La re-escritura de la historia en Déjame que te cuente de Juanita Gallardo (1997): entre el producto cultural y el discurso identitario
This dissertation proposes an examination of the new historical novel Déjame que te cuente (Juanita Gallardo, 1997) and the relevance of its narrative and discursive strategies. This novel deals, though not exclusively, with the love life of Rosario Puga y Vidaurre with Bernardo O'Higgins, the hero of Chile's Independence. The text describes events which take place between the years 1810-1825 and mixes historiographical facts from the period with fictions. This work treats the location of the corpus in the context of Latin American postmodernity, emphasizing its rearticulation in democratized Chile and the impact that this context had on women's narrative in the Chilean Post-Boom. It then examines the re-writing of history as resource in the construction of a national identity discourse and new national identity constructions. Finally, it studies the representation of femininity in Déjame que te cuente as a significant example of narrative productions by Latin American women of that period, as contrasted with gender representations after 2005. Our working hypothesis at the outset was that Déjame que te cuente is a representative text of Latin American postmodernism because it is presented from a double inscription as consumer good and symbolic good. The conclusions of this investigation permitted confirmation of the initial hypothesis. However, it should also be noted that, on the one hand, the new historical novel as discourse of national identity is not relevant in Chile after 2005. National identities have been replaced by imaginary constructions in which the individual memory predominates. On the other hand, representations about femininity have also evolved: the notion of the extension of sexed and gender categories has left its mark on new imaginary associated with gender representations.
Postmodernity Cultural industry Latin American Post-Boom Women's literature Historical re-writing Identity discourses Representation