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  5. Volume 35, Issue 3, 2022

International Journal of Iberian Studies - (Re)Producing Galician Femininities: Women’s Creative Praxis in 21st-Century Galicia, Sept 2022

(Re)Producing Galician Femininities: Women’s Creative Praxis in 21st-Century Galicia

(Re)Producing Galician Femininities: Women’s Creative Praxis in 21st-Century Galicia, Sept 2022

Language: English
  • Introduction

      • Feminisms at work: The (re)production of gender and culture in contemporary Galicia

        https://doi.org/10.1386/ijis_00079_2

        Dynamic, multifaceted and multimodal feminist and woman-led artistic production has made its mark in the Galician cultural sphere in recent years. Non-canonical artistic formulations located on the fringes of, and often serving as a challenge to, mainstream Galician culture reveal new ways of thinking about gender from peripheral, non-hegemonic and decolonial positions. Galician women are engaging in creative and experimental forms of self-expression, self-production and consumption of culture by reconfiguring and ‘refashioning’ Galician feminisms and femininities within a global framework. Particularly timely in the wake of the #MeToo movement, 8M women’s strikes and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on gender equality, and with social media playing an ever more prominent role in the diffusion of grassroots feminist activism, contemporary Galician creative practice by, for and about women has much to teach us in how it challenges heteropatriarchal binaries and stereotypes.

        Resumo

        Dinámicas, polifacéticas e multimodais, as producións artísticas feministas e lideradas por mulleres deixaron a súa marca na esfera cultural galega en anos recentes. Estas formulacións artísticas non canónicas situadas á marxe da cultura mainstream galega e, en moitos casos, en oposición a ela, revelan novos xeitos de pensar o xénero desde posicións periféricas, non hexemónicas e decoloniais. As mulleres galegas están a participar en formas creativas e experimentais de autoexpresión, autoprodución e de consumo da cultura reconfigurando e ‘remodelando’ feminismos e feminidades de Galicia nun marco global. Particularmente opoturno á raíz do movemento #MeToo, as folgas de mulleres do 8M e os impactos da pandemia do COVID-19 na igualdade de xénero, e co papel cada vez máis prominente dos medios sociais na difusión do activismo feminista de base, as prácticas creativas galegas contemporáneas realizadas por, para e sobre mulleres teñen moito que ensinarnos a través da súa maneira de desafiar binarios e estereotipos heteropatriarcais.

  • Articles

      • Backwards is forward: Reclaiming sexual and gender diversity in Galicia through literature

        https://doi.org/10.1386/ijis_00080_1

        In this article, I try to explore to what extent queer lives, expressions and representation have been obscured in Galicia by the mainstream narrative of ‘atraso’ (backwardness), applied not only to the economy, but also to social structures. After I situate myself in the discussion, I will explore the way Galicia as a nation has been constructed as a place where queer lives are at risk or simply do not exist. The narrative of ‘atraso’ will be unveiled as a tool to assimilate diverse identities to a single Spanish one, especially when we analyse the facts, traces and gaps through which diverse sexual/gender identities have expressed themselves in Galician culture(s). I will finally explore how literature has operated in this complex scenario as a way to reclaim queer lives on our own terms. I will present some historical background to then analyse current trends in the way queer readings are introduced in contemporary Galician literature.

        Resumo

        Neste artigo exploro ata que punto as vidas, expresións e representacións cuír quedaron escurecidas en Galicia polo discurso dominante do atraso, aplicado non só á economía, senón tamén ás estruturas sociais. Unha vez situada no debate, explorarei o xeito en que Galicia, como nación, foi construída como un lugar no que as vidas cuír corren risco ou, simplemente, non existen. O discurso do atraso revelarase como unha ferramenta para asimilar identidades diversas a unha única española, sobre todo cando analizamos os feitos, trazas e fendas a través das cales se expresan as identidades sexo-xenéricas diversas na(s) cultura(s) galega(s). Finalmente, explorarei de que xeito a literatura funciona neste escenario complexo como un xeito de reclamar para nós as vidas cuír nos nosos propios termos. Presentarei un marco histórico para logo analizar tendencias actuais no xeito en que se introducen lecturas cuír na literatura galega contemporánea.

