Reading
Questions for The Shrouded Woman
1. Ana Maria is
an upperclass Chilean woman.
As such, would you consider her to be marginalized?
Why or why not? Give
examples.
2. What is
Bombal saying about the construction of women’s identity? About Self/Other?
3. Do women in
this culture have agency? If so, how is their agency expressed and what are the
consequences?
4. Racism
is not an issue in this novel, however other forms of oppression are present.
What do you find to be the most apparent form of oppression?
5. What social
hierarchies are present in this novel?
6. What are the
various spaces of the text, how are they described, and with what are they
associated?
7. In what way(s) does
“nature” function in the text?
8.
What is Bombal’s purpose in juxtaposing Life and Death? What attitudes
are evoked about Life? Death?
9. The image of
the “shroud” functions both literally and metaphorically throughout the
text. What are the multiple layers of significance of the “shroud?”
10. Maria Griselda’s
extraordinary beauty, privileged in romantic literature and in Latin American
(as well as our own) culture may be read as Marjorie Agosin states as “a
subversion of folklore in which the flawless beauty of the protagonist becomes a
curse that is never lifted, or of women’s integration with nature and
subsequent alienation from the false norms of a restrictive society.” In what
theoretical and/or literal position does either reading place Maria Griselda?
11. How would you
characterize the roles of women and men in this culture? What images does Bombal
associate with each sex and gender?
12. What role
does the work’s structure play in reflecting the novel’s themes about life
and death? How would you describe the role of death in the novel?
13. Overall: In
what ways are the following oppositions portrayed? Can you find additional
opposing pairs which are described?