Abstract
The title of Juana Castro’s poetry book publshed in 1978, Cóncava mujer — Concave woman — expresses the hollow nature of the social female subject. From Juana Castro’s point of view, this female social concavity is only allowed to transformed itself into its opposite, the convex women which clearly represents the reproductive role of the female body. These two extreme roles assigned to women, hollowness or maternity, are the poetic paradigms for Juana Castro’s two poetry books analised in this article. As if we were presented with the two sides of a coin, Cóncava mujer and Del dolor y las alas – On anguish and wings--(1982) reflect the author´s concious realisation of the above-mentioned female duality as a defined and percieved subject by male society. Each poetry book, however, respond to two different personal moments, and each result in two different ways of conceiving poetic language. On one hand, the poetic subject of Cóncava mujer emerges with all its force as a feminist voice whose goal is the attack of all aspects of the patriarchal society as the cause of the female concavity. On the other hand, in Del dolor y las alas the poetic voice unfolds her motherhood as both loss and creation: the death of Juana Castro’s son makes the poetic subject incomplete, and therefore a concave one; whereas the poetic discourse appears as the perfect way to occupy the empty space left by the son’s death.
Translated title of the contribution | Women and writing: building a dynamic concave subjectivity in women and the pain and wings |
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Original language | Spanish |
Title of host publication | Sujeto femenino y palabra poética |
Subtitle of host publication | Estudios criticos de la poesía de Juana Castro |
Editors | Sharon Keefe Ugalde |
Place of Publication | Madrid (ES) |
Publisher | Huerga y fierro |
Pages | 46-51 |
Number of pages | 6 |
ISBN (Print) | 84-8154-481-7 |
Publication status | Published - 2002 |
Keywords
- Juana Castro
- poetry
- Cóncava mujer
- Concave woman
- social female subject
- female social concavity
- convex women
- reproductive role
- hollowness
- maternity
- poetic paradigm
- Del dolor y las alas
- On anguish and wings
- male society
- poetic language
- feminism
- motherhood
- death