This study aims to demonstrate that Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda’s last novel El artista barquero o Los cuatro cinco de junio (1861) contains a transgressive subtext, even more sophisticated than her previous novels. El artista barquero marks a new stage in the evolution of Gómez de Avellaneda’s prose works, displaying a new assurance of style and an ironic tone which combine to create a powerful expressión of the feminine and the masculine. Familiar themes permeate this last novel, in which both male and female characters show the same will to resist the usual frustrating obstacles of the dominant power structures. The story is clearly feminist in motivation, and in its use of alternative mechanisms of writing. These strategies for the textual liberation of the masculine are both invigorating and successful, exploring an alternative masculine identity through the male protagonist Huberto. This study demonstrates that male characterization has direct implications for feminism because it allows the narrative to condemn the negative effects of cultural norms in the lives of men and women. In turn, the strategies used to destabilize the existing traditions show that the perpetuation of the model imposed on men (and women) by (patriarchal) society is not inevitable.

Peer Reviewed