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Indecisiones y seducciones familiares: Rosa Chacel, Ortega y la generacion del noventayocho
Abstract
Throughout her long literary career the Spanish writer Rosa Chacel (1898-) has defined and authorized her work by affiliation with male-dominated literary groups--mainly, the so-called "generation of (eighteen) ninety eight" and, most important, the Spanish avant-garde which was formed around Jose Ortega y Gasset in the twenties. Both groups' understanding of gender and of the creative capacities of women was profoundly conservative. I provide an account of Chacel's mentors--adjusting Harold Bloom's Freudian theory of literary influence to the situation of a woman writer-as a chain of misogynous fathers. The resulting family romance is described here as simultaneously anxiety-producing, productive and troublesome for Chacel, who both draws inspiration from and is compelled to subvert paternal concepts. An analysis of both Chacel's autobiographical and fictional work shows that subversion is one of the most important resources through which the writer negotiates the paradox of her affiliation with the above mentioned precursors. I provide a detailed example of the subversion of the key 'ninety-eight' concept of 'will' in Chacel's autobiography, Desde el amanecer. Similarly, I show the subversion of traditional seduction narratives which takes place in her novel Memorias de Leticia Valle. A relevant fact of Chacel's relation with her literary fathers which thus becomes apparent is that the writer negotiates her differences with her mentors on questions of gender exclusively in a textual manner. Although most of this dissertation is devoted to explaining the complexities and contradictions of Chacel's approach to femininity in terms of her relation with her literary fathers, I suggest strongly in the end that the mother also occupies a central, albeit subdued, role in Chacel's family romance. Ultimately, Chacel is revealed as a writer haunted and seduced both by father and mother, thus dwelling in a space defined by indecision, a position which I consider emblematic of the complex predicament of many women writers in patriarchy.
Subject Area
Romance literature|Literature
Recommended Citation
Lazaro, Reyes, "Indecisiones y seducciones familiares: Rosa Chacel, Ortega y la generacion del noventayocho" (1994). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9420648.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9420648