“Distinguished Ladies” and the Doctrine of Womanhood: Auto-surveillance and Auto-performance in Diamela Eltit’s E. Luminata
This essay reads Diamela Eltit’s E. Luminata as form of auto-performative ‘anti-manual’ which employs a range of autobiographical forms and functions in protest of codes of womanhood published in an actual manual of women’s con-duct authored by Augusto Pinochet’s First Lady and enforced by...
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University of Groningen Press
2017-10-01
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doaj-c093c052a00545a0a374b3824230cc302020-11-25T03:47:17ZengUniversity of Groningen PressEuropean Journal of Life Writing2211-243X2017-10-01624226110.5463/ejlw.6.22931493“Distinguished Ladies” and the Doctrine of Womanhood: Auto-surveillance and Auto-performance in Diamela Eltit’s E. LuminataLisa Ortiz-Vilarelle0School of Humanities & Social Sciences, The College of New Jersey, Ewing, NJ, USThis essay reads Diamela Eltit’s E. Luminata as form of auto-performative ‘anti-manual’ which employs a range of autobiographical forms and functions in protest of codes of womanhood published in an actual manual of women’s con-duct authored by Augusto Pinochet’s First Lady and enforced by his regime’s National Secretariat of Women which organized forms of auto-surveillance by which women policed themselves and one another. It argues that if the NSW functioned as a mechanism for the surveillance and discipline of women in Pi-nochet’s police state, Eltit’s text functions as a subversive auto-performance of Chilean womanhood offered in protest against the state censorship of women’s autobiography. The reading demonstrates the ways in which E. Luminata stra-tegically performs Eltit’s own public self-representation of womanhood which, although meant to be impossible, is not unattainable in the regime.https://ejlw.eu/article/view/31493autoperformativitydiamela eltitchilean literature |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Lisa Ortiz-Vilarelle |
spellingShingle |
Lisa Ortiz-Vilarelle “Distinguished Ladies” and the Doctrine of Womanhood: Auto-surveillance and Auto-performance in Diamela Eltit’s E. Luminata European Journal of Life Writing autoperformativity diamela eltit chilean literature |
author_facet |
Lisa Ortiz-Vilarelle |
author_sort |
Lisa Ortiz-Vilarelle |
title |
“Distinguished Ladies” and the Doctrine of Womanhood: Auto-surveillance and Auto-performance in Diamela Eltit’s E. Luminata |
title_short |
“Distinguished Ladies” and the Doctrine of Womanhood: Auto-surveillance and Auto-performance in Diamela Eltit’s E. Luminata |
title_full |
“Distinguished Ladies” and the Doctrine of Womanhood: Auto-surveillance and Auto-performance in Diamela Eltit’s E. Luminata |
title_fullStr |
“Distinguished Ladies” and the Doctrine of Womanhood: Auto-surveillance and Auto-performance in Diamela Eltit’s E. Luminata |
title_full_unstemmed |
“Distinguished Ladies” and the Doctrine of Womanhood: Auto-surveillance and Auto-performance in Diamela Eltit’s E. Luminata |
title_sort |
“distinguished ladies” and the doctrine of womanhood: auto-surveillance and auto-performance in diamela eltit’s e. luminata |
publisher |
University of Groningen Press |
series |
European Journal of Life Writing |
issn |
2211-243X |
publishDate |
2017-10-01 |
description |
This essay reads Diamela Eltit’s E. Luminata as form of auto-performative ‘anti-manual’ which employs a range of autobiographical forms and functions in protest of codes of womanhood published in an actual manual of women’s con-duct authored by Augusto Pinochet’s First Lady and enforced by his regime’s National Secretariat of Women which organized forms of auto-surveillance by which women policed themselves and one another. It argues that if the NSW functioned as a mechanism for the surveillance and discipline of women in Pi-nochet’s police state, Eltit’s text functions as a subversive auto-performance of Chilean womanhood offered in protest against the state censorship of women’s autobiography. The reading demonstrates the ways in which E. Luminata stra-tegically performs Eltit’s own public self-representation of womanhood which, although meant to be impossible, is not unattainable in the regime. |
topic |
autoperformativity diamela eltit chilean literature |
url |
https://ejlw.eu/article/view/31493 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT lisaortizvilarelle distinguishedladiesandthedoctrineofwomanhoodautosurveillanceandautoperformanceindiamelaeltitseluminata |
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1724502583626694656 |