Table Of ContentCherilyn Elston
WOMEN’S WRITING
IN COLOMBIA
An Alternative History
Breaking Feminist Waves
Series Editor
Alison Stone
Philosophy and Religion
Lancaster Univ, Dept Politics
Lancaster, United Kingdom
Linda Martin Alcoff
Hunter College
Department of Philoscphy
New York USA
Aims of the Series
This series promises to invite feminist thinkers from a variety of disci-
plinary backgrounds to think theoretically about feminism’s history and
future - work that needs to be done. I look forward to incorporating
titles from this series into my women’s and gender studies teaching.’ -
Alison Piepmeier, Director, Women’s and Gender Studies Program, The
College of Charleston For the last twenty years, feminist theory has been
presented as a series of ascending waves. This picture has had the effect of
deemphasizing the diversity of past scholarship as well as constraining the
way we understand and frame new work. The aim of this series is to attract
original scholars who will offer unique interpretations of past scholarship
and unearth neglected contributions to feminist theory. By breaking free
from the constraints of the image of waves, this series will be able to pro-
vide a wider forum for dialogue and engage historical and interdisciplinary
work to open up feminist theory to new audiences and markets. LINDA
MARTÍN ALCOFF is Professor of Philosophy at Hunter College and
the City University of New York Graduate Center, USA. Her most recent
books include Visible Identities: Race, Gender and the Self;The Blackwell
Guide to Feminist Philosophy (co-edited with Eva Kittay); Identity
Politics Reconsidered (co-edited with Moya, Mohanty and Hames-
Garcia); and Singing in the Fire: Tales of Women in Philosophy. ALISON
STONE is Professor of European Philosophy at Lancaster University,
UK. She is the author of Petrified Intelligence: Nature in Hegel’s
Philosophy; Luce Irigaray and the Philosophy of Sexual Difference; An
Introduction to Feminist Philosophy; and Feminism, Psychoanalysis, and
Maternal Subjectivity; and the editor of The Edinburgh Critical History
of Nineteenth-Century Philosophy.
More information about this series at
http://www.springer.com/series/14794
Cherilyn Elston
Women’s Writing in
Colombia
An Alternative History
Cherilyn Elston
United Kingdom
Breaking Feminist Waves
ISBN 978-3-319-43260-1 ISBN 978-3-319-43261-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-43261-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016959611
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To Amparo and Zeida
C
ontents
1 Introduction: Modernity’s Rebel Daughters 1
2 La Violencia, Postmodernity and Feminism:
The Nonsynchronicity of Albalucía Ángel 41
3 “Ni Engels, ni Freud, ni Reich”: Marvel Moreno
as Boom/Post-Boom Writer 75
4 Una voz antifeminista? María Mercedes Carranza, Public
Intellectual and “Postmodern” Poet 107
5 Testimonio in a Post-revolutionary Era: The Writings
of Female Ex-combatants 143
6 Sexual Difference in Times of War: The Poetry
of Piedad Morales and The Ruta Pacífica de las Mujeres 185
7 Conclusion 223
Index 233
vii
A
Cknowledgements
I owe thanks to the many Colombian women writers, feminists and activ-
ists who have inspired this project, taught me how to look at feminism
from different perspectives and shown me the possibility of feminist soli-
darity across borders.
This book is dedicated to Zeida Bohórquez and Amparo Onatra, who
have provided me with inspiring examples of what it means to be a woman
in Colombia. I must thank them for participating in this project, for
always giving me a place to stay in Bogotá and for their endless generosity,
friendship and love. I also wish to thank their respective families. Amparo,
Gonzalo and Juan David, thank you for providing me with a home on my
various research trips, for making me feel like part of your family and for
always sharing your thoughts and ideas about your beloved country with
me. To the entire Bohórquez family, especially to Víctor and Graciela, for
opening up their home to me when I first arrived in Colombia, and for
essentially becoming my second family.
I must also thank the Centre of Latin American Studies at the University
of Cambridge. I am grateful to the AHRC for funding the doctoral the-
sis on which this book is based and my doctoral supervisor Geoffrey
Kantaris for his guidance throughout the project. I also wish to thank
Rory O’Bryen and Joanna Page for their encouragement and academic
support during the years I spent at Cambridge. I was lucky throughout
my postgraduate studies at Cambridge to work with a wonderful group
of students and colleagues. I thank them all for their support, friendship
and inspiring discussion. I must also acknowledge Claire Taylor from the
University of Liverpool for her insightful comments on the manuscript.
ix
x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
There are many other people who contributed to this book, both
personally and intellectually. I owe gratitude to the American poet Craig
Arnold for introducing me to women’s poetry in Colombia and for some
beautiful words that have always stayed with me. Thanks to all the friends
who accompanied me during the years I lived in Colombia when the seeds
of this project were planted, those who supported (and accompanied) me
during my various research trips and who have endured me throughout the
whole process of writing and research: Alejandra Díaz, Amy Jones, Mark
Wootton, Helen Pearce and Sophia Levine, all deserve special mention.
Many thanks to my family for all their unconditional support and for
also making the trip to Colombia to understand why the country is so
important to me. And to Franco González, for your tireless encourage-
ment and all your love.
P
ermissions
I am grateful to Liverpool University Press for generously giving me per-
mission to republish parts of my article “‘Ni Engels, ni Freud, ni Reich’:
Narratives of Modernity in Marvel Moreno’s En diciembre llegaban las
brisas (1987).” Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 2015 92:7, 805–824.
xi
Description:This book provides an original and exciting analysis of Colombian women’s writing and its relationship to feminist history from the 1970s to the present. In a period in which questions surrounding women and gender are often sidelined in the academic arena, it argues that feminism has been an impor
