Women and Power in Argentine Literature: Stories, Interviews, and Critical Essays

Front Matter

WOMEN AND POWER IN ARGENTINE LITERATURE Texas Pan American Literature in Translation Series danny j. anderson, Editor S T O R I E S , I N T E R V I E W S , A N D C R I T I C A L E S S AY S Gwendolyn Díaz inArgentine Literature Women and Power University of Texas Press Austin Copyright © 2007 by the University of Texas Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First edition, 2007 Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to: Permissions University of Texas Press P.O. Box 7819 Austin, TX 78713-7819 www.utexas.edu/utpress/about/bpermission.html ∞ The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of ansi/niso z39.48–1992 (r1997) (Permanence of Paper). Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Díaz, Gwendolyn Josie. Women and power in Argentine literature : stories, interviews, and critical essays / Gwendolyn Díaz. — 1st ed. p. cm.—(Texas Pan American literature in translation series) Includes bibliographical references. isbn-13: 978-0-292-71648-3 (cloth : alk. paper) isbn-10: 0-292-71648-6 (cloth : alk. paper isbn-13: 978-0-292-71649-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) isbn-10: 0-292-71649-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Argentine literature—Women authors—History and criticism. 2. Argentine literature—Women authors. 3. Women authors, Argentine —20th century—Interviews. 4. Authors, Argentine—20th century—Interviews. 5. Women and literature—Argentina. I. Title. pq7633.d53 2007 860.9'9287'0982—dc22 2006023555 This book about women and power is dedicated to my daughter, julia gwen ridgeway, who has been my inspiration. THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK “So I wasn’t dreaming, after all,” she said to herself, “unless—unless we’re all a part of the same dream. Only I do hope it’s my dream, and not the Red King’s! I don’t like belonging to another person’s dream.” Lewis Carroll¿La gente qué diría Si en un día fortuíto, por ultrafantasía, Me tiñera el cabello de plateado o violeta, . . . Cantara por las calles al compás de violines O dijera mis versos recorriendo las plazas Libertado mi gusto de comunes mordazas? Alfonsina Storni When . . . one reads of a witch being ducked, of a woman possessed by devils, of a wise woman selling herbs, or even a very remarkable man who had a mother, then I think we are on the track of a lost novelist, a suppressed poet . . . indeed, I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman. Virginia Woolf THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK ...