Exceptionalism and marianists performances in Gabriela Mistral

Abstract

This paper proposes the notion “Marianist performances” as a key to understand some of the self-representations Gabriela Mistral would have used in a specific socio-political context in which the “exceptionalism” is presented as a strategy leading to the promise of equality.This analysis leads us to reflect upon the constructions of gender and “race”, dependent on the systems of value that supported “legitimate femininity” at the time in which Mistral lived. The text is divided into three parts: the first enunciates a few debates and acquires a position in relation to the narrative of Latin American Marianism. The second, problematizes the paradoxical strategies of “exceptionalism”. The last part, proposes a reading of the figures of “Master of Latin America” and “the Poet Redemptive” in the key of Marianism and exceptionalism.