I sing the difference: the Existence of Violeta Parra as a Battle Ground. Persecution, Memory and Masculine Writing

Abstract

In the framework of the hundredth anniversary of Violeta Parra’s birth, it is enriching to approach her life and works through socializing new analyses and perspectives. This work presents a critical analysis of the writings about Violeta Parra’s life and works under the Chilean military dictatorship (1973-1989). The biographical genre is presented as the discursive environment of fight and rescue of Parra’s memory at the same time the state terrorism is trying to erase the artist legacy from the national scene. However, this analysis admits the sexist feature of a type of writing which faces an ideology battle ground and at the same time reinforces a masculine domination, presenting Violeta Parra as “a tormented woman”, “intelligent but ugly”, “single mother” and “suicide poet”.