    • Twenty-first-century Galician food femininities in Lorena Conde’s and Oliver Laxe’s

      https://doi.org/10.1386/ijis_00081_1

      Food metaphors and symbols are found everywhere in contemporary cultural production in Galicia, where food constitutes a key identity marker. Given the close connections between food and gender, the artistic representation of food is an excellent field to investigate Galician food femininities. This article examines two such examples. The play (2019), written and directed by Lorena Conde, and produced by A Feroz Teatro, is a feminist response, rich in food symbolism, to the Judeo-Christian metaphor of woman as sacrificial lamb. Drawing on the historical figure St Agnes of Rome (CE 291–304) and the childhood memories visiting a local convent of Inés Salvado, who plays the only characters onstage, the play discusses bodily autonomy and female mysticism. The film (2019) by Oliver Laxe, a key filmmaker of the , is a spiritually oriented work about middle-aged Amador who returns home to his elderly mother, Benedicta, after serving an arson sentence for burning a forest down. In the film, food, constantly present but in a subtle way, is both an earthly and a spiritual element that plays a key role in the construction of Benedicta’s gendered ageing identity.

      Resumo

      As metáforas e símbolos alimentarios son ubicuos na produción cultural contemporánea en Galicia, onde a comida é un elemento identitario de primeira orde. Dadas as conexións entre a comida e o xénero, a representación artística da comida é un excelente campo para investigar as feminidades alimentarias galegas. Este artigo examina dous exemplos. A obra (2019), escrita e dirixida por Lorena Conde, e producida por A Feroz Teatro, é unha resposta feminista, rica en simbolismo alimentario, á metáfora xudeocristiá da muller como año sacrificado. Baseada na figura histórica de Santa Inés de Roma (e.c. 291–304) e nas lembranzas infantís das visitas a un convento de Inés Salvado, a única actriz que interpreta as personaxes no escenario, a obra trata sobre a autonomía corporal e o misticismo feminino. O filme (2019) de Oliver Laxe, importante cineasta do , é unha obra espiritual sobre Amador, un home de mediana idade que regresa á casa da súa nai anciá, Benedicta, tras cumprir unha condena por provocar un incendio forestal. Na película, a comida, constantemente presente mais dun xeito sutil, é un elemento tanto terrenal coma espiritual que xoga un papel fundamental na construción da identidade de Benedicta como muller que avellenta.

    • Of monsters and women: Feminist response to gender-based violence in Galician noir

      https://doi.org/10.1386/ijis_00082_1

      This article contrasts strategies of resistance to gender-based violence in two examples of audio-visual media which draw on or subvert the burgeoning genre of Galician noir; Season 1 of the TVG-Netflix hit (2018) directed by Miguel Conde and the women-centred grassroots feminist web series (2020) directed by Eire García Cid. These divergent case studies muddy the binary of female victimhood and male aggression whilst drawing attention to the hegemonic sexual politics and socio-economic systems which facilitate and endorse violence against women and girls. Yet while stands as a paradigmatic example of a socially conscious, ideologically driven artistic response to patriarchal violence, the feminist attributes of are largely trumped by commercial concerns, shown for example through the eroticization of violence. Though Galician noir has made a breakthrough on international streaming media by foregrounding women’s resistance to gender-based violence, this tends to be manipulated by the bid for viewer ratings. Fundamentally, it continues to be in alternative media where some of the most revolutionary conversations about women’s rights are taking place in the Galician cultural sphere.

      Resumo

      Este artigo contrasta diferentes estratexias de resistencia á violencia de xénero en dúas obras audiovisuais que empregan ou subverten as convencións do noir galego; a primeira tempada de (2018) de TVG-Netflix, dirixida por Miguel Conde, e a webserie feminista de base centrada na muller (2020) dirixida por Eire García Cid. Estes estudos de caso diverxentes complican o binarismo patriarcal da vítima feminina e a agresión masculina á vez que chaman a atención ás políticas sexuais e os sistemas socioeconómicos hexemónicos que facilitan e afianzan a violencia contra as mulleres e as nenas. Porén, aínda que é un exemplo paradigmático dunha resposta artística socialmente consciente e impulsada ideoloxicamente á violencia patriarcal, os atributos feministas de vense en gran medida superados polas preocupacións comerciais, mostradas por exemplo a través da erotización da violencia. Aínda que o noir galego deu un gran avance nos medios internacionais de streaming ao poñer en primeiro plano a resistencia das mulleres á violencia de xénero, isto adoita ser manipulado pola aposta da valoración dos espectadores. Fundamentalmente, segue a ser en medios alternativos onde se están a dar algunhas das conversas máis revolucionarias sobre os dereitos da muller no ámbito cultural galego.

