Doña Catalina de los Ríos y Lisperguer and the construction of the monster Quintrala

Abstract

This essay is a reflection on 'la Quintrala' as a sign and a cultural construction as monster. The analysis includes the reading of Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna's Los Lisperguer y la Quintrala (1877), Magdalena Petit's La Quintrala (1932), and Mercedes Valdivieso's Maldita yo entre las mujeres (1991). The essay is centered in the ideologemes found in the selected texts and in the manner in which they participate or resist a recycling of 'la Quintrala', a mythical figure of the Colonial period in Chile.