About masquerades and costumes in “Los celosos” by Silvina Ocampo

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15359/ra.1-34.12

Keywords:

Argentina, Silvina Ocampo, short stories, mask, gender, femininity, identity, theater, performance

Abstract

In this article, I will analyze the short story “Los celosos” (1988) by the Argentine writer Silvina Ocampo. In this story, the protagonist is a woman named Irma Peinate who uses a great deal of wigs, false eyelashes, high heels, and makeup to satisfy her husband. One day, her husband sees her without any accessories and does not recognize her. I propose that the sacrifice the woman undergoes is a kind of “masquerade” of femininity. This masquerade is to be accepted by her husband, but also by a society that aspires to the prototype of European beauty. The theories put forward by Simone de Beauvoir in The Second Sex (1953), Luce Irigaray in The Sex Which is Not One (1985), and “Masquerade Reconsidered: Further Thoughts on the Female Spectator” (1989) by Mary Anne Doane have been central to examining the concept of “feminine masquerade.”

References

Aldarondo, Hiram. “Embestida a la burguesía: Humor, parodia y sátira en los últimos relatos de Silvina Ocampo”. Revista Iberoamericana, vol. 68, no. 201, otoño 2002, pp. 969-79.

Balderston, Daniel. “Los cuentos crueles de Silvina Ocampo y Juan Rodolfo Wilcock”. Revista Iberoamericana, vol. 125, Jan. 1983, pp. 743-52.

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Routledge, 1990.

Calafell Sala, Núria. “Para-textos corporales: Sobre los cuentos de Silvina Ocampo”. Cuadernos de Aleph, vol. 2, 2007, pp. 63-72.

Campra, Rosalba. América Latina: La identidad y la máscara. Siglo XXI, 1987.

De Beauvoir, Simone. The Second Sex. Alfred Knopf, 1953.

Doane, Mary Ann. “Masquerade Reconsidered: Further Thoughts on the Female Spectator.” Discourse, vol. 11, no. 1, Fall-Winter 1988-89, pp. 42-54.

Enríquez, Mariana. La hermana menor. Un retrato de Silvina Ocampo. Universidad Diego Portales, 2014.

Fangmann, Cristina. “Ese infinito recinto impenetrable. Memoria, olvido y auto-imagen en Silvina Ocampo”. Ipotesi Revista, vol. 11, no. 2, diciembre 2007, pp. 47-60.

Heker, Liliana. “Silvina Ocampo y Victoria Ocampo: la hermana mayor y la hermana menor”. Mujeres argentinas. El lado femenino de nuestra historia. Alfaguara, 1998.

Irigaray, Luce. This Sex Which Is Not One. Cornell University Press, 1985.

King, John. Sur. Estudio de la revista argentina y de su papel en el desarrollo de una cultura. 1931-1970. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1989.

Klingenberg, Patricia. “Silvina Ocampo frente al espejo.” Inti, no. 40, otoño-primavera 1994, pp. 273-86.

Mackintosh, Fiona J. Childhood in the Works of Silvina Ocampo and Alejandra Pizarnik. Tamesis, 2003.

Molloy, Sylvia. “Simplicidad inquietante en los relatos de Silvina Ocampo.” Lexis, vol. 2, no. 2, Dec. 1978, pp. 241-51.

Mosovich, Claudia. “El secreto mejor guardado. Una aproximación a la obra literaria de Silvina Ocampo”. Web. Recuperado de http://www.institutomallea.com.ar/pluginfile.php/3928/mod_label/intro/Tesina2009-Mosovich-SilvinaOcampo.pdf. Acceso el 10 de julio, 2019.

Ocampo, Silvina. Cuentos completos II. Emecé Editores, 1999.

Russo, Mary. The Female Grotesque: Risk, Excess and Modernity. Routledge, 1994.

Suárez Hernán, Carolina. “Propuestas en la narrativa fantástica del Grupo Sur (José Bianco, Silvina Ocampo, María Luisa Bombal y Juan Rodolfo Wilcock): La poética de la ambigüedad”. Recuperado de https://repositorio.uam.es/bitstream/handle/10486/3175/22981_suarez_hernan_carolina.pdf?sequence=1. Acceso el 10 de julio, 2019.

Zapata, Mónica. “Deformaciones de lo real en los cuentos de Silvina Ocampo: del estereotipo a la inquietante extrañeza.” Aspects du Récit Fantastique Rioplatense. Ezquerro, Milagros. L'Harmattan, 1997.

Published

2024-11-14

How to Cite

About masquerades and costumes in “Los celosos” by Silvina Ocampo. (2024). Repertorio Americano, 34, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.15359/ra.1-34.12

Issue

Section

Artículos (sección arbitrada)

How to Cite

About masquerades and costumes in “Los celosos” by Silvina Ocampo. (2024). Repertorio Americano, 34, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.15359/ra.1-34.12