterio) and his beautiful wife, La Virreina (Dominique Sanda) to become concerned of Sister Juana – the genuinely talented, voracious reader and free-spirited poetic nun. True to their fear, right after the Viceroy is dismissed and sent back to Spain when he lost his case for Sister Juana against the Archbishop, the powerful men in the church immediately persecuted Juana and suppressed her hunger for wisdom and freedom of expression. But Sister Juana is persecuted not only because of her liberal ideas but more so because she is a woman! This Bemberg explicitly illustrated in the following discourses in two scenes: (1) the scene where the Archbishop and other members of the clergy deliberates Sister Juana’s writing: “I only see lasciviousness; the most morbid sensuality” – Implies that women are incapable of rational thought; “And it is written by a woman” – Implies that women have no rightful place in the literary world – and “to another woman.” “They exalt the Virreina” (Yo, la Peor de Todas, par. 8) – Insinuates that the close bond between Sister Juana and La Virreina cemented by their common anguish against the powerful men in the church is nothing but a disgusting homosexuality, and (2) in the scene where Sister Juana confronted the three authoritative figures of the church regarding her written treatises: “If I were not a woman, my theological impertinence would not matter!” To which the Archbishop replied: “God did not create women to philosophize.” (par. 9) These comments clearly manifest the church’s refusal to accept the truth that women, given the fair chance, just like men, can be truly excellent even in the literary field – long-claimed to be the exclusive right of men. To suppress this threatening reality, Sister Juana is denied of her books – source of knowledge. This act of the church is an implicit admittance that women, like Sister Juana, are indeed as capable as men, thereby threatening men’s exclusive right to explore the literary world. Bemberg also lucidly develops in the film the hierarchical church’s guileful exploitation of women to its advantage. Just like Joan of Arc, who after serving the church was pronounced heretic and was burned because she became more famous than the men of the church, Sister Juana was also cunningly used by the Monsignor against the Archbishop. In his power struggle against the Archbishop, the Monsignor “orders” Sister Juana to write a treatise that would contest one of the Archbishop’s favorite theologians, consenting to Sir Juana’s request that these should remain unpublished. But against her will Sister Juana’s written treatises were published and became solid evidence against her. This scene explicitly shows Sister Juana being a victim of political struggle within the church between the members of the hierarchy and between men and women in the church. The Monsignor’s betrayal of Sister Juana’s trust in him causing her downfall portrays the bitter truth that what makes women vulnerable to men’s manipulation is women’s belief on the authority of men over them. In the end, Sister Juana, beaten and humiliated, proved herself wrong that “There is no prison for the soul.” This is what makes her the worst of all. Works Cited Bombal, Maria Luisa. House of Mist; And, the Shrouded Woman: Two Novels. MN: Graywolf Press, 1988. Holden, Stephen. “FILM REVIEW; A Free-Spirited Nun’s Poetry Shows Seed of Her Undoing.” The New York Times on the WEB 22 September 1995. 1 March 2011 Jehenson, Myriam Yvonne. Latin-American Women Writers: Class, Race, and Gender. Albany: Sate University of New York Press, 1995. Maria Luisa Bemberg. Gale Encyclopedia of Biography. 2006. The Gale Group. 2 March 2011 . Maria Luisa Bombal. Gale Encyclopedia of Biography. 2006. The Gale Group. 2 March 2011 . Mujica, Barbara. “The Literary Pulse of the Americas.” Americas September-October 1991: 44+ --------. “The Shrouded Woman.” Americas (English Edition). January-February 1996. BNET. 01 March 2011 . Weldt-Basson, Helen Carol. Subversive Silences: Nonverbal Expression and Implicit Narrative Strategies in the Works of Latin American Women Writers. Carnbury, NJ: Associated University Press, 2009. Yo, la Peor de Todas – I, the Worst of All (1990). February 2009. Forum. 2 March 2011 Read More