Libertad espiritual y libertades civiles en la narrativa y la dramaturgia de Griselda Gambaro

Abstract

This paper approaches the novels and plays created by the contemporary Argentine writer Griselda Gambaro (born in Buenos Aires, in 1928). In particular, it reviews how some of her characters deal with the issue of freedom of choice in the face of moral, ethical and political dilemmas, as well as their attitude towards the lack of civil rights in the context in which each story takes place. The protagonists of her novels Ganarse la muerte and Dios no nos quiere contentos, and of her plays La malasangre, Real envido, Del sol naciente, and Antígona furiosa are put into close consideration. In these narrative and dramatic texts, the author argues that even in the face of the worst adversities, in the private or public sphere, the essential freedom of the human being is preserved and allows him/her to choose his/her own unique attitude in situations of helplessness, oppression or violence. It is a spiritual freedom that is sustained even in the most terrible circumstances of psychic and physical suffering. The conclusion is that these characters represent a worldview in which the human being can be deprived of everything, except the most essential of human liberties, that is the free will to choose a personal attitude to a set of circumstances and decide his/her own path.