Sixteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

Since the publication of Tiempo destrozado (1959), the Mexican woman writer Amparo Davila (Zacatecas, 1928) has put into practice an aesthetics of indeterminacy which has shaped narrative settings, times, characters and even the feelings involved in her disturbing short stories. This aesthetics can also be found in Música concreta (1964), her second book, and deepened in Árboles petrificados (1978), her last short story cycle. In this study, I explore how several characters are trapped in love relationships, which, at the beginning, were expressions of individual liberty. I focus on three stories where women have the leading role: “La rueda”, “Griselda”, and “Árboles petrificados.” Amparo Davila is one of the most outstanding writers of the so-called Generation of the 50s of Mexican literature and even though she has denied any association with feminism, she has created several female characters which have revealed real conflicts of Mexican women.