Isabl Allende & the Feminine Character

Isabelle Allende

· Chilean novelist, short story writer and memoirist

· B. 1942 in Lima, Peru. Family moved to Chile (father a Chilean diplomat)

· Most famous work is The House of the Spirits

o Centers on women’s role in the upheaval and terror that characterizes 20^th century Chile

o Especially influenced by Marxist President Salvador Allende’s overthrow by military dictator Augosto Pinochet in 1973

o Salvador Allende = father’s cousin

· Left Chile in 1975 for Venezuela (fear of the Pinochet regime)

· The “strong, resilient female”

· Late 1980s – moved to the US, thematic subjects grow: assimilation, exile, the search for identity, immigration, greed, globalization, preservation of indigenous people and landscapes

· 1987, published Eva Luna, which is about Eva’s journey to becoming a writer

Major Questions to Consider when looking at her work:

1. What is the role of the woman in the piece? How does she represent (or not) general notions of femininity? Conversely, how does she represent the male characters?

2. How focused on the history of Latin America / Chile is a piece? Does the piece seem to be driven mostly by its Latin American heritage, or is this piece thematically more universal? (this question can help us see the growth in topics as we read through her work…)

3. How would you compare her use of magical realism with Garcia Marquez (and others you might have, or will have, read)?

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Today’s Readings: Critical Reading Exercise

Deduce the gender roles that Allende assigns to the characters in these stories. What is the male role? What is the female role?

Go back and track the lines/phrases that indicate characterizations of gender. Mark a M next to male, and W next to the female.