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This essay examines the ways in which Rosario Castellanos (Mexico, 1925-74), especially noted as a woman writer with feminist concerns,
explores the problems of women's expression through the writing in her
novel Oficio de tinieblas (In Darkness). The 1962 work serves, at the
thematic level, to convey particular social content. This content (a fictional expose of the virtually feudal society of rural chiapas province; a
sympathetic, intimate look at Tzotzil Indian culture) has often drawn the
attention of critics.' The present study, though, is more concerned with a
second aspect of the work. The construction of the novel serves to focus
did not write any programs or prescriptions for feminist writing. Her
ideas appear here and there in her various writings, and many times she
only gave them out orally to lecture audiences or students.
Fundamental to Castellanos's thought was a very broad definition
of feminism in literature. To her mind, it was legitimate to seek an element
of sex-role analysis in any complex literary work. She did not center her
attention on work by avowedly feminist authors, but rather argued that
form and technique were highlighted. Such innovative texts, far from
obscuring women's issues, could actually increase the reader's awareness
of them.
voices heard. Both possibilities fascinated her: the one, as showing woman's attempts to express her concerns, the other, as an illustration of
woman's muteness, her inability or unwillingness to state her case.
Castellanos believed that such fictional devices as narrative voice
and point of view, being closely related to the issue of "who speaks," were
crucial in highlighting the problems of women. This analysis of Oficio de
tinieblas follows from Castellanos's recommendation that works by
women writers ought to be studied with the working assumption that
these narrative techniques would reveal these writers' implicit statements
about women's expressive difficulties.3
Before proceeding with the analysis, I should clarify a point of
critical terminology. I am using the term voice more broadly than it is
commonly employed in discussions of narrative technique. Castellanos's
depiction of women's communication here often rests upon her use of
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between an Indian man and his wife. Here, the chief goal of the narration
ina has not become a powerful figure able to rouse and command the
way she speaks, or fails to speak, shows her as indeed a person of little
importance.
Both partners appear in this scene, but the narrator only reveals
Catalina's anxious thoughts. The husband remains a secret to both reader
and wife. Catalina's distress, though, is revealed through a combined use
of indirect interior monologue and editorializing summary by the narrator: "Out of the corner of her eye, while she was kneeling at the stone to
position with regard to their marriage; yet, she cannot. Indeed, she seeks
to avoid speaking to him on any occasion, for fear she might remind him
of her barrenness. Catalina dares not even exchange sociable pleasantries;
she is afraid to greet her husband or say good-bye to him; she cannot look
him in the face, but only observe him "out of the corer of her eye."
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about himself. Despite her incessant spying, hypothesizing and speculation, Catalina ends this scene no better informed about her husband than
when she began her attempt to divine his thoughts. Her problem, in this
respect, is that her only way of interpreting her husband's blank muteness
is to attribute to hinr the thoughts that are in her own mind. While he gives
"no clue" she concludes that he, like herself, is obsessed with issues of
childbearing and marital status.
Although the scene takes place in an indigenous household, it is
easy to recognize certain features common to Western society. One sees
favorable to them at the same time that they are unable to articulate
concerns plainly.
Castellanos shows this blockage of expression as one result of the
unequal distribution of power between man and woman. As in other
Castellanos works, neither sex is assigned blame for this inequality.
Rather, she carefully forcuses attention on whole society. Winikt6n,
although he terrifies his wife with his silence, is not really an oppressor
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man's and woman's stereotypical concerns. The man is mentally processing abstractions, dealing with concepts, while the woman perceives the
girl's adoption as a means of altering the unfavorable balance of power in
her personal relations. One may well ask whether Castellanos has not
done women a disservice by showing the woman as a petty conspirer,
juggling household politics while the man increases his social awareness.
This same question is especially relevant to the second half of the novel,
malaise. The narrator, who is free to comment on the action when not
transcribing the character's thoughts verbatim, insists that Catalina deve-
to this strain and forced into silence about the matter, her voice is turned
the worldly Latin woman, Isabel. The latter's inner, unuttered speech
reveals her fixation on the idea that her barrenness is divine punishment
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does not abstain from speech lest she jeopardize her standing. Her strategy is an overabundance of speech designed to create an illusory appearance of communication.
