Female writing and subversion of gender in The fourth world, by Diamela Eltit

Abstract

This article reflects on feminist literature in the post-military coup context in Chile, thinking it as one that is capable of questioning power mechanisms exercised from masculinity. The literature and performance of Diamela Eltit stand out as actions of intervention and confrontation to the control imposed on the bodies and, in particular, to the imposition of a bipolarity of genders affirmed by a militarist-patriarchal logic. In The Fourth World, the subversion of gender colonization - which imposes compulsory heterosexuality and female subjugation - is analyzed through transvestism (and gender performance) and lesbianism as gestures of decolonization of the female body.