"Woman" and Chile: in Transition
"Transitions to civilian rule in Latin America today," according to Veronica Schild, "involve a reconfiguration of state-civil society relations along the lines of the neoliberal modernizing project, with powerful cultural effects" (94). One such effect is el tema mujer, as the Chilean critic Raquel Olea calls the indiscriminate or all-encompassing topic of "woman" in cultural productions, which she says is a result of recent historical, social, political and economic conditions (i.e. transitions to civilian rule, neoliberalism) that contribute to an ever-increasing problematization of female identity, often causing official reactionary discourses to it. The historical moment of the late twentieth century points to a time of redefinition of identity and roles in most aspects of Chilean society (not just female identity) as Chile went from being socialist democratic, to ruled by military dictatorship, and back to democracy again. It is within the larger spectrum of these societal changes that the redefinition, and consequently the representation, of female identity becomes so critical.1 Representation is so important because, as Nelly Richard asserts, "el modo en que cada sujeto se vive y se piensa esta medido por el sistema de representation del lenguaje que articula los procesos de subjetividad a traves de formas culturales y de relaciones sociales" ("Feminismo" 734). For Richard, it is necessary to contextualize these tensions in the
Fashioning Female Identities and Political Resistance in Contemporary Chile
Abstract During the last few decades, the act of remembering, of reconstructing and reevaluating image, has fueled political dialogues in Chile. The political role of fashion cannot be denied as an organizing agent, especially during the country's seventeen-year dictatorship and into its transition to democracy. This article, through the application of fashion theories, explores women's fashion since the 1960s, particularly as informed by the popular novel, Marcela Serrano's Nosotras que nos queremos tanto (1991), as well as other popular culture sources. Serrano's first novel sets the precedent for the author's elaborate fashion descriptions, arguably the most style detailed of her oeuvre. Nosotras tells the stories—in vivid fashion-laden descriptions—of four best friends who reunite at a lakeside house in southern Chile and serves as a springboard to explore some of the national and socioeconomic concerns of fashion that not only historically mark Chile's evolving fashion realm but also occupy the country's current fashion discourse. I will analyze the author and her characters’ deliberate use of clothing, permitting Serrano's protagonists to rip out the seams of class and gender confinement. Through fashion choices that provide an alternate means of expression, the characters walk the runway into an expanded political sphere, presenting newfound possibilities for often silenced voices.
Beyond East–West: Marginality and National Dignity in Finnish Identity Construction
Since the end of the Cold War it has become common for Finnish academics and politicians alike to frame debates about Finnish national identity in terms of locating Finland somewhere along a continuum between East and West. Indeed, for politicians, properly locating oneself (and therefore Finland) along this continuum has often been seen as central to the winning and losing of elections. For example, the 1994 referendum on EU membership was largely interpreted precisely as an opportunity to relocate Finland further to the West. Indeed, the tendency to depict Finnish history in terms of a series of “Westernizing” moves has been notable, but has also betrayed some of the politicized elements of this view. However, this framing of Finnish national identity discourse is not only sometimes politicized but arguably is also too simplified and results in blindness towards other identity narratives that have also been important through Finnish history, and that are also evident (but rarely recognized) today as well. In this article we aim to highlight one of these that we argue has played a key role in locating Finland in the world and in formulating notions of what Finland is about, what historical role and mission it has been understood as destined to play, and what futures for the nation have been conceptualized as possible and as providing a source of subjectivity and national dignity.