Chaos and simulations of history in Mujer en traje de batalla
Abstract
The novel Mujer en traje de batalla (2001) [Woman in Battle Dress], by Antonio Benítez Rojo, constructs a biographical fiction of Henriette Faber, one of the first female Swiss doctors, situating her within a broad Western historical and cultural context that moves between 1791 and 1870. This time period deals with the great historical events affecting Europe and echoing through Latin America: the Haitian and French Revolutions, the Napoleonic Wars, the experience of colonial Cuba, and the Renovation of Paris carried out by Haussmann under the reign of Napoleon III. These historical events have no chronological order. On the contrary, by means of a history with an uneven development, the recovery of historical memory is achieved through the recollection of the octogenarian Henriette Faber, who, in a desperate struggle against time, tries to write about the abominable imposition that the supposed necessity of history exerts on the individual.
Publication Title
Redefining Latin American Historical Fiction: The Impact of Feminism and Postcolonialism
Recommended Citation
Nogueira, F., & Fox, B. (2013). Chaos and simulations of history in Mujer en traje de batalla. Redefining Latin American Historical Fiction: The Impact of Feminism and Postcolonialism, 159-180. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137349705_7
