Abstract
This Master’s thesis is written in two parts to reflect two languages studied: Spanish and French. Each part shares the theme of looking at divisions between women based on the good girl/bad girl dichotomy inherited from religion and ever present in society. Part I, “Entre mujeres”, explores short stories written by Julio Cortázar, María Luisa Bombal, Augusto Monterroso, Horacio Quiroga, and Rosario Castellanos, while Part II, “Entre femmes”, investigates the novel Kamouraska, by Quebecois author Anne Hebert. While the literary content is distinct in each part, exploring the works through the lens of the fantastic creates a thematic bridge between the Spanish and French sections. Both parts investigate moments where traditional boundaries concerning women’s identity are breached and long divided parts of the female psyche find places of intersection. The society reflected in the Latin American works of short fiction, which span the first half of the 20th century, is generally contemporary with the time in which the authors lived. Hebert’s novel, published in 1970, reflects back on a historical event that occurred in 1839, and reflects the viewpoints of that epoch while employing a voice inherent to the modern novel. All the female protagonists chosen are living in the highly charged and transitional period that spans the 19th and 20th centuries, during which the role of women in society undergoes dramatic shifts.