The Silent Feminine: Essays on Jouissance, the Letter, and the Arts

(Hardback)

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Description

Contributors to this edited collection use a psychoanalytic lens to examine the historical and political silencing of women as portrayed through Latin American art and literature.

Reviews

The fact that silence is what is heard between spoken or written words shows that, like the feminine, silence is an enigma. Black hole, unfathomable abyss, heteros par excellence, the feminine is inscribed beyond signifiers and beyond letters, which always eludes it. That this book sits in those unnamables and unfathomables attests the value writing has in our lives. When a pandemic ravages the planet and something non-human confronts all forces: scientific, political and economic, a book written by many hands brings us closer to thinking that perhaps, what "remains of Auschwitz" is poetry.

-- Marit Colovini, National University of Rosario

The Silent Feminine explores the female subject and the meaning of silence in psychology, literature and art. Among other areas, this book makes a significant contribution to the field of Hispanic and the works of contemporary women writers. One remarkable aspect this work acknowledges is the silencing of women writers who, despite their innovation and quality, are relegated from a literary canon. This book reveals how the different avatars of silence may be examples of patriarchal violence against women

-- Silvia Ruiz Tresgallo, Autonomous University of Queretaro

This enthralling book displays a polyphony of voices, analyzing through different perspectives the silence and the silencing of women in Latin America. The reader is not only intellectually but emotionally engaged with the historical context of this silence and its traumatic effects, as she is introduced to women writers, and artists, who addressed that unperceived issue in the aftermath of socio-political upheavals. From my perspective, The Silent Feminine has opened the field for an enlightening dialogue with its authors.

-- Franoise Davoine, independent psychoanalyst

This book gives voice to 'femininity', both situating and exploring how this concept departs from ideologically-loaded representations of women and clarifying the role of cultural productions from the visual and literary arts in shaping and expressing the unfathomable female. A landmark book for Anglophone readers, showcasing key Latin American feminist and psychoanalytic scholarship.

-- Erica Burman, University of Manchester

Author Bio

Araceli Coln Cabrera is professor of psychology at the Autonomous University of Queretaro, Mexico.