María Luisa Bombal's Beyond Woman: Transcending Time, Space, and Species in “Las islas nuevas”

• Amy Frazier-Yoder ^[1]
  1. [1] Juniata College

     Juniata College

     Borough of Huntingdon, Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: REGS: Revista de estudios de género y sexualidades = Journal of gender and sexuality studies, ISSN-e 2637-997X, ISSN 2637-9961, Vol. 49, Nº. 1, 2023, págs. 21-42
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • This article examines the transcendent, beyond-woman protagonist of María Luisa Bombal’s “Las islas nuevas” (1939). Like the avian-human Sirens, the protagonist is trans-species. Unageing and inhabiting the historical present and ancient past, she is trans-temporal; embodied in island avatars, she is transspatial. As explored through Freud’s uncanny, the protagonist’s disconcerting, transcendent characteristics are gradually revealed. Both she and the islands draw in and drive away the voyeuristic, colonizing forces, survive and retreat from assault, and resist subjugation. This essay explores the symbolic tensions in Bombal’s story, including those between progression and the timeless-static, civilization and barbarity, highlighting how Bombal’s protagonist transcends and embodies limits.