Politics and literature--Central America

The feminist ideology Gioconda Belli develops in La mujer habitada is a critique of the dictatorial and/or patriarchal restrictions which oppress her women characters. In the novel, the protagonists, Itza a mythological woman warrior from the time of the Spanish Conquest, and Lavinia, a Sandinista guerillera during the Somoza regime, are revolutionary characters who transgress the limitations inherent in the traditional societal roles of "passive" females. Itza challenges the pre-Colonial and Colonial patriarchal ideology, while Lavinia seeks to undermine at once the official state discourse of the Somoza dictatorship, and the phallocentric revolutionary ideology of some of the Sandinistas. In the process, these female characters constitute themselves as subjects and challenge the male-centered canon that so often objectifies women and devalues their creativity.