“Make us silence you”

the struggle of women against authoritarianism in Isabel Allende

Abstract

This research aims to discuss and reflect on literature by female authors in times of authoritarianism and repression, focusing on the Chilean writer Isabel Allende (1942). We analyze the historical trajectory that prevented women from being  knowledge bearers, and investigate how Latin American women writers gained visibility and began to produce more. Isabel Allende's relationship with the feminist struggles and her opposition to the Chilean dictatorship will also be explored. Finally, we will examine some female characters in two of the author's works - The House of the Spirits (1982) and Of Love and Shadow (1984). The research adopts a qualitative approach, characterized by bibliographic and documentary methods. Some of the studies we engage with are those by Valdés (1987), Anderson (1995), Perrot (2005), Wolff (2009), and Guardia (2013). The relevance of this research lies in the historical need for women to be heard, read and studied. Thus, it contributes to interdisciplinary studies between history and literature; gender research and female authorship.