Paradigmas culturales y configuración de la identidad: lo fantastico socio-político en dos cuentos de Rosario Ferré

In the last four decades, the fantastic has become an instrument of transgression, a literary resource to subvert the cultural codes that shape social and political reality in Latin America. A significant number of writers have used the fantastic to challenge the cultural values and ideological and political narratives which have given meaning and defined reality in many Latin American countries.
Rosario Ferré is a paradigmatic case in Puerto Rico. In many of her short stories Ferré makes use of this transgressive capacity of the fantastic through her reflections and questioning of the role of women in Puerto Rican society. She puts emphasis on aspects of gender, but also on questions of race and social class.
However, this Ferre’s ideological position, obvious in her writings of the 1970’s, does not seem quite so clear in her later works, in which there is a certain nostalgia of the colonial cultural heritage. This article attempts to shed light on some of these ideological contradictions through analysis and comparison of the short stories “Cuando las mujeres quieren a los hombres” and “El cuento envenenado”.