DECOLONIAL PROJECTIONS IN THE CONFIGURATION OF FEMALE CHARACTERS IN XICOTÉNCATL (ANONYMOUS, 1826) AND COLOMBO AND BEATRIZ (DUBOIS, 1892)

Abstract

The paper highlights the portrayal of female characters in two 19th-century historical novels: Xicoténcatl (Anonymous, 1826) and Columbus and Beatriz (DuBois, 1892). The former inaugurates the writing of historical novels in Latin America. While the narrator directs his efforts on the Xicoténcatl-Cortés dichotomy, the female characters Teutila and Doña Marina (Malinche) are depicted as chess pieces in the anonymous author's thesis. The latter stands out for being the first work by a female author within the 'Poetics of 'Discovery'.  In this novel, Dubois (1892) retakes a historical figure excluded from traditional historical records, Beatriz Enríquez de Harana. Drawing on Fleck (2017), Quijano (2005), Mignolo (2017), Lugones (2008), among others, we identify the main elements and discuss their configuration as decolonial aesthetic projects. As a result, we compare the three aforementioned characters and examine whether, in these portrayals, the female figure reflects, in some way, a decolonial perspective.