One first encounters Mercedes conducting a most tortured conver-
"buyer" role, Mercedes breaks with this role and speaks on topics inappropriate to the apparent situation. She reminisces about her youthful
vigor and asks intrusive questions about the girl's marital status and
prospects.
language to disconcert her victim and to disguise the true nature of the
encounter.
cannot halt her confusing voice even when it serves no easily recogn
face before immersing the reader into the flow of a character's thou
An "explanation" of the procuress's habit of soliloquizing is proffered
thing she is about to say under suspicion. The narrator also alerts one
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that score. If those fancy ladies take a good look, they'll see I'm every bit as
have as the recipient of her outpourings, for this imaginary partner can
never reject her discourse habits. The narrator underscores this point by
observing slyly that the sociable Mercedes spent large portions of her time
In this scene, Mercedes speaks aloud rather than mulling over her
thoughts in silence. Further, the narrative technique is Mercedes's direct
voice, rather than indirect relay by the narrator. These features of the
narrative treatment suggest a more verbal character, able to speak for
herself. Yes this procedure ironically exposes the deficiencies of Mercedes's voice. In quoting the woman's ipsissima verba, the narrator has, in
effect, allowed her the opportunity to betray her own incompetence.
This soliloquy, even with all the distortions and ramshackle argu-
ments, makes two valid points. Mercedes recognizes that part of her
problem is the lack of acceptable options open to women without wealth
or male protectors. Without her employer's aegis, she observes, "dadonde
throughout the novel. The narrator is explicit about the relation between
sex role and the man's reprehensible behavior, speaking on one occasion
of "la insensibilidad de Leonardo, con ese orgullo del macho que no esta
acostumbrado a recibir dones sino tributos (the insensitivity of Leonardo,
with that pride of the macho who's used to receiving tributes, not gifts;
p. 197."
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express the most ordinary needs and desires. It has been amply revealed
that her experience of language has not been one of increased awareness
through speech. It is through confusing talk that she has been misled and
betrayed. She is portrayed as the most uncomplicated example of oppression in the novel. In swift succession, she has been described as suffering
entrapment and betrayal by Mercedes, being raped, and being expropriated by Catalina, who has taken over the running of the girl's life.
instrumento de sus propositos (that insignificant, stupid girl she was using
loud and other people would listen and understand. Not a fall into
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isolation.
Here, the message is optimistic: Marcela can learn from the articu-
Marcela's responses. The phrases "That was what had happened ...
madness" may or may not represent Marcela's own thoughts; they may be
simply the narrator's summation of what Marcela felt. In either case, the
another.
that she is bearing a child, a child Catalina could not produce. Her
confusion, the narrator tells the reader, is clear to Catalina, who is impres-
sive in her refusals to enlighten her ward about the physical changes in
pregnancy that terrify the girl. Bitterly jealous, the woman long avoids
mention of the pregnancy. The narrator draws attention to Catalina's
angry, aggressive withholding of communication: "callo (she fell silent),
"enmudecia (she wouldn't say anything; p. 46)." "Desde afuera la miraba
(She looked at her from without; p. 47)." Finally, the older woman
screams at Marcela: "iVas a tener una hija! (You're going to have a baby!
p. 46)." Thus delivered, the news sends the previously-unaware Marcela
into a panic. Marcela's subsequent near-autistic behavior is unattractive,
but the narrator is clearly not blaming her for it: "Marcela, a quien la
adversidad habia reblandecido los tuetanos, ya no protestaba (Life had
beaten Marcela down to a pulp, and she gave up protesting; p. 47)." The
narrator implies that if women are to become more articulate they must
have support from their listeners and conversation partners.
Oficio de tinieblas expresses concerns common to many discussions of women's status. What makes this feminist statement so exceptionally interesting for literary readers is its mode of presentation. Oficio de
tinieblas makes its points about women's voice, not simply through direct
statement, but by the skillful design of narrative. It is the use of various
forms of narration-characters speaking for themselves, direct and indirect interior monologues, and the narrator's commentary (often in cynical
contrast to versions of events offered by the characters)-that are crucial
in persuading the reader of the gravity of feminist issues. It is the rhetoric
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of fiction, to use Wayne Booth's phrase, that allows this woman writer to
express in fully literary fashion women's concerns.
University of Texas, Austin
NOTES
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the discourse analysis of Mary Louise Pratt, Toward a Speech Act Theory of
Literary Discourse (Bloomington: Indiana University, 1977).
5. Castellanos, Oficio de tinieblas (Mexico: Joaquin Mortiz, 1962), p. 13. Subsequent page numbers given in the text refer to this edition.
6. Wayne Booth, The Rhetoric of Fiction (cited in note 5 above), argues that all
the structural features of fiction can be seen as devices to persuade the reader
of the truth of what is being presented. This principle is especially well
illustrated by Castellanos's novel, with its complex structure and pervasive
social message.
MANUSCRIPTS INVITED
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