Von Villamar nach Villa-María: zur Provinz in Serie bei Fernán Caballero

Abstract

The article situates three early novels by Cecilia Böhl von Faber, aka Fernán Caballero, in the context of the contemporary conflict of the dos Españas. The thesis is that the texts model the province as a space of acting out (La gaviota, Lágrimas) and coping (Clemencia) with this conflict, leading the reader from one village to another, that is, from Villamar to Villa-María. It turns out that Fernán's "province in series" is not designed to repeat the same thing over and over again, but rather to change, which the play with the closely related but not identical place names makes recognizable. The texts make political capital out of the differences that accompany the repetition - marked by the change from -mar to María.