Vargas Llosan theater in the 80s: women between ink and blood

Authors

  • Elena Guichot Muñoz Universidad de Sevilla

Abstract

The portrayal of women in the work of Mario Vargas Llosa was unanimously judged by critics as lacking psychological depth. Moreover, research has located these female characters between the literary schemes of prostitute and virgin. During the eighties the presence of women in Vargas Llosa's literature grows more predominant in the light of the essay "The Perpetual Orgy", in which the author's infatuation for the heroine Emma Bovary is evident, in the novel Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, where the heroine is his sweetheart, and especially in the theatrical trilogy, The Young Lady de Tacna, Kathie and the Hippopotamus, and La Chunga. An in-depth analysis of both the female poetics in these pieces and its parallels within the narrative reveal similarities between the image of woman and the significance of literature for Mario Vargas Llosa that will lead to enlightening correspondences.

Keywords:

La Chunga, Kathie, The young lady from Tacna, women, Vargas Llosa