PT Journal
AU Peinador, M
TI Refounding the Argentine matria. Reading of The Adventures of China Iron, by Gabriela Cabezon Camara
SO Romanica Olomucensia
PY 2021
BP 289
EP 304
VL 33
IS 2
DI 10.5507/ro.2021.020
DE Gabriela Cabezon Camara; The Adventures of China Iron; identity; nation; Argentina; affiliation; gender; queer studies; ecofeminism
AB This paper intends to provide a panoramic interpretation of The Adventures of China Iron (Las Aventuras de la China Iron), by Gabriela Cabezon Camara, a novel which is part of (or breaks away from) the Gaucho genre literary tradition, a co-founder of Argentinian national identity. After providing an epistemological, historical and socio-cultural framework of the origin of Argentina as a nation, the paper introduces and questions the Gaucho figure as a source of popular national collective identity, as well as his literary representations, which is in an essential contradiction as she puts together oral and written traditions and "low" and "high" culture. In this paper Cabezon Camara's proposal, a literary work that draws a cosmogony radically opposed to the traditional one, is analysed. In order to achieve this, the author uses varied resources, both in the internal structure of the work and in the configuration of its elements. The result is the building in progress of a harmonious and sustainable alternative model society, based on affiliative bonds, overcoming discriminatory distinctions based on gender or even species. The ultimate question that is intended to be answered - more definitive conclusions would need further studies and the test of time- is about how this work relates to the Argentinian literary canon, the national model, and, further, the scope of this cultural artefact and its ability to boost the political, social, and cultural imagination.
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