Spanish Women Writers and the Essay: Gender, Politics, and the Self

Abstract

Spanish Women Writers and the Essay: Gender, Politics, and the Set: Eds. Kathleen M. Glenn and Mercedes Mazquiardn de Rodriguez. Columbia: U of Missouri P, 1998. 294 pages. This important collection of critical studies originated in a special session at the 1994 MLA convention. The editors' purpose is to remedy two oversights: the essay as a literary stepchild and Spanish women essayists. The essay, characterized by logic and objectivity, was reserved for male writers and readers until the end of the nineteenth century. The twelve female essayists, studied here by leading peninsularists, combine ideology and aesthetics and employ different strategies to influence their readers (3). Most transform the traditional essay, incorporating characteristics typical of other genres, such as autobiography and poetry, while advocating for social justice and women's rights. Estelle Irizarry shows how pioneer sociologist Concepcion Arenal's essays of social advocacy are speech acts intended to produce societal changes. Maryellen Bieder examines the essays of Emilia Pardo Bazan, who published thirty volumes of essays and 1500 newspaper columns over five decades. While topics are quite diverse, Bieder limits her discussion to three overarching issues: the Spanish woman and her rightful place in history and contemporary society; Spain in Pardo Bazan's time; and literature as a profession. Michael Ugarte concentrates on Carmen de Burgos' feminism: advocacy for divorce; woman's suffrage; equality for women under the law; and justice for all marginalized groups. Colombine uses playfulness and eccentric style and material to gain reader attention and sympathy. Alda Blanco's analysis of Maria Martinez Sierra's essays shows the paradox between Maria's feminist ideas and activism and her need to hide behind her husband Gregorio's name. Her epistolary style protests women's subordination while combating the fear and hostility toward feminism, emphasizing, instead, feminism's importance for all of Spanish society. Mary Lee Bretz investigates how Margarita Nelken's La condicion social de la mujer en Espana combines pedagogical essays (describing contemporary conditions) and performative literature (seeking societal and political change for the future). Nelken establishes a dialogic interplay of competing discourses - especially those for the advancement of women and of the proletariat - , and confronts the discourses of the Catholic Church, the middle class, the patriarchy, and working-class men. Shirley Mangini's article probes Rosa Chacel's perception of woman, Eros and culture, and her ambivalent position regarding women. Despite having internalized contempt for traditional women's roles (embodied by Ortega y Gasset and the Generation of 1927), Chacel still sought acceptance as an intellectual who happens to be female. …