Raising a Hand against Another: Women who kill in Latin American literature

Abstract

Latin American literature of the twentieth Century showcases women who kill: women who take a gun and, in general, point it at men. The violence expressing itself in these homicidal acts, points in various directions. Using the analyses of the literary work of Chilean female writers Marta Brunet, Maite Allamand, María Carolina Geel, María Luisa Bombal, and the argentinian author Silvina Ocampo as a starting point, we elaborate three different scenarios for the emergence of violence. One of them portrays the homicide as a reaction to women oppression in a patriarchal system; in the other case, the crime can`t be explained and resists decoding through words; in the third case, violence hides behind childish games which pretend innocence.