Abstract

CHAVEZ DIAZ, Liliana Guadalupe. Off the Beaten Path: Revolution and Travel in Memoirs by Three Latin American Women Authors. Valenciana [online]. 2021, vol.14, n.27, pp.7-34.  Epub Apr 23, 2021. ISSN 2007-2538.  https://doi.org/10.15174/rv.v13i27.547.

This paper reflects on memoirs and travel writing by Latin American women authors. It intends to contribute to the discussion regarding memory and self-representation within the field of Latin American literature that has been publishing since 2000, by focusing on female first-person travel accounts about guerrillas and revolutions during the 1960s. The aim is to trace the particular uses of language that women writers have developed in Latin America to represent themselves while traveling on their own, across a continent under development and facing great social challenges. The main focus is on The Country Under My Skyn: A memoir of love and war (El país bajo mi piel, 2001), by Gioconda Belli; Dancing with Cuba (La Habana en un espejo, 2004), by Alma Guillermoprieto, and Viajes: De la Amazonía a las Malvinas (2014), by Beatriz Sarlo. I propose to shed light into Latin American nonfiction and lesser known female authors, studying travel literature as a means of individual and collective expression of memory. The paper offers a female perspective on ideology, politics and travel, while raising awareness of class and gender representations in contemporary literature.

Keywords : Latin American memoirs; Female travel writing; Gioconda Belli; Alma Guillermoprieto; Beatriz Sarlo.

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