Eduarda Mansilla and the Limits of Feminist Critique

• In Event: Beyond Nation: Feminism and Protest in Nineteenth-Century Latin American Print Culture

Abstract

Eduarda Mansilla, an avid traveler and writer from Argentina, participated prolifically in the international print culture of the nineteenth century, often focusing on the place of women and gauchos in Argentine national culture. This paper analyzes how Mansilla contests traditional gender roles in three different mediums of print culture: the crónica de viaje, the serialized novel, and the children’s short story. In Recuerdos de Viaje (1882), Mansilla writes for an Argentine audience from the United States. She highlights the self-reliance and intellectual freedom of “yankee” women. In Pablo ou la vie dans les pampas (1869), Mansilla explains gaucho culture to French readers. One of the most original contributions of this serialized novel is its portrayal of the wives and mothers of gauchos; these unfulfilled women desire a role in the country's political, economic, and cultural life. In the case of Recuerdos de viaje and Pablo ou la vie dans les pampas, print culture is a vehicle of protest and contestation. However, this paradigm does not entirely apply to Mansilla’s Cuentos (1880). These stories, which were written in Argentina for Argentine children, do not redefine gender roles to the extent that Mansilla’s publications for adults do. By comparing these three publications, we learn that Mansilla’s portrayal of femininity, motherhood, and domesticity changes when she writes from different geographical perspectives and for different audiences.

Author

• Kristen M Turpin, University of Pennsylvania