Genres of the Real

doi:10.1017/CHO9781316050859.030

26 - Genres of the Real

Testimonio, Autobiography, and the Subjective Turn

from Part III - Women Writers In-Between: Socialist, Modern, Developmentalists, and Liberal Democratic Ideals

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2015

Nora Strejilevich and

Judith Filc

Edited by

Ileana Rodríguez and

Mónica Szurmuk

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Ileana Rodríguez: Affiliation:
Ohio State University
Mónica Szurmuk: Affiliation:
Instituto de Literatura Hispanoamericana, Argentina

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Summary

Testimonio has been an inspiring genre for women who need to delve into the innermost echoes of torture and repression. The feelings anchored in their bodies lie at the heart of women concentration camp survivors' experience, and they seek other voices with whom to enter into a dialogue within this framework. They often focus on the gender-specific repression they suffered, such as sexual abuse and the kidnapping of their children, and present their stories in oral/written patterns or in literary form. The writings could be considered autobiographical because they explore the connections between one's memory and the memory of others. Testimonios are multidimensional. What is important is how the imprecise boundaries between memory and history, document and literature are negotiated. In this context, writing becomes a transformation process that goes from personal experience to public account, and this shift tends to conceal the work of writing.

Keywords

Antonieta Rivas Mercado Elena Poniatowska Carmen Boullosa Mexican literary historiography Naief Yehya intercultural writers Maria Luisa Puga Fran Ilich

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge History of Latin American Women's Literature , pp. 433 - 447

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHO9781316050859.030 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2015

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