Modelos de identidad en la encrucijada. Imágenes femeninas en la poesía de las escritoras españolas (1900-1936) by Inmaculada Plaza-Agudo

Abstract

Reviewed by: Modelos de identidad en la encrucijada. Imágenes femeninas en la poesía de las escritoras españolas (1900-1936) by Inmaculada Plaza-Agudo Sharon Keefe Ugalde Plaza-Agudo, Inmaculada. Modelos de identidad en la encrucijada. Imágenes femeninas en la poesía de las escritoras españolas (1900-1936). Málaga: Universidad de Málaga, 2015. 318 pp. ISBN: 978-84-9747-360-6. This monograph studies the impact of evolving gender roles on the lives and works of Spanish women poets from 1900 to the outbreak of the Civil War. Plaza-Agudo reads the authors' work both as testimony of a period during which female identity underwent significant change and as an intimate view of how individual writers experienced the clash of traditional and progressive models of female behavior. Increased access to education, including university, greater participation in the labor market, and in 1931 recognition of the right to vote all contribute to the increasing presence of a New Woman identity for women of Spain. The book's title accurately captures the essential emphasis of the study. "Modelos," plural, underscores the absence of uniformity among poets and "encrucijada," the ambiguous position of women socialized under the "angel of the house" construct and attracted to a new identity which emphasized female agency and participation in the public sector. The author makes clear that the political, religious and gender ideologies of individual poets determine to what degree they embrace a rebellious attitude toward dominant models. One commonality in their work is the creation of a female poetic subject, who, beset by a lack of autonomy and independence, exalts freedom and expresses a desire to transcend limitations. Images of the sea, travel – particularly aviation – suggest paths toward independence, evident, for example, in poems by Concha Méndez and Josefina de la Torre. Cosmopolitanism, prominent in the works of Concha Espina y Concha Méndez, conveys a similar stance. In this thematic context of greater liberty, Elisabeth Mulder and Ernestina Champourcín portray a strong female subject aware [End Page 201] of her emerging agency. Nevertheless, the later works of most authors reflect the realization the certain barriers are insurmountable and they take refuge in the imagination and dreams as an alternative to an adverse reality. The book is divided into an introduction and two sections with subsections rather than chapters, an organization that reflects the fact that the study is a re-elaboration of a doctoral dissertation. Section 1, "La situación social de las españolas de preguerra. Hacia un nuevo modelo de identidad femenina," addresses the socio-historic context of Spain focusing on gender constructs and women authors and contains two subsections: "La pugna entre dos modelos de feminidad: la nueva 'mujer moderna' frente al tradicional 'ángel del hogar'" and "La inserción de las poetas en el panorama literario: relaciones de amistad y redes profesionales. Las autobiografías." The second section, "Imágenes femeninas en la creación poética de las autoras," studies the elaboration of three prominent themes that intersect with gender: Love and the expression of desire, maternity and memories of childhood, and the yearning for liberty embodied in images of the sea and travel. The fourth subsection, "Modelos en transición: Mujer y esfera pública en la poesía de las escritoras," reiterates the contradictory nature of female identity represented in the poetic texts and considers from an autobiographical perspective the authors' varied roles in the public sphere. An important contribution of the monograph is the effective combination of historical contexts and close readings of poetic texts. The in-depth readings offer valuable insights into the poetry of numerous authors of the period including the well-recognized names of Carmen Conde, Rosa Chacel, Ernestina de Champourcín, Concha Méndez, and Josefina de la Torre and others less studied such as Sofía Casanova, María Cegarra Salcedo, Concha Espina, Margarita Ferreras, Ana María Martínez Segi, Elisabeth Mulder and Lucía Sánchez Saornil. In the sub-section on "El amor y la expresión del deseo erótico," for example, a preliminary description of female biological destiny – maternity – espoused by prestigious early twentieth-century physicians such as Gregorio...