Female Characterization in the Novel of the Dictatorship (A Festa, by Ivan Ângelo, Por la Patria, by Diamela Eltit, and Cola de Lagartija, by Luisa Valenzuela)
註釋 This dissertation argues that the main female characters in Ivan Ângelo's A Festa (Brazil), Diamela Eltit's Por la patria (Chile), and Luisa Valenzuela's Cola de lagartija (Argentina) function as symbols of hope, resistance and social change and that they do so in ways different from the male characters because of their unique relationships with the authoritarian regimes, which can be read as political manifestations of patriarchal order. Because A Festa offers a strong social criticism of both the middle class values that helped the military come into power and of a society that at that time did not react to the hardships faced by others, the first chapter focuses on how Brazilian society during the regime is criticized through the female characters. The second chapter offers a detailed analysis of how the Pinochet regime is criticized through the female characters in Por la patria . The main female characters reject Pinochet's official discourse by not adhering to his ideal of the Chilean woman while the regime is criticized through minor characters who comply with the official discourse because they are parodies of the ever-loving and passive mother sought by the regime. The third chapter discusses how the battle between the Sorcerer and the main female characters in Cola de lagartija represents not only resistance to the military regime but a gender battle because the regime is seen as a patriarchal social institution by most Latin American feminists. In this novel gender and the patriarchal binary are blurred because the main female characters behave in stereotypically aggressive masculine manners in order to destroy the Sorcerer. The conclusion includes a comparison of the key female characters and a discussion of what can be learned from their similarities and differences and notes that while gender differentiation is questioned more in the novels written by the Spanish American female authors than their male Brazilian counterpart, it is still examined in A Festa . 