    • Shifting views on the pregnant body: Filming the play

      https://doi.org/10.1386/ijis_00083_1

      (‘Anatomy of a mermaid’) (2018) is a documentary theatre play in which the Galician actor Iria Pinheiro shares the experiences of obstetric violence she went through during and after labour. I filmed Pinheiro’s creative process when putting the play together. As I was filming, I found presented a reality that is still debated in Spain, disrupting the performative image of the pregnant woman that has been perpetuated in cultural production within western patriarchal society. In this article, I address how I use video essay as a research form to analyse the subversive nature of the play, looking at how Pinheiro uses parody as a device to disrupt, and how she confronts us with the image of the pregnant woman typically portrayed in films. Furthermore, what started as an investigation into the actor’s creative process turned into a personal exploration to understand more about the pregnant woman who infiltrates the Galician and Spanish imaginary. By analysing to what extent the image we get from films has been framed by the depictions of the pregnant Virgin Mary and how subversive portrayals in films are sometimes made invisible, I intend to challenge how we present the pregnant woman on screen.

      Resumo

      (2018) é unha obra de teatro documental na que a actriz Iria Pinheiro comparte as súas experiencias de violencia obstétrica polas que pasou durante e despois do parto. Filmei o proceso creativo de Pinheiro cando creaba a obra, e a medida que gravaba deime conta de que presenta unha realidade que aínda é cuestionada en España, subvertendo así a imaxe performativa da muller embarazada que ten sido perpetuada dentro da produción cultural da sociedade occidental. Neste artigo exploro como a través do vídeo ensaio como ferramenta de análise, investigo acerca da natureza subversiva da obra, atendendo a como Pinheiro usa a parodia como un medio para alterar o establecido, e como nos confronta coa imaxe da muller embarazada que tipicamente se presenta nas películas. Ademais, o que empezou como unha investigación sobre o proceso creativo da actriz, tornou nunha exploración persoal para entender mellor acerca da muller embarazada que impregna o imaxinario galego e español. Analizando ata que punto a imaxe que temos das películas ven marcada polas representacións da Virxe María e como os retratos subversivos nas películas son feitos invisibles, pretendo cuestionar como presentamos a muller embarazada na pantalla.

  • Open Forum

      • Institutional desires, individual endeavours: Contemporary Galician narrative in English translation

        https://doi.org/10.1386/ijis_00084_7

        Literary translation is an essential component of international exchanges and cultural diplomacy. For minority and minoritized languages, in particular, it is not only a window to other audiences but also a source of legitimacy among their own readerships. In this sense, governments and institutions often provide funding for translations to counter the difficulties that smaller literatures have to access the competitive global market and avail of its opportunities. This article explores the current state of the internationalization of contemporary Galician narrative to the anglophone world at a moment in which the latter is experiencing a period of increasing openness to translation driven mostly by independent presses. Why is it that, despite the institutional supports in place, most Galician narrative is struggling to find readerships in the English-speaking world?

        Resumo

        A tradución literaria é un compoñente fundamental nos intercambios internacionais e na diplomacia cultural. Para as linguas minoritarias e minorizadas, en concreto, non só supón unha fiestra cara a outras audiencias, senón tamén unha fonte de lexitimidade cara aos seus propios lectorados. Neste sentido, os gobernos e as institucións adoitan proporcionar apoios ás traducións, co obxectivo de contrarrestar as dificultades que experimentan as literaturas máis pequenas á hora de acceder ao competitivo mercado global e aproveitar as oportunidades que este lles presenta. Este artigo explora o estado actual da internacionalización da narrativa contemporánea galega no mundo anglófono nun momento no que este está experimentando un período de crecente apertura á tradución, impulsado fundamentalemente polo traballo de editoriais independentes. Por que, malia os apoios de tradución existentes, a maior parte da narrativa galega ten dificultades para atopar lectores no mundo anglófono?

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