The Sexual Woman in Latin American Literature : Dangerous Desires

An analysis of the representation of sexual women in Latin American fiction, and its turning-point in the 1960s. Using novels by three popular writers of the period, it shows that woman's sexuality in fiction was transformed because it symbolized many other changes occurring in women's lives.

An analysis of the representation of sexual women in Latin American fiction, which achieved a turning-point in the 1960s. Diane E. Marting''s central idea is that in Latin American narrative women''s desires were portrayed as dangerous throughout the 20th century, despite the heroic character of the ""newly sexed woman"" of the 1960s. She argues that woman''s sexuality in fiction was transformed because it symbolized the many other changes occurring in women''s lives regarding their families, workplaces, societies and nations. Female sexual desire offered an ever-present threat to male privilege. Marting scrutinizes novels by three popular novelists of the period, Guatemalan Miguel Angel Asturias, Brazilian Clarice Lispector, and Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa. She argues that their novels from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s represent the beginning, middle and end, respectively, of what has come to be seen as an indulgent, radical period that produced world-acclaimed sexual fiction. She surveys the topic of women''s sexuality in the work of both men and women writers and engages two current controversies: feminist and moral issues related to the female body, and the nature of literary history.