Madness, the Grotesque and Female Identity in “Exquisita ama de casa” and “El juego de la demencia” by Krisma Mancía

Abstract

Krisma Mancía (1980, El Salvador) is one of the most promising members of the postwar generation of young Salvadoran poets. Like Jacinta Escudos, Claudia Hernández and Vanessa Núñez Handal in prose, Krisma Mancía breaks free of the taboos still found within Salvadoran society that have kept women’s issues out of literary discourse longer than in other Latin American countries, and brings them to the forefront in her poetry. In this study, I focus on analyzing the poems “Exquisita ama de casa” and “El juego de la demencia,” both from the collection La era del llanto (2004) and showing how difficult it is for the female subjects to break free from patriarchal order and create an independent, strong female identity. Krisma Mancía delves deeply into the contradictions inherent in Salvadoran society to give us a harrowing look at two repressive expectations still placed upon Salvadoran women today: that of the traditional housewife and of the obedient and lady-like daughter. Through grotesque, often surrealistic images, and multiple voices within the poems, Mancía shows us how these societal expectations result in women becoming monstrous, becoming chimeras that can only find freedom in a descent into madness and rage.