Colección: INTERAMER
Número: 33
Autor: Elizabeth Horan
Título: Gabriela Mistral: An Artist and Her People
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER
ONE
GABRIELA MISTRAL AND WOMEN IN CHILE, 1880-1920
I. Historical Background: Common Origins
The Chilean Economy at the Turn of the Century
Women’s Extra-Domestic Employment
Gabriela Mistral: Representative of the Rural Middle Class
The Church-State Battle over Women’s Education
The Battle Continues: Written Decrees, Informal Sanctions
Secular Education and Middle-Class Women
II. Women’s Reading and Political Action Groups
Beginnings of Feminism in Chile
How the “Círculos de lectura” [Reading Circles] Differed from the Salons
Opposition towards the “Círculos de lectura de mujeres” [Women’s Reading Circles]
Class Division and Hostility among Women’s Groups in Chile
Mistral on Women’s Rights, Wrongs and Responsibilities to Children
Radical Resistance and the Appeal of Purity
A Messianic Agenda
On the Periphery: Mistral and the Feminists
“Una desconocida de provincia” [An unknown woman from the provinces]
CHAPTER
TWO
THE SUCCESS OF DESOLACIÓN [DESOLATION]
I. Modesty versus Pride—La Maestra and el Artista
[The Teacher and the Artist]
A Combative Adolescent
Advantages of Rejection
Modesty and Humility in the Context of Class, Race and Gender
Angry, Proud Women: Cervantes’ Marcela and Mistral’s Speaker in the “Sonetos de la muerte” [Death Sonnets]
The Schoolteacher’s Authority: In Loco Parentis
“La maestra rural” [The Rural Schoolteacher] Compared to “Oración de la maestra” [Prayer of the Schoolteacher]
Dissembling as a Strategic Necessity: “Oración de la maestra” [Prayer of the Schoolteacher]
When Patience Wears Thin
Art as Anodyne, Justice and Judgment
Beyond the Flesh: Constraints on the Artist
The Authority of the Oppressed
The Mother of Creation, the Father of the World
II. Name and Renown
A Changing Career, an Enduring Example
Anonymous Readers and Well-Connected Patrons
The Fiction of Personal Obscurity
“Palabras preliminares” [Preliminary Words]: Who Must Know Her Before She Is “Known”
Modesty Exposed
Mistral’s Invisibility—A Question of Context
Gratitude: “I speak not of myself...”
The Utopian Past
CHAPTER
THREE
AUDIENCE-BUILDING
I. Extensions of Mistral’s Work in the Schools
Patronage and the Ministry of Education
Reading Communities Implied in the “Poesías infantiles” [Children’s Poetry]
The Silent, Soothing Mother in a Patriarchal World
Pros and Cons of Being Regarded as a Children’s Poet
The Poet’s Self-Censorship
“Children’s Poetry”—Some Crucial Distinctions
Children’s Rounds, Circle-Songs as Symbols of Community
Writing for Children versus Writing for Mothers
II. “Poemas de las madres” [Mothers’ Poems]
Initial Publication
Neruda’s Impression: “Una larga nota inútil” [A long, useless note]
Modesty, Silence and a Ruinous Commentary
A Sequence of Rejection; Censorship Foiled
Constraints on Social Critique: “Poemas de las madres”
[Mothers’ Poems] Compared to “Piececitos de niño” [Little Feet of a Child]
Defining Women’s Identity; Eluding the Feminine Mystique
Maternal Involvement, Paternal Detachment
Male Violence and Female Subservience
Becoming “otra” [another]: El sentido maternal de las cosas [The maternal sense of things]
Writing for Children: Keys to the Kingdom?
III. Legitimating an Audience of Women
Maternity: The Personal and the Political
Answers to Hostility: The Apology
Rivalry in Mexico
“A Little Bit of Culture”: Justifying the Education of Women
Expanding on Domesticity
Women and Patriotism
The Decline of the Family and the Betrayal of the Race
IV. Revisions and Relocations: 1922-1926
CHAPTER
FOUR
PAÍS DE LA AUSENCIA [COUNTRY OF ABSENCE]
I. “Recados” [Messages]
and the “Recuerdo de la madre ausente”
[Remembrance of the Absent Mother]—Open Letters in the World of Women
Letter-Writing, Mixed Genres, Open-Ended Messages
“Recados” [Messages]: Women’s Daily Heroism
Private Letters and Publication
II. “Recuerdo de la madre ausente” [Remembrance of the Absent Mother]
Colloquial Intimacy and the Never-Absent Mother
Revising “Genesis”
In Your Image: A Gynocentric World
III. “Canciones de Cuna” [Cradle Songs]
Mistral and Contemporary Use of Cradle Songs: Storni, Guillén
Mistral and Lorca
Lost History of the “Canción de Cuna” [Cradle Song]:
“Mestizaje verbal, violencia racial” [verbal miscegenation, racial violence]
Lost History of “Canciones de Cuna”: Las primeras Evas—el run-rún de los labios cerrados [Cradle Songs: The first Eves—the humming of closed Lips]
Lullabies without Music, Love without Words
Exchange of Identity, Exchange of World
Steps toward Release
Movement, Language, Flight
Under Cover of Night
The Poet as “Contra-Madre” [Counter-Mother]
CHAPTER
FIVE
LAGAR [WINE PRESS] AND POEMA
DE CHILE [POEM OF CHILE]
I. In Search of the Whole Picture
Critical Identification in “The Fatal Knot of Love and Death”
Personal Holocaust
“Locas mujeres” [Crazy Women]
“La otra” [The Other]
II. Poema de Chile [Poem of Chile]
Narrative Qualities
The Vital Past
Poema de Chile [Poem of Chile] and Dante’s Divina comedia
“Lengua conversacional” [Conversational Language]
Further Comparisons with the Divine Comedy: The Poet as Narrator
Gabriela, Virgil and the Meaning of Salvation
Poema de Chile [Poem of Chile] and Neruda’s “Canto general de Chile” [General Song of Chile]
The Poet’s Motherland
Further Contrasts with Neruda
Final Observations: Poema de Chile [Poem of Chile], Completeness and the Reader’s Role