“What Fits in One Hand”

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the relationships that developed in exile between women writers and artists and things following the Spanish Civil War. Our analysis is based on self-writing and visual art. Using a New Materialist theoretical framework, the article shows how, for these women in exile, things had agency, producing entanglements, ruptures (desgarros), or moorings necessary for a new orientation. Disorientation, arising from the new social and geographical context of exile, also affects the uses and function of things. This produces a subjectivity saturated by material phenomena, the relationship with which is heightened by the experience of fleeing one’s country. The writers and artists discussed include Victorina Durán, Mada Carreño, María Luisa Elío, Silvia Mistral, María Teresa de León, Concha Méndez, and Maruja Mallo. All of them went into exile in Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, specifically Mexico, Argentina, and Chile.