Women Behind the Scenes: Isabel Carrasquilla and Sofía Ospina de Navarro, Dramatists on the Sideline in the First Half of the 20th Century in Colombia

Abstract

The article analyzes the gender representations of three comedies of Isabel Carrasquilla de Arango and two of Sofia Ospina de Navarro, who are considered as intellectuals; producers of representations and speeches. Although their prominent social position allowed them to intervene in the public scene of Medellín, dominated by male schemes, partly as a legacy of that literate power of the nineteenth century, they were on the margins as they did not have a higher education and, within the cultural scene, their intellectual activity was generally associated with the male figures who surrounded them during their lives. Also, their productions were identified with the so-called minor genres: chronicle, short story and small theatrical works, which were considered acceptable and propitious for women. However, their comedies present a renewed and sometimes transgressed vision of the gender stereotypes of the time.