Significations and representations of gender about abortions and women who abort, in two south american literary works

Abstract

This essay is based on a feminist situated reading of two literary works by South American writers: La Casa de los Espíritus (1981) by Isabel Allende and Código Rosa. Relatos sobre abortos (2015) by Dahiana Belfiori. It reflects on the meanings, affects, representations and self-representations of gender and the political meanings noted in a selection of stories from each book about experiences of clandestine abortions of women's experiences of clandestine abortions. Literature can be at the service of the construction of feminist gender meanings about abortions in several ways: to denounce violence and injustice; to circumvent the patriarchal hegemonic narratives that condemn abortion practices; to claim rights and to enable other ways of imagining, thinking and representing women who abort, in ways that are closer and more empathetic to their contextualized experiences. From the reading of both works, some intergender and intragender differences that make up the narrated experiences are recognized and the intervention of feminist writers in the socially available discourses on the subject is appreciated. In the case of Código Rosa, this intervention is understood as part of broader social decriminalization processes driven by socorristas feminist activisms in Argentina.