Foreword

FOREWORD

Dear readers,

We are delighted to present you our Special Issue: Silence in Feminist Studies (vol. 30), an issue full of contributions that are not only enriching and interesting in themselves, but also extremely necessary for the topic they deal with.

Each and every one of the articles that make up this special issue aim to make visible some type of silencing imposed on women, both as individuals and as artists, always relegated to occupying a space and subordinated to male power or control.

The literary works which these texts analyze contain a subversive element, if not in the works themselves, in the analysis that our authors make of them. These works reflect an undeniable reality: that of the subordination of women and their use and abuse by a hegemonic system for which women have been either mothers and devoted wives, or objects of desire, equally objectified and demonized.

Central topics in these articles are all those which are understood as direct consequences of female subordination and silencing: mental illness, violence, expulsion to the margins, or self-destruction. But other topics such as resilience, subversion and unity and sorority between women are also fundamental. These texts are full of elements which represent the fight against patriarchy, female non-conformism and the attempt to change society for the women of the past and for the women of the future.

Reflection on female silencing is essential to understand the mechanisms on which the social, labor and sexual hierarchization based on gender issues has been based and also to seek a justification on which to base a new era of feminist social justice.

Raising our voices is essential for women, as well as offering platforms that will become an open space for reflection, awareness and conversation about the new directions that society must take in the face of a 21st century in which any type of discrimination is eradicated. And literature, of course, is not only the reflection of the societies in which the different literary works are generated but it is also a socializing and didactic element, an agent of change.

The black and lesbian American poet Audre Lorde (1934-1992) proclaimed: “Your silence will not protect you”, urging all women to rebel and fight for their rights through their voice. Taking her words to heart, we hope that this special issue represents another grain of sand in this common fight to achieve a society in which effective equality is a reality and all human beings are treated with respect and dignity.

The Grove
ISSN: 1137-005X
30
Num.
Año. 2023

Foreword

Leticia de la Paz
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