Queer Women in Modern Spanish Literature: Activism, Sexuality, and the Otherness of the 'Chicas Raras.' ed. by Ana I Simón-Alegre and Lou Charnon-Deutsch (review)

Reviewed by: Queer Women in Modern Spanish Literature: Activism, Sexuality, and the Otherness of the 'Chicas Raras.' ed. by Ana I Simón-Alegre and Lou Charnon-Deutsch Jennifer Brady Simón-Alegre, Ana I, and Lou Charnon-Deutsch, editors. Queer Women in Modern Spanish Literature: Activism, Sexuality, and the Otherness of the 'Chicas Raras.'. Routledge, 2022. Pp. 172. ISBN 978-0-367-56353-0. Part of the Routledge series titled "Literary Criticism and Cultural Theory," this collection of essays vindicates the role of select nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century women authors and women literary characters from Spain in social justice and political action. Editors Ana I. Simón-Alegre and Lou Charnon-Deutsch narrow in on the lens of queerness, with its variety of definitions and descriptions, as the common factor that permits these women access to question heteronormativity, to enact positive change, and to challenge social norms—or to even dismantle them—in private and public spheres. The collection's clear introduction emphasizes two key points. First, queerness should be broadly and intersectionally interpreted to include sexual identity, yes, but also to include nonsexual, close friendships between women (what Barbara Zecchi calls "hermandad lírica") as well as other so-called non-conventional ways of being and activities (e.g., dressing in drag, participating in counterculture artistic creation, etc.). "The term's semantic flexibility," according to the End Page 180 editors, allows them "to trace the relation between earlier literature that challenged women's conventional roles and more radical texts that challenge sexual identity all together" (11). Throughout the collection, queer women—authors and literary characters—reclaim derogatory titles, such as "chicas raras" or "marisabidillas," as they become increasingly agile in the public sphere, rebellious, independent, and committed to social change through the solidarity of sisterhood. Second, the approach to group together authors and characters in this collection is in itself a queer approach that enables deeper understanding of the agency of the women "of becoming full participants in modernity" (11). "Connections between the poetry, fiction, and essays of women writers and their social activism and private lives," write Simón-Alegre and Charnon-Deutsch, follow "a recent trend in Hispanic studies that acknowledges the transactional relations between private lives and literary production" (5). Sorry, Barthes, here the author is not dead; here the line between the process of creating (often communal, as shown in this collection) and the product of creation intertwine continuously, polysemously across space and time. The outcome is a rich, dynamic understanding of social progress in the context of modern Spain. The eight chapters of this collection complement each other and create a mosaic of women who pushed against the norms in modern Spain. In Cchapter 1, Aurélie Vialette studies how Concepción Arenal (1820–93) employed dressing as a man and using a typically male name to develop her own personal agency all the while challenging stereotypes of women and highlighting "women's participation in the construction of the nation in the nineteenth century" (19). Arenal cross-dressed in order to attend law school in Madrid and would use her son's name in order to enter spaces that were reserved for men. If Arenal activated the body as a place of resistance, Char-non-Deutsch in chapter 2 emphasizes ideology as space where heteronormative thoughts may be challenged. Charnon-Deutsch looks at women's solidarity that grew out of Spiritism, a way of thinking and being that was introduced in Spain, albeit with challenges from deeply engrained national Catholicism via translations by Allan Kardec (1804–69). It is interesting to read the path of Spiritism and the outcome it had, particularly on the activist's Amalia Domingo Soler's (1835–1909) dedication to women's comradery in social justice. Chapter 3, penned by Simón-Alegre, is devoted to literary salons for women, places where women were able to cultivate productive and caring friendships and relationships with other women. In fact, Simón-Alegre shows that Carmen de Burgos (1867–1932) included fictional representations of Concepción Gimeno de Flaquer in three novellas from the early twentieth century. Concha de Albornoz is studied in chapter 4 by Isabel Murcia Estrada...