María Luisa Bombal's Beyond Woman: Transcending Time, Space, and Species in “Las islas nuevas”

This article examines the transcendent, beyond-woman protagonist of María Luisa Bombal's “Las islas nuevas” (1939). Like the avian-human Sirens, the protagonist is trans-species. Unageing and inhabiting the historical present and ancient past, she is trans-temporal; embodied in island avatars, she is trans-spatial. As explored through Freud's uncanny, the protagonist's disconcerting, transcendent characteristics are gradually revealed. Both she and the islands draw in and drive away the voyeuristic, colonizing forces, survive and retreat from assault, and resist subjugation. This essay explores the symbolic tensions in Bombal's story, including those between progression and the timeless-static, civilization and barbarity, highlighting how Bombal's protagonist transcends and embodies limits.