Abstract

FERNANDEZ LUNA, Paola. Social Construction of Feminine Identity in the Regeneration Project of Colombia: the Case of Doña Bárbara Caballero y Alzate. La Palabra [online]. 2014, n.24, pp.25-32. ISSN 0121-8530.

The objective of this study is to demonstrate that Doña Bárbara, the main character of the novel La Marquesa de Yolombó (1926), is the attempt of its author, Tomás Carrasquilla, to create a paradigm feminine character based on the conflicting principles of the liberal and conservative ideologies of the Regeneration project. Bárbara Caballero y Alzate is presented as a woman who fails to materialize an autonomous project, in spite of her progressive liberalism, her effort towards emancipation and dedication to literature. The novel was written during a period known as the Regeneration period, in which it was considered that atheist liberalism had caused an axiological crisis, which could only be reestablished by a social reconstruction imperative based on the Catholic order. In consequence, a radical opposition against the founding principles of liberalism was originated; the conservative hierarchy dictated that appropriate Catholic moral conduct implied obedience to divine authority and the Church. Based on this context, Bárbara Caballero is a metaphor of this "conservative liberalism". In her character, the religious and moral conflicts of Colombian society, and particularly of women in the XIX century, come to life.

Keywords : Colombian novel; Regeneration project; Centralism; Federalism; conservative hegemony; woman in the XIX century; liberalism; Catholic moral imperative.

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