Latin American Women and the Literature of Madness

Download or read book Latin American Women and the Literature of Madness written by Elvira Sánchez-Blake and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-05-11 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the turn of the millennium, narrative works by Latin American women writers have represented madness within contexts of sociopolitical strife and gender inequality. This book explores contemporary Latin American realities through madness narratives by prominent women authors, including Cristina Peri Rossi (Uruguay), Lya Luft (Brazil), Diamela Eltit (Chile), Cristina Rivera Garza (Mexico), Laura Restrepo (Colombia) and Irene Vilar (Puerto Rico). Close reading of these works reveals a pattern of literary techniques—a “poetics of madness”—employed by the writers to represent conditions that defy language, make sociopolitical crises tangible and register cultural perceptions of mental illness through literature.