Here, as well as in her other books, she contrasts strong female characters against the traditional Latin American patriarchy. Her first novel, La Casa de los Espiritus, is a history of Chile through the female lineage. (See Chicana Feminism and Gender and Nation) La Casa de los Espiritus In her writing, Allende deals with politics, history, and social institutions in a way that is all but passive. In fact, there is the perception that women are passive to political issues, and vote merely out of civil duty. The political realm, therefore, is in role conflict with this image.
Historically, female subordination is evident in every Latin American social institution, in large part due to the conception of the Virgin Mary–nurturing, passive, and sexually pure–as the ideal woman. History and culture have influenced the way in which she writes about her experiences. FeminismĪllende is considered part of the Latin American feminist literary awakening. Allende writes in Spanish, combining sometimes harsh, realistic, and political fiction with the surreal in the tradition of magical realism. Other works include De Amor y de Sombra ( Of Love and Shadows) in 1984, Eva Luna in 1989, El Plan Infinitivo ( The Infinite Plan) in 1991, and El Ciudad de la Bestias ( City of Beasts) in 2002, as well as a collection of short stories, Cuentos de Eva Luna ( The Stories of Eva Luna) in 1990. She published her first novel, La Casa de los Espiritus ( The House of the Spirits) in 1982. Two years after her father’s cousin, Chilean President Salvador Allende, was assassinated in 1973, she fled with her husband and children to Venezuela.
Allende was born in Lima, Peru in 1942, but returned to Chile with her mother at the age of three when her father, a diplomat, disappeared. Through translation, her work has received acclaim in the United States as well. Isabel Allende is one of Latin America’s foremost female writers.
0 kommentar(er)
