Allegories of Transgression and Transformation: Experimental Fiction by Women Writing Under Dictatorship

At the nexus of politics and sexuality, Allegories of Transgression and Transformation examines how women's writing produced in the wake of authoritarian regimes in several South American countries simultaneously challenges both the effects of dictatorship and restrictive gender codes. The author examines the experimental fictions of four contemporary Latin American writers: Diamela Eltit of Chile, Nelida Pinon of Brazil, Reina Roffe of Argentina, and Cristina Peri Rossi of Uruguay. Tierney-Tello begins her study by exploring the particular relationships among authoritarian political oppression, restrictive gender codes, and the practice of writing. Then, through close readings that draw on feminist, psychoanalytic, and socio-political literary theories, she shows how each of the selected narratives illustrates different aspects of the effects of dictatorship, while also striving to develop new means of articulating gender and feminine sexuality. Throughout, Allegories of Transgression and Transformation suggests how the use of allegory allows these texts to question socio-political, genderic, and textual forms of authority and to trace an/other story.