De Aparente Color Rosa. Discurso Y Recurso Sentimental En Las Novelas De Argentina Diaz Lozano

Resumen del Libro

The absence of recognized names of women authors in the 20th Century novelistic production of Guatemala, Central America, is deeply connected with issues of gender, narrative discourse and the history of this country. Born in Honduras but a Guatemalan resident during most of her life, Argentina Diaz Lozano was the most prolific female novelist during the last century—with 12 novels published, from 1937 until 1991—yet she remains one of the least known national authors from that period. The critical consensus is that Diaz Lozano wrote novels that were popular , romantic , and/or feminine in nature. These are characteristics that I do not dispute, rather, I explore them in detail in four of her novels, in order to establish that Diaz Lozanos narrative was a case of appropriation of the novela rosa discourse. As such, my argument is that her rosa discourse is also a recourse, in that the novels that I examine follow the format only strategically: They are romance novels in form, yet are also texts that offer alternative imaginaries of female subjecthood locally, which challenge then-current notions of gender roles and socio-political status. As a contribution in the field of cultural studies, my work contemplates these texts and its representations within national, social, historic, and political frames, exploring the notions of popular , romantic and feminine as these are applied to non-canonic texts—all of which gain relevance and importance within a Guatemalan and Central American cultural frame of reference. Thus, I argue that Diaz Lozanos novels must be studied as part of a long tradition of women in Hispanic America that wrote the appropriate types of narratives—those expected by hegemony—yet systematically subverted conventions, recreated imaginaries and repositioned female subjects vis-a-vis those of traditional, male-authored novels of their time.