Reviews of the past, reconstructions of the present: gender discourses and history in the narratives of Gioconda Belli

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the rereading of history in literature written by women and check how this rereading redefines and complete the past, favoring the identity reconstruction of those feminine historical subjects (CUNHA, 2004). Beginning with the questioning of official histography (BENJAMIN, 1994) and the concepts of historiographic metafiction (HUTCHEON, 1991), the following works are put to test El pergamino de la seducción (2005) and El infinito en la palma de la mano (2008) of the Nicaraguian writer Gioconda Belli. On those works, the author propose retelling, when giving voice to two ex centric characters, a new version of the historical facts on a feminine perspective, reclaiming from the official histography borders the figures of the queen Joana I from Castilha and the first woman, Eve. Through dialogue with the history, the narratives problematize the historical past through literature and contribute to dismantling the conceptual categories of truth, discourse and identity. Also contesting the ways of characters’ representation in the historical past and reaffirming their individuality in a world dominated by male subject. Thus, the created characters go beyond the female stereotypical, known as stressed by a male voice submission and a denial of knowledge and power. In this way, the texts are opened to a transgressive intervention in official history: returning the feminine figures of Joana and Eva to the place that History and society have denied, rebuilding the official historiographical discourse.