Painting, Literature, and Film in Colombian Feminine Culture, 1940–2005: Of Border Guards, Nomads, and Women

Abstract

Deborah Martin's book is an intricate weaving of quotes and references around the production of what she calls “second-wave feminist” art, literary, and visual production in Colombia during the second half of the twentieth century. Her in-depth readings of the work of painter Débora Arango and the literary production of Laura Restrepo, in addition to the work of contemporary filmmakers Marta Rodríguez, the women's film collective Cine Mujer, and Margarita Martínez, are set in a framework of local and international feminist and cultural theory. The book is an exploration of such visions and practices amid the hegemonic constructions of female subjectivity and nation building. Martin's approach not only describes the works in certain detail while presenting the bibliography focused on them, but it also brings to the fore the most relevant cultural theory in her readings of each and every work. This focus on cultural theory is the most important feature of the book. Martin is preoccupied with establishing a space in which productions marginalized due to their subject matter's gender and national origin are situated in the current discourses of cultural theory, not only in the Colombian context but also in the global imaginary.It is this interest in dealing with the major currents of theory, from cultural criticism in the art world and literary psychoanalytic and feminist theory to cultural studies, that somehow diminishes the historical relevance of Martin's approach to the works in her study. The reader is immersed in complex discussions of the theoretical dimensions of cultural production while losing the historiography of particular moments in recent Colombian history that would be relevant to contextualize. For example, Martin's selection of films portraying the increasing urbanization in Colombia's major cities, which can also address similar phenomena in other societies of the South, is quite discerning. Films such as Chircales (1972), La mirada de Myriam (1986), and La sierra (2005) explore a genealogy of new urban settlers in the outer rings of today's megalopolis. Unfortunately, there is no mention of contextual information about such phenomena (beyond references to nomadism), and Martin does not explain the particular interest of the female authors in dealing with the subject while exploring feminine experiences in such locales. The same happens with the discussion of a major visual artist such as Débora Arango, whose work has not been valorized in depth by art critics in Colombia. Martin's arguments advance the scholarship on Arango's work and open new avenues for more critical approaches to it. However, Martin's critique of Arango's oeuvre relies on mainstream art historical approaches; she tries to level her discussion with those of other art historians while ignoring other dimensions of the works, among them a (most-needed) historical context as well the richness of alternative feminist and poststructuralist theory, both otherwise Martin's strengths. In regard to Laura Restrepo, Martin builds on the large body of work that calls the novelist the “new north” in Colombian literary production. Martin's discussion of El leopardo al sol (1993) reconciles a major literary novel with popular genres such as telenovelas while maintaining analytical rigor. The same can be said of her discussion of La novia oscura (1999), which emphasizes the subjectivity of the female protagonist vis-à-vis her relationship with the plot's other female characters. All the works Martin examines also share a major theme that, in the Colombian context, is no surprise: violence. Martin does not tackle it directly, but it is present in the book's organizing structure. Beginning and ending in Medellín with Arango in the 1940s and La sierra in the mid-2000s, Martin's work is another theoretical incursion into the origins of modern violence in Colombia. That dimension, which she avoids tackling directly in the text in trying to distance herself from the most common ground of Colombian scholarship, would complement the vast theoretical and critical map of an otherwise superb work.Deborah Martin's Painting, Literature, and Film in Colombian Feminine Culture, 1940–2005 shows how a scholar can draw from multiple areas of study, including art history, literary criticism, anthropology, cultural theory, and film studies, and tie together the production of otherwise unrelated cultural products, opening up spaces for new subjectivities amid hegemonic constructions of the ideas of nation and citizenship in contemporary Latin America.