The New Frontiers in the Narrative of María Luisa Bombal

Abstract

Abstract This chapter analyzes the novels La última niebla (The Final Mist, 1935), La amortajada (The Shrouded Woman, 1938), and House of Mist (1947) by Chilean author María Luisa Bombal. It studies the writer’s biographical journey as well as her break with the literary movements of the time, particularly naturalism, the critical reception of her work, the representation of women and eroticism, and the questioning of official religion, especially, Catholicism. Utilizing a series of resources from literary theory, literary criticism, philosophy, gender studies, and historical analysis, it proposes that Bombal’s writing has opened up new frontiers in contemporary Latin American narrative.